Over the past decade New York sports teams have been accused of shamelessly buying World Championships (see: Yankees). Now while it is true that New York, being the metropolitan powerhouse that it is, can afford to spend more money on attracting athletes and keeping them, making New York teams the subjects of envy throughout the country, one's heart has got to go out to the New York Knicks.
This hapless franchise has not won an NBA championship since 1973, while other big market teams like Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston have won 17 between them. There are many sources of blame: poor front office decisions, the inept fade way jump shooting of "The Warrior" Patrick Ewing, the night that trigger-happy John Starks shot a dreadful 2-18 in the seventh game of the NBA finals.
But I think the real problem seems to be that every time the Knicks seem to make that perfect trade, every time they pick up that last piece of the puzzle, the player is a first-rate disappointment.
This is what I call "The Warrior Jinx," the curse that any player, no matter how good, becomes worse when he joined the Knicks as a result of playing in an offense with Patrick "The Warrior" Ewing. It seems that now, six months after Ewing's departure, the curse still haunts new Knick players, and the decade long title-quest still proves elusive.
The Knicks thought they had it all together in 1992 when they traded the aging, defensively inept point guard Mark Jackson to the Clippers for 20-point scorer Charles Smith and the legendary Doc Rivers.
Charles Smith, whose head is disproportionately tiny compared to the rest of his body, would be blocked four times in the last ten seconds of a critical playoff game that New York would lose to the Chicago Bulls in 1993, the closest they ever came to beating Jordan. Within two years Rivers was finished in the NBA, and is now busy diagramming plays for Orlando to defend the player he was traded for.
But that's not all. The Knicks geared up for a championship run by trading future draft picks for former all-star Rolando Blackman, who was so aged that he played in tight, old school shorts that you saw in 80s movies such as "Hoosiers" and "The Teenage Wolf."
To top it off, the Knicks picked up 20-point scorer Tony Campbell, who would play about 20 seconds during the Knicks fruitless championship campaign. Enter phase two of the championship quest.
Discontented with The Warrior's supporting cast, the New York front office helped him out by acquiring former No. 2 pick Marcus Camby, who upon arrival was deemed "not ready to get significant playing time," after averaging 14 points a game the previous season. And who can forget LJ? This is the guy who was picked No. 1 in the 1991 draft, was Rookie of the Year in 1992, and was second team all-NBA the following year while averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds a game.
I remember the sheer ecstasy I felt the day I found out that Knicks had traded head case Anthony Mason to acquire LJ the same day they signed, get this - Chris Childs(!) the point guard of the future. Johnson would never average more than 15 points or six rebounds a game as a Knick, and was last seen with a grizzly beard, running up and down the court with his arms in the shape of an L. This is the guy who used to play Grand-Mamma in Converse commercials! He was even on Family Matters!
And Childs, after playing backup point guard to football quarterback Charlie Ward, was traded several weeks ago for you guessed it - Mark Jackson.
Jackson, a solid eight years removed from his trade to Los Angeles, had since moved into third place on the all-time assist list and was third in the NBA for the season, averaging 8.6 a game. Since joining the Knicks his numbers have gone down significantly, a result of his splitting time with quarterback Charlie Ward.
Much to the relief of many, (including my friend Jon who threw a party to celebrate) Patrick Ewing was traded at the beginning of this season. I was boggled to find that the Knicks had in return landed former all-star sharpshooter Glen Rice. Had they so quickly forgotten the Jinx of the Warrior? Needless to say, Rice, who had averaged 20 points a game during his proud career, is now scoring only 12 points per game.
The era of the Warrior is over, and yet new Knick players continue to turn into Kurt Rambis types upon arrival. New York has made it to the second round of the playoffs for nine straight seasons, hopefully closing in on some obscure NBA record, but as long as the Warrior lives, there will be no new championship banner hanging above Madison Square Garden, only a warning to all new-comers, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."
