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Knicks Criminal Lineup
[New York Post]
SPORTS
JUST ANOTHER THUG IN CHECKETTS'
GARDEN
By PHIL MUSHNICK
--------------------------------------
FIRST-TIME caller, long-time
listener. I've got two points to make
about this Latrell Sprewell thing,
then I'm going to hang up and let you
guys kick it around.
1.) Starting Tuesday, with WFAN's
Mike Francesa and Chris Russo, I've
heard and read that by procuring
Sprewell, Garden boss Dave Checketts
has betrayed his public vow never to
allow the lower forms of NBA life to
wear a Knick uniform. In Sprewell, it
has been reported, Checketts severely
compromised his own standards.
But that's nonsense. The Knicks,
under Checketts and throughout the
'90s, have been loaded with thugs.
The Knicks of the '90s have featured
unrepentant thugs, recidivist thugs,
thugs who arrived here as thugs and
thugs who showed themselves to be
thugs only after they became Knicks.
Greg Anthony, first-round draft pick,
behaved like a street thug, even
while on the bench in street clothes.
Anthony Mason came to the Knicks as a
suspected, night-crawling creep, then
proved it. Charles Oakley was a
tireless player, but he also played
like a lout, which made him a
tireless lout.
Larry Johnson is a full-time creep.
As a Net, Chris Childs proved himself
to be both a valuable player and a
gentleman. Only after he joined the
Knicks did he display his
considerable thug repertoire -
ill-timed technical fouls for
incessant dissent, graphic
throat-slashing demonstrations, et.
al. And no one demanded that he stop.
Charlie Ward instigated a riot that
led to the Knicks' ejection from the
playoffs, then declared that he was
only doing God's work. On the road,
John Starks proudly saluted crowds
with obscene gestures.
In Derek Harper, we were told that
the Knicks had a mature, backcourt
leader. But Harper, as a Knick, not
only specialized in getting hit with
self-indulgent technical fouls during
playoff games, he was ejected from
two of those games, once for
fighting.
The Knicks' first-round draft pick in
1996 was Syracuse's John Wallace, who
arrived with as much bad-boy baggage
as he did basketball skills.
The Knicks, under Pat Riley, Jeff Van
Gundy and their boss, Garden
president Dave Checketts, are
directly responsible for much of the
NBA's anti-thug legislation of the
'90s.
Once known as the world's most urbane
basketball audience, Garden crowds in
'90s increasingly began to show up as
a blood-thirsty and profane mob.
That the Knicks of the '90s have been
lousy with miscreants certainly
didn't cause patrons to abandon the
team or to cause a decrease in
sellouts. Quite the contrary. The
message Knick fans have long
delivered to Checketts is that
they'll pay a fortune to cheer for
anyone, as long as the team wins.
Enter Latrell Sprewell.
The addition of Sprewell doesn't
represent a departure from team
policy or the abandonment of personal
social philosophy within Garden
management. It represents a
continuation of everything that has
rendered sports unrecognizable as
sport.
2) The wishful-thinking
rationalization of many Knick fans -
"everyone deserves a second chance" -
is inapplicable garbage.
It's worth noting that after the P.J.
Carlesimo episode, when one would
think that Sprewell would be as
self-vigilant as possible, he twice
more got into trouble, both times
with the law.
Three weeks after he tried to
strangle Carlesimo, he was cited for
a curfew violation at a public park.
That doesn't sound like much, except
that the park closed at 10 p.m., and
Sprewell was found there at 4:02 a.m.
Six months later Sprewell pleaded no
contest to a charge of reckless
endangerment and was sentenced to
three months' house arrest. While
speeding in a car, he caused an
accident that injured two people.
Talk about second chances, he's lucky
he's not doing time for vehicular
manslaughter.
Add these incidents to the fact that
they occurred on the heels of the
Carlesimo assault and we're left with
a guy who clearly just doesn't get
it.
We've heard, over and over, that
Sprewell's attack on Carlesimo was a
case of a verbally abusive coach
asking for it - even though Sprewell
returned later on that day to attack
Carlesimo a second time. But
Carlesimo didn't goad Sprewell to a
closed park at 4:02 a.m. Carlesimo
didn't force Sprewell into a car to
commit a criminal act of reckless
endangerment.
Sprewell was a bad guy before the
Carlesimo assault, during the
Carlesimo assault and, most
significantly, after the Carlesimo
assault. In 1999, the New York
Knicks, whose management and fans
have invited and indulged some of the
NBA's worst acts and actors
throughout the decade, is the perfect
team for Latrell Sprewell. *ACQUIRING
Dennis Rodman would likely be a
tougher pill for Checketts to swallow
than trading for Sprewell. Lest we
forget, Rodman, a couple of years
ago, directed some vile invective in
the direction of Mormons,
specifically those living in Utah.
Checketts is from Utah and a Mormon,
too. <snip>