In this wonderful NBA season, there was not a more entertainingly awful team than the New York Knicks. It wasn’t just that the Knicks were the worst team in the NBA, it’s how putrid they were in everything they did. On any given night, they would somehow find a way to reach new levels of futility. And just when you thought they couldn’t possibly get worse, they defied the odds and sunk to a new low.
The video above recounts the Knicks’ on-court awfulness (except for Jason Smith’s dancing, which is not awful but in fact awesome). Lou Amundson grabs a good deal of the spotlight with his many antics – including, but certainly not limited to, missing dunks (horribly), missing lay ups (laughably), and getting his face squashed in hilarious fashion.
Other great moments include: Cole Aldrich, being Cole Aldrich; Alexey Shved attempting what may be the worst shot in the history of basketball; getting dunked on by former Knick J.R. Smith; Spike Lee shaking his head; and Carmelo Anthony sitting on the sideline (he’s on the books for another four years, Knicks fans!).
Simply put, the Knicks were trash this year, and it is as much on coach Derek Fisher and team president Phil Jackson as it is on the players, if not more so. One could argue that the Knicks, from a pure talent standpoint, had as much, maybe slightly more, NBA talent than the Philadelphia 76ers. Yet the Sixers sported a top-11 defensive rating all year. They played their asses off for Brett Brown, and there were signs of something building. That did not exist for the Fisher-led Knicks, who constantly looked lost and clueless, almost as if Fisher had never been any sort of coach before this year. If the Knicks really were running the triangle, they were running a version of a triangle drawn by a seven-year-old who still lacks the ability to draw straight lines. Placing the blame solely on the players, or the caliber of players, simply doesn’t fly.
Then there’s Phil Jackson, who sauntered into the season with all the bravado one would expect from him, despite the fact that he had no previous experience running a front office. If Jackson thought he could just walk in and turn everything around, he soon learned that wasn’t the case. As the season dragged on, and as the Knicks unthinkably got even worse, Jackson resembled less the calm and collected zen master and more…well…
The only hope the Knicks have of preventing a repeat performance next season is nailing this draft pick. Of course, in true Knicks fashion, they even screwed up their shot at getting the best odds for the number one pick, beating the Atlanta Hawks 112-108. After the game, Fisher commented on the win-but-actually-a-loss: “I’m sure people are upset with us,” Fisher said. “But I don’t think you can ever go out there and basically try and not play your best. Those two things don’t go together.”
That, and the hilarious “One Shining Moment” video, should tell you everything you need to know about the 2013-14 Knicks
