Here We Go Again: Knicks Draft Dumb, Nets Draft Smart

Summary

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By firing [Isiah Thomas] as coach and hiring Mike D'Antoni away from the Phoenix Suns, the Knicks took the second step. D'Antoni's run-and-gun Suns were a perennial 50-plus win aggregation and one of the league's most exciting teams. But even getting close to that level with the dreadful Knicks will require drastic action.

Trading the high-flying, 28-year-old [Richard Jefferson]-whose 22.6 points-per-game last season was the best of his career-was a risk. And it has not been well received by fans, or Jefferson himself. "He didn't seem very happy," said Nets' president, Rod Thorn, about sending the Manhattan-dwelling RJ to one of the country's smallest markets.

"It wasn't about the city," he continued. "There's not a place I could have been traded to and been happy. It was more about a feeling of rejection. These people are like my family. I love New York; I love New Jersey. The fans there have been amazing."

By firing Isiah as president and hiring Bronx native Donnie Walsh, the respected president of the Indiana Pacers, the city's worst sports team took the first steps toward resuscitating a brain-dead operation.

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Here We Go Again: Knicks Draft Dumb, Nets Draft Smart

"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride..."

-Bette Davis, "All About Eve" (1950)

When last we saw the New York Knicks, they were ending their fourth consecutive disastrous National Basketball Association season with a putrid, business-as-usual record of 23-59. When l...

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