BIG CITY MELTDOWN

The New York Knicks are a very bad basketball team.  Their 5-36 (.122 W%) record says so and if you watch them play it's obvious.  They're on course to compile the worst record in their 69 seasons in the NBA.  Before this year, the 21-59 (.263 W%) in 1962/63 was the bottom.  New York is on a 16 game losing streak and have lost 26 of 27, after losing streaks of 10 and 7 earlier.  The last 9 losses have been by 16, 28, 24, 10, 22, 13, 16, 21 and 22 points, so the games haven't been close.  

Phil Jackson, pointing in the right direction?

They are 29 of 30 in scoring and 29 of 30 in Defensive Rating.  The numbers are bad all around but they remain 8th of 30 in attendance at Madison Square Garden, some folks are still watching them play.  They won 37 games last year and in  2012/2013 were the Atlantic Division champs with 54 wins under head coach Mike Woodson.

Phil Jackson, the Zen Master.

The Knicks are the NBA's most valuable franchise (1.1 billion estimate by Forbes) and play in the largest market.  In 2013 they led the NBA with 243.0 M in revenues.  How is it that this iconic franchise can be in such bad shape on the floor? Management has been abysmal. It is hard to comprehend. Lack of vision and terrible decision making has put them in a straight jacket. This must be a very difficult environment for intelligent basketball people to work.

Carmelo Anthony still very productive at 30.

Enter Phil Jackson, the "Zen Master" in March 2014 as President of the New York Knickerbockers.  The man with 13 NBA rings ( 11 as a coach and 2 as a player), pushing 70 years old and a member of the last Knicks championship team in 1973, came just in time to preside over the mess.  Some inherited unproductive players and contracts did not help nor his hiring of Derek Fisher to take over this time bomb.  Everything is blowing up in his face. Even in rebuilding years it is possible to have some bright lights in player development.  That's not the case here.  Some big contracts come off the books next year, Amar'e Stoudemire (23.0M) and Andrea Bargnani (11.5 M).  Maybe these and a few other moves can give flexibility to bring in some better talent to find the road back to respectability.  The main asset is Carmelo Anthony,who at 30 is still productive at 24.0 ppg and 45.6 % shooting.  What to do with him?

Walt Frazier, point guard of the last Knicks title team.

The New York Knicks glory years were 1970 and 1973, when under head coach Red Holzman they won NBA titles. The 1973 team featured 6 Hall of Famers ( Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBuschere, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, Walt "Clyde" Frazier and Jerry Lucas).  Phil Jackson was a bench player on this team.  After the glory years, the next best period was under coach Pat Riley, racking up 4 consecutive 50+ win seasons (51, 60, 57, 55) from 1992-1995.  The Jeff Van Gundy era from 1997-2001 was good with 5 winning seasons.  A deep freeze of 9 losing seasons followed from 2002 to 2010 under 6 different coaches, until Mike D'Antoni broke through with 42-40 in 2011 but was fired the next year and replaced by Mike Woodson who was fired after last year.