Sportssportssportsports...

With no football for the next two weeks, basketball takes centerstage in the sporting landscape.
What a pathetic performance by the Knicks this evening. 27-0 run? It's one thing if Wade & Shaq were on the floor, but they were both on the bench. A complete embarrassment on any level to which Isiah even said that the team didn't even show up. You wonder if Zeke is going to make some trades 1) to save his own skin and 2) to try to get this team hopelessly into the playoffs by sacrificing their future. There's no question in my mind he'll be back and while he's a great drafter (Ariza, Lee, Frye) he's awful when it comes to trades (Tim Thomas, Steve Francis, Malik Rose) and free agent signings (Jerome James - enough said). Despite the Eastern Conference being worst than it has ever been, this team is 11th in the conference overall. Is that "significant improvement?"

I criticize the Knicks a lot, but I will give credit where credit is due. There is a lot of young talent on the team. Let me rephrase that. There's a lot of SCORING talent on the team, not enough guys who do the little things, like I dunno, play defense? The Knicks are 8th in the NBA, averaging 100.1 points per game. That's all well and good except they give up 102 points per game, good for 23rd in scoring defense and scoring margin. They're near the bottom in the league in turnovers committed, absolutely inexcusable when you consider how many freaking point guards are on the team and even more inexcusable when you realize this team they're 26th in total assists. They're at the bottom of the league in turnover/assist ratio. They do lead the lead in Technicals,which is also a great stat for teams to lead in.

The Nets aren't exactly in much better shape. This is a team with the talent on it, should be dominating a weak conference like the East. As said before, talent doesn't win you basketball games. They have been playing well as of late and their Achilles heel from last season, their bench is much improved - young guys like Marcus Williams, Hassan Adams, and Josh Boone have deepened the bench. But Vince Carter has been nowhere near his best and Nenad Kristic and Richard Jefferson are going to be out for significant time periods. They don't know how to close teams out when they have a huge lead. A suggestion would be to blow things up, trade Kidd and Carter and rebuild behind Williams, Adams, Jefferson and Boone and still be successful with added pieces on the interior. However, the Eastern Conference is so BAD that you can conceivably see them win the East...because they really isn't anyone that is a clear dominating team.

Other news:

- Big Tuna is headed for greener pastures. You can honestly say that T.O. forced ole' Bill to retirement. It's probably for the best and already they're talking of Little Bill taking over in big D.
-Lane Kiffin takes over as Raiders coach. Not a bad choice, a talented offensive mind, but is going to need a lot of time and patience from Raider Nation to rebuild that once proud franchise.
-Mike Tomlin takes over as the Steelers head coach, surprising since Russ Grimm was such a highly touted candidate outside of the organization.
-The Giants hired a new defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, who was the linebackers coach with the Eagles for the last eight years. Don't know much about him except that you figure that he has to know something about defense, serving under Jim Johnson all those years. The last time Coughlin hired an assistant for a coordinator spot from a good team? John Hufnagel, from the Patriots. Let's hope that turns out better than the last time.