Hooped Up

After the Knicks received a 45 point trashing by the Celtics last year, possibly sparked by pre-game comments made by Quentin Richardson not much has changed. Fast forward almost a year later and Q still has a problem with the Celtics. At least this time they only lost by nine, Q saved his comments for after the game and Ed Barnes decided to keep his jersey…for now.

“I’ll just be real curious to see what a lot of those guys would say if we weren’t in a basketball arena, where there ain’t no referees and the NBA officials are going to stop certain things,” Richardson said. “I mean, it wouldn’t be the same story. They are the world champions and rah-rah-rah. But I mean the tough talk, I don’t buy.”

“I come from a neighborhood where you can say what you want to say — until you do something, it really don’t mean nothing. Some of those guys are woofing about, ‘Get a ring.’ You ain’t been in the league long enough to talk like that to some people who’s got as many years as we got over here. I don’t got a lot of respect for that.”

New York Times

I bet this was staged to rush a trade before the deadline. But seriously, your on the road, winning and your fighting with your team mates in the time out? The Knicks just need to accept that the team is Dysfunctional and retool for next year. This does not happen on a bench where players respected the coach. Something has got to change now if this train wreck is to be fixed. The least the Knicks could do is kick Isaiah upstairs, and let one of the assistants take over for a change of pace.

Before the game, Zach Randolph said he was “shocked” when Isiah Thomas informed him during the morning stretch that he wouldn’t be starting. Asked if he would try to play his way back in, Randolph uttered an expletive and said, “I ain’t played my way out of it.” Even so, Randolph wound up only one rebound shy of his usual double-double, recording 22 points and nine rebounds in 33:07. Crawford had 29 points and eight assists, Lee 11 points and 14 rebounds, and Robinson 16 points - but no assists - in 25:51. Richardson was 3-for-12 from the field, including three air balls, for eight points in 36:29.

NY Newsday