Rant #1,606: That's How the Ball Bounces

I am sure you have heard by now that Derek Fisher, the coach of the New York Knicks for the past season and a half, was sacked yesterday, fired from the job he was supposedly hand picked for.

He is yet another in a succession of coaches that have been chosen to lead the Knicks, the worst run team in professional sports, to the promised land, the NBA championship, something they haven't won since 1973, and the way they are going, probably won't win another one until 2073 at the earliest.

Fisher was supposed to take an under-talented team and make something of it, and he could never do that.

He was a fine player, but a lousy coach, never able to translate his court savvy to his players.

That being said, since he was hand picked by Phil Jackson to lead this bunch of generally nomadic players with little talent, a lot of the blame has to go on the team president for this debacle.

Jackson, who was successful as both a player and coach, with a gaggle of championship rings on his hands--including the last one won by the Knicks--has been an absolutely horrible front office executive.

The only reason why his job hasn't been taken from him is that he drafted Kristops Porzingis, probably the steal of the draft.

But he has put together two horrid teams, one that won a Knick team low 17 games last year, and this year, with a better bunch, might win 34 or 35 games, and that is it.

And Fisher was saddled with that, and he never could take this garbage and make it into gold.

He has had some off the court problems too.

Fisher was exonerated by the NBA in a love triangle fracas between him, Memphis Grizzlies player Matt Barnes, and Barnes' ex-wife, some busty floozy who got the two guys so ensnared that they actually had a fist fight over her.

Barnes has been suspended and fined countless times over his participation in this skirmish--which he evidently started--and Fisher has come out like a choir boy, but nonetheless, he was involved in this, which I don't think the Knicks organization took too kindly to.

He also has said some disparaging things about potential target free agents the Knicks were going after, most recently point guard Rajon Rondo.

On the court, his Xs and Os simply did not translate to winning. The Knicks have lost nine of 10 games with one more game to go before the All-Star break, and they have fallen further and further away from a potential playoff spot.

Their one true star, Carmelo Anthony, seems to be a day to day player now, giving 110 percent when he is out there, but sitting on the bench and not playing many recent games because of various ailments.

Porzingis was a find, but he is just 20, and appears to have hit the wall that all young players hit, due to the brutal schedule they are facing for the first time in their careers.

There have been other assorted injuries that the Knicks have had to withstand, and even though they showed promise early in the season, it was almost inevitable that they would collapse.

And they have, with only two really horrid teams--the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers--preventing them from falling to the bottom of the standings.

So Fisher was basically the fall guy, echoing the sports proverb that "coaches are hired to get fired."

The real problem is that the Knicks can never see the forest for the trees.

Even in down years, they pack Madison Square Garden with the most loyal fans in professional sports. Actually, the most loyal ... and stupid.

In other cities, the continued ineptitude of this team over the decades would make people stay away, with reams of empty seats every game.

Not the Knicks. Their fans--myself included--pay for their overpriced seats with glee, and management thinks they are doing a good job because every game has been a sell-out or near sell-out for decades.

But it really is a smokescreen--this team is, and has been for 40 years, pretty much a mess, owned by a megalomaniac--the Dolan family, namely poppa's little boy, Jim--who has no clue how to spend the riches daddy accumulated through Cablevision.

The Knicks are a laughing stock, have been for years, and when they hired Fisher, they continued to be a laughing stock, as their first choice, Steve Kerr, bolted for Golden State, and the Warriors won the championship under him last season.

This season, they might set a record for regular season wins and win another championship.

The Knicks ... well, they are going home when their season ends, that's for sure.

Kurt Rambis--another Jackson disciple--takes over the team as interim coach, and the search goes on for a permanent coach.

Woe is every Knicks fan, woe is this organization.

They may has well be the New York Torture, because that is what they continue to inflict on fans all these years after the glory years of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley and the others.

Woe is me watching this horrid team ... but like a true Knicks fan, I will continue to watch, continue to hope, and continue to kick myself in my head for wasting time and spending money related to this team.

I, and thousands of others, must be nuts.