I’m going to guess the New York Daily News had this cover queued up for some time now. New season, new NBA player not on the Knicks wearing a Knicks jersey on the cover of a New York periodical.
Photoshopping just never gets old for some people.
I suppose the thought was that as soon as the lockout is over the Daily News could just say that the new CBA makes it easier for the Knicks to get New Orleans Hornets’ Chris Paul, and nobody would really care enough to sort through the bylaws and argue they’re wrong. They probably are wrong, but I also don’t really care enough to present a detailed argument to the contrary. Labor litigation talk has exhausted me over these last five months.
I would generally argue that I find it reasonably difficult to believe that the “harsher salary cap restrictions” included in this latest CBA make it easier than it previously was to add a guy like Paul to a roster with Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, but that’s not really any of my concern at this point.
What I am concerned with is the reason the New York media wouldn’t think the Knicks could simply compete for a championship now with the roster they have. Or why they don’t think Carmelo and Amar’e are compelling enough for a season opening cover story. Why can’t the story be about how those guys could just compete for a title together this season with a full training camp and an NBA champion PG like Chauncey Billups? Why do they need to lead their NBA discussion by referencing a guy who plays for the Hornets?
Obviously if they do end up getting Chris Paul for the 2013-14 season, the Knicks would be ridiculously good. But that’s in the future, and they’re going to be pretty good already as it is right now. Can’t we shelf the CP3 to New York talk for a while and just start discussing actual basketball?
New York has spent the last two seasons photoshopping LeBron’s image, then Carmelo’s, and now it appears they’re going to spend this next season engulfed in a similar campaign for Chris Paul. Who’s next, and when does this practice ever get tired? Call me old fashioned, but I miss the days of projecting what your team might be able to do with the players who are actually on it.
Beyond that, what the Knicks really need this season is a big man anyways if you want to get technical. They have a very solid PG with Chauncey already, and just spent the 18th pick of the draft on a combo guard in Iman Shumpert who should get some solid reps at that position this season too. Meanwhile, the Knicks frontline currently features Ronny Turiaf, Josh Harrellson, and Jared Jeffries as the only other guys 6’10” or taller alongside Stoudemire. But they need a PG.
What do I know though, I’ve never tried to sell a newspaper. People who still buy those must really enjoy this sort of thing.
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Photo: BlackSportsOnline
