OK, I'll admit that I have gone over the deep end on Amar'e's recent projection of his affection for and connection to the Jewish people, but this interview has exceeded all of my dreams and hopes.


Some highlights include:

--Amar'e rocking a woven yarmulke while he works out (almost making up for his Yankees shirt).

--Amar'e saying that "we all are" Jewish because it's the original culture.

--Amar'e acknowledging that he "never had a bat mitzvah."

--Amar'e stating that he will be celebrating Shabbat, Passover, and Yom Kippur.  (Seth, is there any possibility we can have a P&T seder with Amar'e leading?  Anthony Randolph can ask the four questions.)

--Calling Omri Casspi by the affectionate name of "Omar."

--Amar'e opining that what LeBron did was "not Kosher" and then breaking out some Hebrew, and not just "mazel tov."  (He even answered a question at the end of the interview "keyn" [yes].)

--Finally, Amar'e showing off his "old" Star of David tattoo and signifying that it's a symbol of righteousness.

This guy really is awesome.  I'm sticking with the nickname The Big Mensch for him.

H/T TheKnicksBlog.com

Gotta say, this made me laugh.

Mike D'Antoni asked what Wilson Chandler's injury means to the Knicks:

       "Might knock us out of the playoff race."

Not quite out loud, but certainly laugh. 

Hopefully he took advantage of the diversion caused by the laughter and went over and smacked Frank Isola in the back of the head.  That would have been even funnier.

Wow.  Sometimes it's really hard to get to 75 words on these FanPosts.

Check out the Player Swap Tool at Queen City Hoops here.   It lets you see how different a team would play if you swapped a player from that team for one from another team.  I know the NBA Trade Machine does a similar analysis but this one works even if a trade doesn't.

Some interesting findings (to me anyway):

-- He Who Shall Not Be Named would only get us to 45 wins if swapped for He Who You Can Call Al.  Yes, that's a huge improvement, but it's not exactly contending.  However, if you swapped HWSNBN for Starbucks, it gets us up to 64 wins.  Donnie should make a call and see if he can make that trade.

-- Swapping Saint Lee for Bawrsh only gets us 3 more wins, and I think that's pushing it.  In any case, I don't think it's worth watching Bawrsh's oddly shaped noggin on a regular basis and using all of our cap room.

-- Swapping Lady DuDu for Sergio Rodriguez would make us a 45 win team.  Swapping Lady DuDu for Jose Calderon would make us a 43 win team.  Lesson:  Go Spanish, preferably at bargain rates.  (Then again, swapping Lady DuDu for T.J. Ford would make us a 43 win team, so maybe it doesn't matter who you swap him for.)

-- If you swap out Jordan Hill for Brandon Jennings that would make the Knicks a 64 win team.  I'm pretty sure that result dooms any claim of reliability for this little tool.

Anyway, enjoy!

Hello Fellow P&T Fellows-

I have an extra pair of tickets for tonight's game if anybody's interested.  They're pretty good seats -- behind the basket about 12 rows near the Wolves' bench (about 4 rows behind the media).  Also, they often give the tickets just behind to the right to guests of Knicks players, so you might meet TD's dad or a friend of Jordan Hill.

If you want them, use the link on the left side to email Seth and he'll forward the email to me and I'll email the tickets to you.  Once they're gone, I'll leave a comment to this post.

Your pal,

Serious Garbage Time

That title is actually an anagram for "Knicks Anagrams."  Catchy, no? 

Anyway, I've long thought that anagrams were as interesting and as predictive as astrology.  But, long breaks between preseason -- preseason! -- games will drive a bored man to desperate measures.  So I ran the notables from the NYK roster through the anagram machine and here is what I found.  It's more revealing than I expected.  (But still not very revealing.)

Continue reading this post »

I was wondering which second-year players you think made the biggest jump from Summer League last year to this year?

Gallinari, Gallinari, Gallinari.

Continue reading this post »

Lord John Starks of Dunkshire apparently is a regular rider of the NYC subway.  Even more amazingly, people generally don't notice him, despite his tall frame, recognizable baby face, and propensity to head-butt people.  I'll bet he would stand out more if he wore his face mask in the tunnels.

By the way, is it any accident that the NYC subways have been considerably safer since Starks came to town nearly two decades ago?  I say no.  Even the Warriors (of Coney Island, not Golden State) would have been afraid to mess with him.

I've figured that the Knicks could really use a big point guard more than anything (no homo), but just today I've become a massive Lawson fan.

No independent revelation by me, but I just read two uberstatistical pieces on HoopsAnalyst and from Hollinger which rated Lawson out-of-this-world high.  DraftExpress also points out how he's statistically flawless.  He shoots ridiculously from three and has an unbelievable assist to turnover ratio.

I would be dubious of superior statistics if the player was from a poor conference or is too slow or weak but Lawson is not and is not.  So what's the holdup? 

I presume it's his height, but his height is comparable to lots of good and great players, including Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Augustin, and Flynn.  Yes, Lawson has short arms, but he makes up for it with a short neck.  His standing reach is better than CP3's.

Plus, who has a more tabloid-headline-ready name than Ty Lawson.  After a gamewinning layup, it's "Ty Goes to the Runner".  After a fight, it's "Martial Lawson".  After a strong performance, it's "Awesome Lawson."

I wouldn't even mind using the #8 pick on him, but it would be a gift from the heavens if we could dump Jeffries and the 8 pick and trade down to pick Lawson.

H/t Basketbawful, who calls it the "Z-Bo Laction Figure"

This calls to mind a number of questions:

(1)  Even if he was still on the Knicks (and baruch hashem, he's not), who in their right mind would have wanted this clogging their shelves and poisoning their memories?

(2)  And if MacFarlane products was really committed to accuracy, would this doll really have a right hand?

(3)  Which is harder to trade, this doll or Z-Bo himself?

And finally

(4)  Does this doll somehow contaminate the chemistry of your collection?