FrontRowSportsReport.com: Sports Blog

Last night Lebron James showed why he should be the NBA MVP dropping 50 points and 10 assists on the hapless New York Knicks. Most of the Garden chanted “MVP!” in the last minute of the game - one over zealous Cavaliers fan even ran onto the court to let Lebron know how much he loves him. How sad is it that the best and most loved person in the Garden is on the other team? How sad is it that this is usually the case every night?

Being the true NBA statesman that he is Lebron had this to say after the game. “I’ve dreamed about playing well in this building and it’s overtaken of how I could ever dream about. To get a standing ovation in the greatest basketball arena in the world, it was a dream come true for me. It’s one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers rolled over the Knicks 119-105 as the Knicks drop to 18-43. Outside of Lebron the Cavaliers got 15 points from Damon James and Devin Brown added 14 as the Cavs one their 3rd straight game.

The Knicks were led by Jamal Crawford who pout in 25, Nate Robinson who put in 24 and big soft Eddy Curry who added 20. The Knicks dropped their 4th game in a row as fans still wonder how Isiah Thomas still has a job. Seriously. How does Thomas still have a job? His team hates him. The star player he fought Larry Brown over (Stephon Marbury) is banned from MSG. The Knicks just keep losing and to make it worse even though they have no shot at the playoffs Thomas doesn’t play his young talent. Thomas has proven over and over again he is the worst basketball coach and executive, now the Dolan family have proven they are the worst team owners.

Ugh. I hate being a Knick fan right now.

Shaquille O’Neal and Jason Kidd both made debuts with their new teams last night, unfortunately both the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks lost. However, both players impact on their respective team was undeniable.

Let’s start with Shaq and his game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Shaq contributed last night with 15 points and 9 rebounds, not bad since he hasn’t played in a few weeks. Despite the 130-124 loss to the Lakers, the Suns obviously can and will play better once Shaq gets his “legs back” and / or used to his new teammates. At times Shaq looked lost when he wasn’t hanging below the rim as usual. Shaq definitely made an effort to move around more and even ran some fast breaks, but really how long can that last? Shaq needs to find his place in the Suns game that suits both him and his team. After the game Shaq played the good teammate card. “I haven’t been this happy in a long time. I will take the blame for this loss because I wasn’t in tune with the guys. But give me four or five days to really get in tune and I’ll get it.”

Now on to Jason Kidd’s debut with the Dallas Mavericks. It is obvious from watching this game that Kidd is going to really help the Mavericks, his ability to make plays and find people is unmatched. Last night he spent a bit to much time trying to pass it to his new teammates, but that is to be expected. Just looking at the box score you can see that it was not a typical Kidd night, he only scored 8 points and had only 5 assists. However, do not let last nights game or the box score fool you, once this team starts to click and the big guns, Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki, get a feel for how Kidd plays everyone better watch out.

It is obviously to early to make any sort of judgment, in fact we can only truly judge the trades after the NBA season is over, but from what I saw last night both teams will be better off then before the trades. The only question is did they improve enough to win a NBA title.

Oh and on another NBA note, the New York Knicks lose to the Philadelphia 76ers last night by 40 points. 40 points! The 76ers aren’t even a good team, again how does Isiah Thomas still have a job?

Last night during the New York Knicks overtime win against the Washington Wizards some of the Knicks got into a heated disagreement during a timeout. Knicks Zach Randolph and Nate Robinson exchanged not just words but also water and a towel in this classic video - question is does this show the Knicks having some fight or just in-fighting?

The NBA Hall of Fame 2008 class is going to have some big names, both literally and figuratively, in it. Two of the best big men of all-time, in both college and in the NBA, headline this years finalists - Former Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon and former New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing. Both Ewing and Olajuwon are in their first year of eligibility.

Also part of this years NBA Hall of Fame finalists list are Adrian Dantley, Chris Mullin, the late Dennis Johnson, Don Nelson, Pat Riley and ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

NBA Hall of Fame inductees will be announced on April 7th - induction ceremonies will be held in early September.

New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury will miss the rest of the NBA season. Marbury underwent ankle surgery to remove bone spurs but the surgery turned out to be more complicated then planned. Marbury had initially planned on returning this season, but instead will spend the next few months recovering and going through rehab. Marbury was averaging a career-low 13.9 points for the bottom-dwelling Knicks and had missed 17 games before his surgery.

New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury is going to have surgery on his left ankle and will be out indefinitely. Marbury had a MRI today and decided to have the surgery after it was found that he had inflammation around a chronically fractured bone spur. Marbury is expected to have the surgery on Tuesday and said yesterday that he will try and return this season, even (when) the Knicks are out of the playoffs.

So, will having Marbury out be better or worse for the Knicks? Well, first off things can not get much worse for the lowly Knicks. Marbury has been a thorn in Coach Isiah Thomas‘ side all season so maybe…just maybe this will help the team get on the same page and playing like everyone thinks they could. Interestingly enough Marbury has missed the last three Knicks games - all wins for the team.

This season Marbury is averaging a career low 13.9 points per game and has dealt with not only issues with Thomas but also his father dieing.

Isiah Thomas is crazy and has mind-control powers - that is the conclusion I have finally come to.  What prompted this revelation? Well Thomas said before another bad Knicks loss last night that he predicts the Knicks will win an NBA championship - with Thomas in charge of course. Wow. Thomas made this statement to the media pre-game in what appears to be him trying to convince the 99.9999% of the fans out there that he knows what he is doing and Knicks owner James Dolan should have faith in him.

Don’t believe me? There is no way Thomas would say such a thing? Here are Isiah Thomas’ exact words - “My belief and what I see and where I believe we can go as a team and an organization, I believe one day that we will win a championship here and I believe a couple of these guys will be a part of that, I believe I’ll be a part of that.” Thomas then goes on to prove he is crazy by defending his comments before anyone can start laughing - “As I sit here and I say it today, I know people will laugh even more at me, but I’m hell-bent on getting this accomplished and making sure that we get it done. And I’m not leaving until we get it done.”,”I believe we’re on the right path and I believe we have the right players,” Thomas goes on to ramble. “Our record doesn’t show that, but I’m not ready to give up on these players. We have good talent. We have good players. We have young players … and we have a good nucleus. We just need to get them to play well together. It’s not about breaking them up or tearing them down, it’s about getting them to play better as a team because individually I believe they’re pretty good.”

Thomas had a few more choice words but nothing worth taking the time to put in this post, basically he added how he wants to create a legacy for himself here in NYC - a legacy I am assuming that would be different then the one he created with the CBA. My guess is that Thomas’ legacy will be how he ruined the New York Knicks and alienated all New York basketball fans.

So how did the team play last night against the Sacramento Kings? They lost 107-97, bringing their record to 8-22,  good for last place in the Atlantic Division, 2nd worst record in the Eastern Conference and 3rd worst record in the NBA…but like crazy Thomas said, they are on the right path.

The Chicago Bulls had enough of the talk about how good their team is, but just aren’t living up to their potential, by firing their coach today. Scott Skiles led the Bulls to a 9-16 record this year, a disappointing start considering they have made 3 straight playoff appearances and have a very young and very talented team that was expected to compete for the Eastern Conference championship.

“Hardly a day goes by that I don’t demand accountability and stress results,” Skiles told the Chicago Tribune earlier “Today was my day to be held accountable.” You have to feel for the guy since he was fired on Christmas Eve…they could have at least waited a week or so. The Bulls didn’t make any announcement as to whom would replace Skiles as coach, GM John Paxson did say that they probably wont hire a new coach until after the season ends and have assistants Pete Myers or Jim Boylan lead the Bulls for the rest of the season.

Hmmm, the Bulls lose and they fire their coach…the Knicks lose and what happens to their coach Isiah Thomas? Nothing.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, since Isiah Thomas has ruined the Knicks I have not followed the NBA as closely as I have in previous years. However, this past Friday I found myself watching the Boston Celtics play the Milwaukee Bucks…let me tell you they are not only really good, but fun to watch. The Celtics, even without Ray Allen, made the game look easy and they looked like they had fun doing it. First off Kevin Garnett deserves to win a championship and get the credit he deserves as one of the greatest ever, against the bucks he only scored 15 points but he played basketball with such drive and enthusiasm you couldn’t help but like him.

So, the questions becomes just how good are these Celtics? 20 - 2 is a impressive record, but would it be the same if they didn’t play in the weak Eastern Conference? Could the Celtics put up that sort of record playing Phoenix, San Antonio, Los Angeles or Dallas on a regular basis? I think so…well maybe not 20 -2 but they would be up there. Paul Pierce (20.9 PPG), Ray Allen (19.2 PPG) and Kevin Garnett (18.8 PPG) can go head-to-head with any team, no matter the conference. The Celtics have the shooting, the interior presence and role-players needed to go all the way to the NBA Championship. However, I wouldn’t crown them the 2007-2008 NBA champions just yet. We need to see more of what the Celtics will do when a star player goes down and some of the role-players have to step up. Glen “Big Baby” Davis stepped up this weekend when Ray Allen was out, what about if Garnett goes down? Will that hole be filled? Will this team have the same legs 3, 4, 5 months down the road? Of course not, no team will. But, mark my words we will be talking about how good the Celtics are for the rest of the season.

First off let me say that I have been a life long Knick fan. During the Patrick Ewing years I became a huge fan and was a huge fan up until a few years ago. So what happened? Isiah Thomas. Never in my life would I ever think I would actually want my Knicks to lose, that is what Isiah Thomas has done to me.  In fact the only time I would want to go see the Knicks is to sit with the other thousands of fans to boo and chant “Fire Isiah”, but of course the tickets are so overpriced I wouldn’t want to waste my money. So with another miserable season in store for the Knicks - who are currently in last place yet again and some humiliating defeat like the one a couple of weeks ago (59 points? come on), I was sure we were close to getting rid of the NBA cancer that is Isiah Thomas.

HA! The joke is on us basketball, Knick and sport fans in general! Jimmy Dolan, the owner of the  Knicks / Madison Square Garden, let his head coach know that is job is NOT in jeopardy even after two embarrassing losses to the horrible Sixers. Huh? What is going on here? Does Isiah have some naked pictures of Dolan? I just dont get, what has Isiah ever done for any team beyond his playing days as a Piston? Run a entire basketball league into the ground? Check (the CBA). Destroy a proud franchise? Check. Sexual harass a co-worker bringing more shame to an organization? Check? Have the least points scored in a game? Check. The Knicks have the 2nd worst winning percentage in the entire eastern conference. Knick players walk out on their coach. What more does Dolan need to see?

Please, please, please someone tell me a good reason why Isiah Thomas should remain head coach of the New York Knicks. I am looking for 1 reason..not a dozen. Just one.  Hey, if Dolan is keeping Thomas on because they are lovers, fine. At least it is a reason.