How to save the New York Knicks

If were to ask yourself and other NBA fans what the worst franchise in the league is right now, most people after some thought would probably say the New York Knicks, and they’d be right. Despite being the 5th valuable sports team in the entire world according to Forbes the Knicks have been absolutely dire over the past 2 decades.

Somehow, despite being in the most famous city on the planet, the Knicks haven’t won a title since 1973 and only have 2 banners in total hanging in Madison Square Garden. The Knicks haven’t made the Playoffs since 2013 and only have 5 Playoff appearances in the past 2 decades.

Why has a team that is so famous and has been in the NBA since its inception in 1946 been so unsuccessful? How have the Knicks become the laughing-stock of the league? What can the Knicks organization do to get back on track? Read on if you want to find out.

Culture

The atmosphere and culture at any sports team are so important if a franchise is to be successful, both in the short-term and the long-term. A good culture is where everyone throughout the organization, from the owner to the program sellers, is focused on winning games and titles. It’s the mentality of success and anything that doesn’t push that competitive culture is rightly shown the door.

The biggest reason why teams like the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics have been successful for so long is that everyone always has the same goal; winning. Everyone’s interests are aligned towards being the best. They aren’t comfortable when things aren’t going well and every decision made by management is geared towards getting back to the promised land.

The Knicks have the opposite of that right now. They suck, and they are satisfied with sucking. The Knicks organization is content with not being successful because no matter what the fans still pay outrageous amounts for Knick tickets, TV deals are still lucrative and merchandise still sells.

A huge majority of the fans at MSG aren’t there to support their team and help them get a win. They are there because it helps their celebrity profile, it ‘raises’ their image. There are always countless celebrities that attend Knicks games, especially when a player like LeBron James turns up. These aren’t real fans, they don’t know what it’s like to follow a team through thick and thin, through the good times and the bad. A lot of fans are just there for some entertainment, not to help their team get a W.

New York doesn’t have rows of empty seats when it isn’t winning like Minnesota of New Orleans does. This actually helps perpetuate the losing culture because the Knicks still make so much money, even they lose. If a smaller team isn’t successful and it doesn’t fill the stands then it doesn’t make as much money, so owners and management have an added incentive to win, an incentive the Knicks don’t have.

If the Knicks are to solve this they need to copy what soccer teams do in the German Bundesliga and that’s artificially lower ticket prices to get more loyal, working-class fans into the stadium. This brings more passion into the arena from the crowd which would make MSG a scary place for teams to visit much like the United Center in Chicago or TD Garden in Boston.

James Dolan

At the end of the day, everything starts and ends with the owner and there’s no beating about the bush here; James Dolan is a child. Everything he does with the Knicks is now about trying to better himself rather than the organization. The funny thing is that if he actually tried to make the Knicks competitive and a good place to play his public image would increase dramatically.

I honestly think he’s just holding onto the Knicks to spite everyone who wants him to sell the franchise.  The number of incidences he has caused or directly been a part of if just staggering.  Just look at how Knicks legend Charles Oakley was treated or how life-long fan Irving Bierman was told to “root for the Nets because the Knicks don’t want you”, all because he sent a letter to Dolan questioning his leadership. Dolan has become a Stalin-esque figure in MSG; if you question or annoy him you are ‘dealt’ with.

Dolan does not take criticism well, he thinks he is above it completely. Until he either sells the team or has a serious look in the mirror the Knicks will continue to be a circus act around the NBA.

The Players

You’d think that playing in New York and under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden would be an extremely big selling-point when it came to free-agents, but no, not anymore. When free-agents like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant choose to go to the far less famous Brooklyn Nets instead of New York then you’ve got a very serious problem.

The aura of New York has become so toxic that big players are actually avoiding it in favor of less famous, more stable teams. That will not change unless something forces it to. 

The Knicks also have a big problem with picking players that have high entertainment value but don’t have a high enough basketball value. Carmelo Anthony is the perfect example of this. When Melo was with the Knicks he would score a lot of points and excite the crowd, but his playstyle did not produce winning basketball. Isolation plays, whilst flashy, are inconsistent and don’t win you games in deep Playoff and Finals series.

The Knicks need to focus on drafting, signing and trading for players that produce a team-orientated style of play because that is what wins you games and championships. Right now everything is going/has gone wrong for the Knicks. Running an organization is very complex and there are so many things you need to get right. If you let just one thing slip like the culture or management then everything can fall apart. On the bright side, this means that if the Knicks can start off by just getting 1 thing right this will help everything else fall into place.

Let’s just hope this decade the Knicks are remembered for their success on the court rather than controversy off of it.