THE NEW YORK KNICKS: LONGEST-RUNNING SOAP OPERA IN AMERICAN SPORTS

WHAT'S been the best American soap opera of the last decade: General Hospital or the New York Knickerbockers?

Hardly a day goes by, it seems, without some sex scandal, row story or off-the-court controversy emerging from Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks are rarely off the front or back pages of the New York newspapers. They are a constant topic of conversation on talk radio shows. Sadly, from their loyal fans’ point of view, it’s hardly ever for their achievements in the National Basketball Association.

You have to go back to 1973 to find the last time they won the NBA Championship. And they haven’t captured an Eastern Conference title since 1999.

The Patrick Ewing era is a distant memory. Since then, a succession of high-profile coaches and players have come and gone, none of them managing to bring back the glory days to one of the most famous franchises in basketball.

Worse still, they have plunged the Knicks deeper and deeper into the abyss, saddling the organization with long-terms contracts that have left it with little or no room for maneuver within the salary cap.

Larry Brown’s much-heralded arrival ended with an $18.5 million buyout of his five-year contract. The decision to let Isiah Thomas take over the day-to-day running of the team had even more disastrous effects.

Not only did the Knicks stink under clueless coach Thomas but he then landed them with a sexual harassment lawsuit that resulted in a jury awarding $11.6 million in punitive damages against MSG.

All this has been presided over by owner James Dolan, chairman of Cablevision, the parent company of the Madison Square Garden corporation.

Still some weeding to be done at the Garden

Dolan’s latest move has been to appoint former Indiana Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh as team president and ex-Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni as head coach.

Walsh and D’Antoni are now attempting to clear away the wreckage left by ten years of mismanagement…and it’s proving no easy task.

Not surprisingly, there is no quick fix. That’s been the underlying problem of the past decade: too many quick fixes aimed at achieving overnight success.

D’Antoni has cleared out the cupboard to such an extent that the current team is now playing short-handed. In other words, the Knicks don’t have enough bench players.

This has been accentuated by the fact that the Knicks last remaining star player, Stephon Marbury, refuses to play for the team. D’Antoni has made it clear that Marbury has no future in New York and Marbury has made it clear he has no intention of accepting a bit part.

Marbury, who is owed $21.9 million in wages this season, seems content to sit at home and wait for one of two things to happen: a contract buyout or a trade. Whichever happens, Dolan’s wallet is going to take another big hit.

Once Marbury has gone, D’Antoni and Walsh can begin planning for the future, namely the summer of 2010, when four of the biggest names in basketball become free agents: LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors and Amare Stoudemire of the Suns.

It’s no secret that James is the man most wanted. Rumor has it that his sponsor, Nike, will pay him $100 million if he joins a big-market team so James could well be attracted by the bright lights of the Big Apple, where he would become an instant hero (if he isn’t already).

New York fans actually cheered James when he played for the Cavaliers against the Knicks at MSG last week. Well, they’ve had little to cheer from their own team.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that the Knicks will land LeBron or any other of the “Big Four.” In the meantime, they’re going to be a sub .500 team for at least another two years.

That’s something long-suffering Knickerbockers supporters will be willing to put up with…just as long as no one turns off the light at the end of the tunnel.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK! SO GOOD, WE COULD HAVE TWO SUPER BOWL TEAMS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1st. Save the date because we could be watching the first ever Subway Super Bowl.

Of course, things rarely go according to plan. Just ask the 18-1 New England Patriots. But, on current form, New York boasts the two best teams in football.

The 8-3 Jets have won five games in a row after ending the unbeaten record of the Tennessee Titans with an emphatic 34-13 victory. The 10-1 Giants are on a six-game winning streak after overcoming the Arizona Cardinals 37-29.

Big Apple football fans have never had it so good. But while the reigning Super Bowl champions have been good from day one, the transformation in the Jets has been nothing short of remarkable.

When they lost 16-13 in Oakland on October 19th, there were serious doubts being raised about the wisdom of acquiring legendary quarterback Brett Favre…and rightly so after he had thrown 11 interceptions in seven games.

Now, it seems Favre can do no wrong. He’s turned from gunslinger to sheriff, ensuring the gospel according to coach Eric Mangini is carried out to the letter of the law.

With the Jets successfully stopping the run, and running the ball themselves, there has been no need for Favre to take risks – and he’s been near perfect in orchestrating wins in New England and now Tennessee.

Linebacker David Bowens summed up the mood in the Gang Green camp. “I’ve never been on a team that has been on this kind of a roll. It’s euphoric. It’s like we have an attitude that it doesn’t matter who we’re playing.”

With home games against Denver, Buffalo and Miami, and road trips to struggling San Francisco and Seattle, it’s not inconceivable that the Jets could finish the regular season 13-3, which could well be good enough to win the AFC.

Giants and Jets on course to meet in Tampa

The Giants remain on course to win the NFC, although their run-in looks a lot tougher than the Jets. They still have to go to Washington, Dallas and Minnesota, with home games against Philadelphia and Carolina.

Mind you, no problem seems insurmountable for coach Tom Coughlin and his brilliant defensive coordinator Steve Spagnolo.

Many expected the Giants to struggle when Tiki Barber called it a day and Jeremy Shockey broke his leg. Then, when Michael Strahan retired and defensive end Osi Umenyiora injured his knee in a pre-season game, they were dismissed as realistic contenders to retain their title.

Yesterday, they returned to the University of Phoenix Stadium – scene of their Super Bowl XLII triumph ¬– to take on the high-flying Cardinals without star running back Brandon Jacobs and their best wide receiver, Plaxico Burress.

It made little or no difference. Such is the strength in depth on the Giants roster that Domenik Hixon, Burress’s replacement, made six catches, ran three kickoff returns for 180 yards and finished the game with 269 all-purpose yards.

Eli Manning completed 26 of 33 passes and, as Coughlin said afterwards: “He just continues to do whatever has to be done to win the game.”

Football is such a ferocious sport that it’s unwise to look any further ahead than next week. Injuries play a key part and you can be sure that Favre and Manning will now be marked men.

Let’s hope both teams stay healthy. Wouldn’t it be great if on February 1st, 2009, in Tampa Florida, the Jets made their first Super Bowl appearance for 40 years and the Giants their first for 12 months! 

WHY MOOSE SHOULD BE A HALL OF FAMER

HE NEVER won a Cy Young award or a World Series ring. In fact, only once did he win 20 games in a season.

Yet if, as reports suggest, Mike Mussina decides to walk away from baseball later this week, I believe that he should be walking into the Hall of Fame.

Mussina, who turns 40 next month, has decided to go out on a high. Not for the first time in his career, he proved the critics wrong in 2008, bouncing back from a disappointing year to keep the struggling New York Yankees the right side of .500.

“Moose” went 11-10 in 2007 with an ERA of 5.15. When he began 2008 with a 1-3 record, many (myself included) were calling for him to removed from the starting rotation.

Hank Steinbrenner, Senior Vice President of the Yankees, publicly criticized him for not daring to pitch inside like Philadelphia Philllies veteran Jamie Moyer.

Moose, however, has always done things his own way. Never one to overpower the hitters, he spent his career relying on finesse and an acute ability to paint the corners of the plate.

What he did do was improve his strikes-to-balls ratio, cutting down on the walks and challenging the hitters to make contact.

Veteran pitcher set to retire on 270 wins

In a season when “young guns” Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy failed to win one game between them, Andy Pettitte pitched poorly and Chien-Ming Wang was injured, Mussina became the mainstay of the Yanks rotation. 

He recorded his 20th win of the season – and 270th of his career – at Fenway Park on September 28th, finishing the year 20-9 with an ERA of 3.37.

The dilemma facing Moose this off-season has been whether to carry on pitching and go for 300 wins, or slip away gracefully to spend time with his wife, Jana, and their three children.

Family man Mike has always been concerned about his children growing up without really kowing their father. He was probably also concerned about being able to reproduce last season’s form should he decide to return.

Most baseball pundits agree that Mussina is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But they seem to be split right down the middle on whether he should eventually make it into Cooperstown.

In my view, he should. Not only did pitch all 18 seasons in the American League, he pitched them all in the unforgiving American League East.

Johnny Damon, his Yankees team-mate, told the New York Times: “His legacy is going to be one of the best pitchers to ever put on a uniform, a guy who was able to do it in the American League East his whole career.”

His first 10 seasons were spent with the Baltimore Orioles at batter-friendly Camden Yards. Yet he still ended up with a career ERA of 3.68, recording 270 wins against 153 losses.

Mussina pitched in the steroid era so you can also argue that he was at unfair advantage up against juiced-up sluggers. Although he never managed a no-hitter, he had now fewer than six one-hit games.

Moose, who earned an economics degree at Stanford University, was the thinking man’s pitcher. Now the Yankees have to think of a way to replace a 20-game winner and the heartbeat of their rotation.

WHERE’S BECKS WHEN MLS NEEDS HIM MOST?

MLS FANS will be tuned into ABC at 3.30pm this Sunday to watch the New York Red Bulls take on the Columbus Crew in the championship game.

I may watch the first half but at 4.15pm, I’ll probably be switching to FOX for the Giants game in Arizona.

When I moved from England to the United States four years ago, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that football – or what Americans term as football – would take precedence over soccer or association football.

I still enjoy viewing the live Premier League game on the Fox Soccer Channel on Saturday morning. I even take in the occasional Serie A match from Italy on a Sunday.

But when it comes to the MLS, well, quite frankly, I’ve had more fun watching paint dry.

There’s simply no comparison to the standard of play or level of entertainment produced by the leagues in England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain.

Average players, sometimes performing on pitches marked for American football, produce too many boring, low-scoring games.

At least, that was my view after enduring the 0-0 draw between the New England Revolution and Chicago Fire in the Conference semi-finals, first leg.

So much for David Beckham changing the face of American soccer. His arrival in the USA was greeted by a huge media fanfare.

New York Red Bulls go for upset win

But, less than two years on, his Los Angeles Galaxy team once again failed to qualify for the playoffs and instead of gracing TV screens in the USA, he’s joined Italian giants AC Milan on a four-month loan spell.

How MLS could use Beckham now. When I watched the Red Bulls beat Real Salt Lake 1-0 in front of a 20,000 crowd on Sunday, the only player I recognized on either side was former Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel.

The Red Bulls scraped into the eight-team playoffs, despite losing more games in the regular season than they actually won.

Lady Luck was smiling on them again on Sunday, Real Salt Lake hitting the post on new fewer than four occasions.

The only goal of the game was scored in the 28th minute by Dutchman Dave van den Bergh, who made 12 appearances for Ajax Amsterdam at the end of the 1990s.

No doubt the Red Bulls will be underdogs again this weekend as they are up against the Eastern Conference champions, Columbus.

Juan Carlos Osorio, their Colombian coach, is happy to have it that way. “For a team like us that snuck into the playoffs, it’s a fresh start,” he said.

MLS are expecting their 13th title game to sell out, even though for some reason it’s being played in Carson, California. That’s convenient for fans of teams from New York and Ohio!

Call me cynical if you like but it’s going to take a lot more goalmouth action on Sunday to stop me changing channels.

STEELERS SCREW UP COSTLY FOR SOME

A CRAZY Sunday in football left fans and bettors alike feeling disgruntled and dissatisfied.

It also raised the question: should the tie still exist in the National Football League?

After a futile three hours and 46 minutes, including overtime, Philadelphia and Cincinnati were still locked at 13-13 – the first tie in the NFL since 2002.

In soccer, the tie or draw is a common event, the two teams each receiving one point (compared to three for a win). But in US sports, it’s almost unheard of.

That can’t happen in the NFL, where the number of wins achieved in 16 games decides a team’s position. The tie leaves both the Eagles (five wins) and Bengals (one) in last place in their respective divisions.

For the Bengals, you could argue that the result – or lack of one – doesn’t really matter. But, for the Eagles, it could ultimately cost them a playoff place.

It was Cincinnati who had the only scoring chance in OT, Shayne Graham missing a 47-yard field goal attempt.

Blown call leaves bettors fuming

In snowy Pittsburgh, there were even more bizarre goings-on as the Steelers became the first team in NFL history to win by an 11-10 scoreline, against the San Diego Chargers.

History should have remained unchanged. The Steelers and Troy Polamalu should have been awarded a touchdown in the final seconds as the Chargers tried to keep the game alive with laterals.

Umpire Scott Green, who initially upheld the ruling of touchdown on the field before changing his mind, admitted afterwards that he got it wrong.

There was even some suggestion that Green may have been put under pressure to come up with a quick decision as the game had gone beyond its scheduled running time, delaying 60 Minutes.

His admission of guilt will come as no consolation to those who decided to place their hard-earned cash on the Steelers to cover a 4.5-point spread. Around $10 million is wagered on every NFL game and although the spread is set to promote a balanced book, apparently the ratio of bets taken on Pittsburgh v San Diego was 4-1 in favor of the Steelers.

In England, when the officials make a score-changing mistake like this, some magnanimous bookmakers agree to pay out on both results.

Somehow, I can’t see them being so benevolent in Vegas.

ONE SMALL STEP FOR FAVRE. ONE GIANT LEAP FOR THE JETS.

NO DOUBT Eric Mangini and his New York Jets players had to pinch themselves when they woke up this morning. 

Such has been the dominance of the New England Patriots over their East Coast rivals that any Jets win – particularly one on the road – is almost worthy of a ticker-tape parade.

After all, before last night’s emotional 34-31 overtime victory, the Jets had lost 11 of their last 12 meetings with the Pats.

Having already lost at home to the Patriots, defeat would have all but ended their hopes of winning the AFC East division and left them scrapping it out for a playoff position.

Instead, they’re in pole position at 7-3 and, suddenly, New York has not one but two genuine Super Bowl contenders.

So what are the Jets feeling most today…euphoria or a sense of a relief? I suspect a mixture of both.

Elation at knowing the balance of power has finally shifted. But, hopefully, also a realization that although they won the Battle of Foxborough, they’ve yet to win the war.

Brett Favre, who played with a reckless abandon at the start of the season, was simply immense when it really mattered.

His pass selection, judgment and self-discipline gave the Jets the upper hand. And, after they had blown a 24-6 lead, he kept his composure to lead them down the field again for what should have been the game-winning touchdown.

When will coaches ever learn? Prevent defense may take time off the clock but it also allows your opponents to get easy downs and, on this occasion, one last shot at the end zone.

Euphoria and relief after "massive" victory

It’s not in the Jets nature to do things the easy way. Randy Moss should never have been given the opportunity to make a fingertip catch from Matt Cassel’s pinpoint pass with one second remaining.

Mangini and his team looked shell-shocked. Their eyes were glazed. How could this be happening to us…again?

It was imperative that they won the toss and were able to receive in OT. I, for one, wouldn’t have fancied their chances had the coin landed heads instead of tails.

The mood in the Jets camp today would have been more than somber had the heroic efforts of Favre, Leon Washington and Kris Jenkins counted for nought.

Instead, they can enjoy a well-earned weekend off before they start preparing for another huge game at the unbeaten Tennessee Titans on Sunday week. The Pats, meanwhile, face a “must win” game against another divisional rival, the Miami Dolphins.

For Pats coach Bill Belichick, a perfect 7-0 in OT games up until last night, the good news is that he no longer has to worry about the quarterback position.

Matt Cassel threw for 400 yards in a losing effort and has proved a more than capable deputy for the injured Tom Brady.

And before Jets fans get too carried away, let’s remember that as well as Brady, the Pats were without safety Rodney Harrison, running back Laurence Maroney, linebacker Adalius Thomas and defensive end Ty Warren.

But when people look back on this result in years to come, the record books won’t show that the Jets were facing a much-depleted Patriots team.

I wonder whether they’ll also look back on it as the night that Mangini’s Jets came of age.

IS BASEBALL REALLY FEELING THE PINCH?

PERHAPS baseball is not immune to the economic recession after all.

For the first time in 14 seasons, the Boston Red Sox are not raising ticket prices for 2009. And, according to reports, the New York Yankees are still looking for buyers for seven luxury suites at their new stadium.

Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College and an expert on sports economics, tells The New York Times today that this is a sign of tough times ahead.

“It means than even with a wildly popular team, the anticipated economic condition next spring and summer is so weak that it will not sustain further increases in ticket prices.”

Maybe so, but let’s keep it real here. While most of us are having to tighten our belts, the fat cats of Major League Baseball will still get their cream.

According to market research, the Red Sox had the highest average ticket price ($48.80) in 2008, which represented an increase of 10.1 percent on 2007. The Chicago Cubs were second at $42.49 and the Yankees third at $36.58.

Crowds and wages still sky high

The Red Sox hardly need worry about falling demand. The last 469 games at Fenway Park have been sell-outs, a run dating back to May 15, 2003.

They will increase revenue in 2009 by squeezing in another 560 seats at baseball’s smallest ballpark, increasing its capacity to 36,108.

The new Yankee Stadium will have a lower capacity than the old stadium (52,235 compared to 56,886) and while you can still buy a seat in the bleachers for $12, you’ll have to pay between $500 and $2,500 to sit anywhere near home plate.

At these times of economic gloom and doom, us sports fans need to escape to our fantasy world more than ever. Baseball takes us away from our problems. For a few hours, we can forget reality.

Only when two things happen will I believe that baseball is facing the same problems as Joe Public: Attendances start to fall and the players lower their wage demands.

There is no indication of either happening anytime soon, at least not to the glamour teams. I’m sure the Red Sox and Yankees will have no trouble filling their stadiums once again next season.

Manny Ramirez will get more than the $25 million a year the Los Angeles Dodgers are currently offering and someone – probably the Yanks – will give CC Sabathia an insane, long-term contract. Hard times, indeed.