KNICKS GET BETTER

After years of ineptitude with Isaiah Thomas at the helm, and the coaching with criminal intent he perpetrated on the team, the Knicks now have something to care about with a great coach and a great general manager on the end of his contract. If Dolan can control himself, he may finally have a contender, and that means a winner in the end.

D’Antoni is a lot like NY Jets coach Rex Ryan, a defensive minded coach, and the one thing his team lacked last year was defense. Then along comes Tyson Chandler and suddenly, the Knicks are real contenders. By moving Chauncy Billups with a buy out, room is now there for Chandler to maybe help the Knicks like he helped the Dallas Mavericks. “He brings everything we didn’t have.” Those words were uttered by Coach D’Antoni, who also said Chandler also brings defense and rebounding, what they were missing in the middle. With two of the top five scorers in the league, Chandler brings balance to the squad. The help he will bring to the frontcourt should be very significant. Melo, Tyson and Amar’e, wow!

“There are a lot of intangibles that he’s going to bring.” Said D’Antoni said of Chandler. The coach also iterated that the Knicks got better real quick. Suddenly it will be very difficult to purchase Knick tickets, and if they can be as awesome on the court as they do on paper, New York has an exciting winter/spring season coming up.

YANKEES SHOULD REVIEW THE ASHES.

The Red Sox have Daisuke Matsuzaka, and the Yankees need to look no further than Kei Igawa, to see that imports never really pan out when it comes to front line pitching and 80 to 100 millions in investments. If the Yankees pass on Yu Darvish, they will have learned their lesson well. If I recall, the Sox landed Matsuzaka, so Cashman ran out and got his own version of a Matsuzaka in Igawa. Both clubs were burned, and it pretty well relates back to when George Steinbrenner signed a certain Japanese pitcher Hideki Irabu' years ago who turned out to be a bust! Hideo Nomo pitched over the span of 13 seasons in the American major leagues with 8 different teams, before retiring in 2008. He won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1995. He twice led the league in strikeouts and also threw two no-hitters (to date the only Japanese pitcher to throw even one). HE is an exception to the rule. But who would want to chance 80 to 100 million? Darvish has never been hit hard, has a great record in Japan, what will happen when he is finally slapped around the ball yard, and maybe frequently once hitters get to know him?

I stick with my prediction that the Yankees will still be the team to beat, with or without any moves this off-season.

AN AMAZING COACH!

Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski’s record as the head coach of the Duke basketball program is 908-2851 that is hard to believe that a man can maintain that kind of excellence in a program. Going into this weekend at Madison Square Garden, where his Blue Devils face Washington, a 4-3 record, he is 21-7! This season so far he is 8-1. Amazing!

That's all folks!