December 15, 2010 – Allen Moll

Surely many New York Knickerbockers fans were a bit miffed this off-season when Lebron James spurned numerous Knicks’ management offers to play his home games at “World’s Most Famous Arena”, Madison Square Garden. He instead chose to take his talents to South Beach to play for the now hated Miami Heat.

What New York got instead was quite the fall-back option of signing one of the league’s most ferocious players in Ama’re Stoudemire up front and the ubderrated Ray Felton to run the point. After a few missteps early, Stoudemire and Felton have been outstanding, leading the club in scoring and assists, and most importantly, guiding the team to a winning record. Knicks management has preached patience to fans over the previous 2 seasons and it appears to be paying off with the club and fans both surely hoping that a return trip to the NBA postseason is in the cards for New York’s resident hoops team.

Even though NY is a bit ahead of schedule as far as rebuilding goes, management has cautioned everyone that this squad is hardly a finished project as there have been rumors of potential trades for a number of top tier players like Tony Parker, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony, ever since the season began. While Paul and Parker now appear set in their current situations in New Orleans and San Antonio, Melo remains #1 on virtually every New Yorker’s wish list. With each passing day that Carmelo doesn’t sign an extension with the Nuggets, a new trade scenario seems to pop up across the internet. I get it, who wouldn’t want the former stand-out at Syracuse, who can score at will, and who alongside Ama’re would bring some swagger back to New York basketball.

Recently some over anxious fans(or Ama’re himself) in the NY metro area got creative in hoping to both entertain readers and send a message to Carmelo himself when they posted an ad on local NY’s Craigslist in hopes of bringing Melo to the Big Apple:

28 Year-Old NBA Superstar seeks 26 year old fellow NBA Superstar to join in quest for NBA Title. Requirements: Maintaining excellent team rapport while putting up All-Star caliber stats. Ability to deflect media scrutiny with wit, charm, and confidence. Ability to score 40+ points on any given night. Willing to forgo playing defense for the good of the team. Experience: NBA Experience for 7 Years or More. Some college preferred, no degree required. Must be current Team Superstar looking for a change of scenery in a contract year. Must have played in big games on the MSG Floor at least on the Collegiate level. Best chance to land this job is if your name rhymes with Barbello Banthony. Please submit resume to [email protected] Compensation: $17+ Million per year

Pretty funny stuff. Call me crazy but I doubt it was actually Ama’re placing the ad. Although you never know? Maybe it was Isiah?

Thanks: theknicksblog.com

Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.