Asterisk?... Ask the Knicks!

Feature by
Greg Van Voorhis

Sports Editor

Had a chance to catch your breath from this past year’s shortened basketball season yet? I hope so, because we are about to explore the world of the asterisk, and whether or not it should be put to use in the case of this tumultuous season.

For those of you who blinked and missed this past NBA season, you may not know what I am talking about. This season, each NBA team played only 50 regular season games, 32 fewer than the standard schedule, because there was a lockout that started during the off-season and continued to cut  straight into four months of the regular season, training camp included. Teams were not allowed to contact players; players were not allowed to use the team facilities;  coaches were not allowed to speak to players, and vice versa. All this because the owners and players were too selfish and greedy to split the $2 billion dollar per year NBA industry between the two sides.

But that was the past; by mid-January they reached an agreement, and play began in mid-February. Unfortunately, due to the delay, there was no time to get players into shape, there was only a three week span to fill the teams’ rosters, and there were only 90 days for each team to play 50 games, rather than the normal 180 days to play 82. As a result, there were many more injuries to players and, to many, the season felt like a rollercoaster ride.

Well, what happened this season? First and foremost, Michael was gone. And basically, so were the Bulls. This team had the third worst record of the season, one year after winning three consecutive championships. The Knicks traded fan faves John Starks for Latrell Spreewell and Charles Oakley for Marcus Camby, both very questionable trades in the eyes of Knicks fans. Seattle management fired George Karl and brought in Paul Westphal to coach the Sonics, who ended up missing the playoffs for the first time in 9 seasons. Scottie left the Bulls to play for Houston, where he had the worst season of his career since I can remember. The Lakers were a “circus” as many basketball analysts called them, as they brought in Dennis Rodman and released him shortly thereafter, fired head coach Del Harris and hired Kurt Rambis, and traded reliable Eddie Jones for sharp-shooter Glen Rice.

When it came down to ball, Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan made their marks this year, clearly carrying the torch for M.J. Dennis Rodman was a clown. G.P. had the best season of his career, but had nothing to show for it. David Robinson became even more admirable by stepping aside and letting Duncan be “the man.” And Karl Malone won the MVP for the second straight season.

Who won? The San Antonio Spurs won the championship over our New York Knicks in five games. The Spurs had the best record during the regular season, while the Knicks were the last seeded team in the Eastern Conference. They became the second eighth seeded team in NBA history (Denver beat Seattle 1994) to ever beat a first seeded team (Miami) in the first round. They followed this up by becoming the first eighth seeded team to ever get past the first round by sweeping Atlanta in the second round, and defeating Indiana in the Conference Finals. Unfortunately for them, their Cinderella story ended in the Finals.

Many people feel that there should be an asterisk placed next to all the records and statistics that were achieved this season. An asterisk is used in sports as a way to explain that there is generally more to the story than just the plain statistic.

One example of when an asterisk can be used is if a current baseball player hits more home runs than a former player. It may be used, because the current baseball season has more games than in previous seasons. Another example is that this year, the Bulls were held to 47 points in one game. You might have heard that this was the fewest point total  by a basketball team in history. This is only half true. Bring in the asterisk.  The shot clock was not invented until twenty or so years after the inception of the NBA. Before the shot clock was invented, a team could hold the ball for as long as it wanted, therefore making the scores much lower. But now with the shot clock, a team has only twenty four seconds with which to shoot the ball on each possession.

So now I ask you. Should there be an asterisk placed next to our Knicks’ names when we read in the basketball archives that they made it to the Finals this season? Does the asterisk taint our achievements or lead us to believe that maybe if it were a full season, we could have had a longer time to gel and win the championship? Should there be an asterisk next to our Knicks, when we see that they were the only eighth seeded team to ever make it into the Conference Finals, let alone the NBA Finals?

Well, let’s face some facts. In all likelihood, the Knicks would have placed higher than the eighth seed if it were a full season. The team had found its groove, and there would have been another 32 games left before the playoffs would have even started. Also, if Patrick Ewing didn’t have to put his life on the line every night the way he did in the playoffs, he might not have gotten injured, and he could have played in the Finals.

Do not get me wrong, I do believe in the use of the “asterisk,” I just don’t feel it should be used in the case of the Knicks, or this season in general.