Knicks, Nets a disgrace to basketball

At one time, New York City was considered the Mecca of basketball. Heck, it still is when you are talking about street games at Rucker Park and point guards coming up from the boroughs. The talent is everywhere, with kids making good on their talents to land D-I scholarships and occasionally, a job in the NBA.

However, that’s where the Mecca and New York basketball take two very different paths. The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets are two of the worst teams in basketball and have been that way for quite some time. Brooklyn currently sports the worst record in the league at 16-59, a full five games clear of anybody else. It’s been nothing short of a mess in the Barclays Center, with the Nets getting worse by the year.

To make matters even more bleak, Brooklyn doesn’t have its first round pick both this season and in 2019 as result of trading for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics. Boston will very likely win the Atlantic Division, be one of the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference, and then have the No. 1 overall pick and take Markelle Fultz. Meanwhile, the Nets continue to languish in a city that barely remembers they exist, waiting for a contender to finally show up.

On the other side of town in Madison Square Garden, the Knicks are in the mist of another awful season with Phil Jackson and Jeff Hornacek running the show (well, owner James Dolan is really running the show, Jackson and Hornacek are simply paid puppets).

New York sits 28-47 and has been eliminated from the playoff race with more than two weeks remaining in the season. It’s another bitter disappointment for a team some believed could make some noise before the campaign began, having added Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose in the offseason.

The Knicks have not sniffed the Eastern Conference Finals since the 2000 season, and haven’t reached the NBA Finals since 1999, where they were bounced in five games by the San Antonio Spurs. Between the two New York franchises, the last title was won in 1973 by the Knicks, while the Nets have yet to raise an NBA banner.

At least the Knicks have the hope that comes with a high pick in a very good draft. New York, if the Draft Lottery holds true, would have the fourth pick in the proceedings. Should they get a bit lucky, they might be able to snag Lonzo Ball or Josh Jackson, two players that could go very well with Kristaps Porzingis.

At some point, the fortunes have the change for these two franchises.