The two New York franchises are not only competing for the New York City fan base, but for the right to host the 2015 NBA All-Star Game as well.

NBA commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Adam Silver announced during their Saturday media availability (via Howard Beck of the New York Times) for All-Star Weekend that the city of New York will host the 2015 NBA All-Star Game.

The Knicks’ home arena, Madison Square Garden, has put in a bid to host the weekend, as has the Nets’ new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and Silver said Saturday that one of the two arenas will get it.

There is no timeline for making the decision, but an announcement usually comes about 12 to 18 months before the game.

New York last hosted the All-Star Game in 1998, at the Garden. Garden officials have been angling to host the game again ever since they began an $800 million renovation of the arena.

The 2014 All-Star game will be hosted by New Orleans. It will be the first All-Star weekend under Silver, who is expected to take over as commissioner after Stern steps down.

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With that being said, I have always heard these rumors that Madison Square Garden is the “Mecca of Basketball’ but never understood it. With this fantastic start of the season by the Knicks, it looks like Madison Square Garden has finally become a real home court advantage.

Everything just seems different this season. All the years of building up a championship team and clearing out salary cap have led to right now. This is the season Knicks’ fans and the entire organization has been waiting for and we all know it’s here. There was no better way to send a message to the league and New Yorker’s than the 20-point blowout of LeBron James and the defending champion Miami Heat on opening night. The Knicks punched the Heat in the mouth and got New York fired up.

The Knicks have played four games at home and have beaten their opponent by an average 15.8 points. That is no easy feat especially since a majority of those teams are no joke: Heat, 76ers, Mavericks, and Pacers. It’s no secret a major reason why the Knicks have been dominant so far is the MVP-type play of their leader Carmelo Anthony.

As of November 25, ‘Melo is third in the league in scoring with 25.6 PPG and has stepped it up in front of his hometown crowd, delivering 28.6 PPG at the Garden in five games. He has been a loyal Mike Woodson soldier so far and has been doing anything and everything to win games.

I feel like a few things have factored into why MSG is finally living up to its name as the “Mecca of Basketball” and is truly a home court advantage.

Mike Woodson has a lot to do with it and deserves all the credit in the world. The Knicks are 26-7 on his watch, which is built on the foundation of teamwork, defensive intensity, and unselfishness. The Garden is also in phase two of its transformation and renovation. New Yorker’s are getting the state of the art arena they finally deserve while still keeping the arena they have been calling home forever.

New Yorker’s are now reenergized with the excellent play of the Knicks with addition to improvements of the World’s Greatest Arena. Knicks’ fans have always supported the Knicks, selling out games even when the team was one of the league’s worst. It is now time for the Knicks to return the favor.

A final reason why the Knicks’ players and their fans are very prideful of their home court this year is the arrival of the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets organization and fans have been talking a lot of smack this offseason, saying they are now the city’s basketball team. This is a Knicks city and I feel like the entire Knicks’ nation took offense when the Nets thought they could just swoop in and take the city’s fans. The Knicks are giving New Yorker’s one hell of a show especially at home. They are playing with a chip on their shoulder, proving everyone that this is their city.

New York City basketball is back. Madison Square Garden has been dying for elite basketball and huge games to be played under its roof. It’s time for the Knicks to win and they know it, especially in front of the best fans in the whole world.

Apr 30, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) during the second half of game two in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals of the 2012 NBA Playoffs the Miami Heat at the American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The focus tonight will undoubtedly be on Carmelo Anthony and his move back to the power forward spot where he had so much success in April. Because Stoudemire will miss tonight with the laceration on his hand, the Knicks will go small, thus putting Anthony back in a position he thrived at in the weeks leading up to the playoffs.

A big part of that potential move for the Knicks, however, will hinge on whether or not Chris Bosh plays tonight. His wife just had a baby (Congrats, Boshes) and he flew down to Miami to join her. It is unknown whether or not he will rejoin the team tonight. On one hand, Bosh’s absence would seemingly give the Knicks an upper-hand, making a small team even smaller, and eliminating the third scoring option for the Heat. However, losing Bosh would also effectively eliminate the Knicks and Anthony’s mismatch as LeBron James would surely be moved to the four to match-up with ‘Melo.

Likewise, while some fans gleefully celebrated over the absence of Stoudemire and re-embraced Power Forward ‘Melo II, this move also even further diminishes the Knicks bench. Once thought of as their greatest strength (perhaps prematurely coined Mobb Deep), the Knicks will move either J.R. Smith or Steve Novak into the starting lineup to fill in for Stoudemire’s absence. This leaves Mike Bibby, Jared Jeffries, and perhaps Josh Harrellson to come off the bench – a pretty weak crew.

Nearly everything will hinge on Carmelo Anthony’s performance tonight. It seems fathomable that he could replicate his success on offense tonight (he had 42 points against the Heat three weeks ago), but he will also be the focal point of the Heat’s defense. While there is tremendous amounts of pressure on Anthony to carry the offense, Baron Davis, Landry Fields, Tyson Chandler, Smith, and Novak will also need to contribute scoring if the Knicks have any chance to beat Miami tonight.

Things have fallen to a near hopeless level because of Miami’s two crushing victories to open the playoffs, but it’s only a two-game deficit and the Knicks have an eager crowd awaiting them at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are currently flirting with a dubious distinction, so there is even more pressure to win tonight. Steal Game 3, and the Knicks have one more at home, with the possibility of Amar’e returning. Steal Game 4 as well and we’ll have a series.

Tonight is very important.

When I arrived at 100 Legends Way (A.K.A the grimy back lot behind Boston’s North Station where the the satellite trucks make their home) on Sunday afternoon prior to Game 1, I was struck by how nondescript the arena’s exterior was. For all who haven’t been there, it is essentially a big, brown rectangular block that rests over Boston’s northernmost commuter rail station. In that way it is similar to Madison Square Garden, which hovers above Penn Station. That is about where the similarities end aesthetically speaking.

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Amare – 12-15 FG, 31 Pts in 24:13 (WOW!)

Carmelo – 12-16 FG, 34 Pts in 30:11

When asked in the post game press conference whether now we should expect nights like this on a regular basis, Carmelo laughed at the silly question, looked down at the box score in front of him and said something to the effect of, “Ain’t gonna be too many nights that the two of us miss only 7 shots”. Damn right about that, but it was pretty damn fun to watch anyway. You can credit the awful Jazz defensive effort some for the inflated stat line, but clearly Anthony and Stoudemire are tow of the most gifted offensive talents in the NBA and are capable of combining for 65 points on any given night.

Here are a few other intriguing things that came out of Carmelo’s mouth. He talked about how he and Amar’e are beginning now to play off of each other. This revelation was apparent very early on in this beatdown, as Melo assisted on three Amar’e buckets in a 3-minute stretch of the first quarter. The best part of Carmelo’s dishing and Stoudemire’s swishing was that STAT’s buckets came from different spots on the floor. One 19 footer, one layup at right next to the rim, one short 7-footer.

To me, this showed that Melo is beginning to recognize where Amar’e is on the floor on different offensive sets and he using his ability to draw attention of more than one defender to “get” Amar’e open. In fact, Anthony said as much in his post game comments, explaining that since defender tend to gravitate toward him and not leave him to double team someone else, other guys (Stoudemire and Toney Douglas) will be open. It’s just a question or them knocking down shots, which they did early and often tonight.

Stoudemire actually took to the podium first. He basically brushed off the astounding shooting performance by the two stars and said, “Myself and Carmelo can score one-on-one with ease. Offense is not a problem for us”. It most definitely was not against a seemingly disinterested Utah squad that is obviously in shambles since Jerry Sloan stepped down and Deron Williams was dealt to New Jersey. Amar’e went on to echo some of the same sentiments as Carmelo in regards to the two of them being able to open up shots for the rest of the guys:

“The goal is to always keep the ball moving, and always keep the defense on [its] toes. They can’t quite guard us. If we keep the ball moving like we did tonight and other players get involved and make open shots, then it’s going to be hard to guard us”

Landry Fields put it best in the locker room when asked about his two superstar teammates, something to the effect of, “When STAT and Melo are playing like that, there’s not much anyone can do. Toney Douglas acknowledged that he knew it was up to guys like to knock down open shots when Melo and Amar’e are cooking like they were last night, because there would be opportunities aplenty.

I know it’s one game and the Knicks still have a ton of holes on defense and still struggle against squads/players with a big interior presence (case in point: Al Jefferson’s 36 pts tonight), but when was the last time this team had a laugher like this? After so many nights I sat in MSG, cringing at the poisonous atmosphere created by the Isiah’s Thomas’ reign of terror, last night was a blast. The always heady Garden fans chanting for Andy Rautins to enter the fray. Watching Stoudemire cheer lead for his boys continuing to pour it on the hapless Jazz in the final quarter. Seeing Renaldo Balkman swish a trifecta, fresh off the bench. Pure joy.

Yes this team has been enigmantic, and will likely continue to be so through the last 20 games of the regular season, but the the Knicks are relavant once again. Going to a game at Madison Square Garden is special again, and that’s the damn way it should be in this hoops town.

Amar'e Stoudemire is the new King of Broadway (Source: Yardbarker.com)

After attending last night’s heartbreaker to the Celtics, I figured it would be a good time to add my initial contribution to the site .I don’t want to get too much into the nuts and bolts of the game, but just add a few observations of the scene at MSG before during and after the game. I’ll start out by saying that this is my 7th season covering the Knicks so I have witnessed some dark days at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

• Stephon Marbury anointing himself “the best point guard in the NBA” before the 2005 New Year’s Day tilt with the Jason Kidd’s Nets. We all know how that proclamation turned out.
• Nate Robinson’s circus act leading to a vicious brawl with the Denver Nuggets in December of 2006.
• Jerome James. Enough said.
• The poisonous atmosphere that existed during Isiah Thomas’ last days at the helm with the continuous “Fire Isiah” chants booming down from the rafters. The fact that two Italian dudes constructed this rap song just about says it all.

Last night, all of the darkness seemed to have drifted far away from that hallowed cathedral of hoops. There was life again in Madison Square Garden, the kind of life not seen since Latrell Sprewell roamed the court more than a decade ago.  It was the most pregame anticipation I had ever felt at that place. There was a tangible buzz in the crowd and the place erupted when the lights dimmed and the Knicks were introduced. Amar’e Stoudemire, the new hero on Broadway, got the loudest ovation any Knicks player has gotten in years. I’d say the guy deserves it with the way he’s been playing.

Ronny Turiaf then did his now customary twirling dance, circumventing the the rest of the Knicks players as they huddled under the basket. It almost like he’s a witch doctor casting some kind of voodoo on the opposing team. Pretty cool to see in person. Unfortunately on this night, there wasn’t quite enough voodoo to hold off what I would consider the best team in the Eastern Conference if not the entire NBA. Paul Pierce is a cry baby and gets phantom fouls a aplenty, but the guy is a cold-blooded killer in the 4th quarter. The second best closer in the NBA behind Kobe Bryant in my book. He stuck the dagger in the Knicks, but that does not temper the positive vibes I took from their performance last night.

Mike D’Antoni, Amar’e and Raymond Felton all expressed their disappointment in not being able to close the Celtics out during their postgame meetings with the press. Sometimes, you hear guys talk about no moral victories in losses, but you could tell each one of these guys was proud of the effort the Knicks put forth and you could see and hear a confidence and swagger continuing to build, even in defeat. Here is a little sampling of what I heard:

“Everybody has their own opinion. Real basketball players and people who understand the game know we have a good team and we can play with anybody. We lost a tough one against possibly the best team in the league.” -Raymond Felton

“I guarantee you that Boston respects us. We are not slouches. They know how good we can be and how good we are. We’ll see them again.” -Amar’e Stoudemire

Before I close up shop, here are few scenes I witnessed and heard while moving between the media room and the two locker rooms:

• Nate Robinson hooting and hollering and spitting out more obscenities than Rex Ryan as the Celtics left the court and headed to the visitor’s locker room. Pipe down Nate. Your act was one of the reasons this franchise was such a joke the past few years. Once a punk, always a punk I guess
• A smiling Kevin Garnett and the huge rocks in his ears talking to a small gathering in front of the media room after I left the Knicks locker room. He was chatting with a blond-haired woman about two feet shorter than he was and said something to the effect of, “Whew boy, did you feel the electricity in here tonight? [The Knicks] thought they had us but we are bunch of champions. Not gonna argue that one.
• Amar’e Stoudemire walking toward the exit leading out to the where the Knicks park their shiny vehicles next to Amber Rose. You may want to click on the link provided. Check out Amar’e's tweet from Dec 5th at 10:41 PM. That my friends is a bird call. It appears as if we may be seeing a lot more of Ms. Rose at MSG in the coming days

Bring on LeBron and crew. It appears these Knicks are not afraid to tangle with anyone.

Turns out the World's Most Famous Arena is not The World's Most-Likely-To-Pass-A-Health-Inspection (source: Wayfaring.info)

I wish I was joking, but yes, Knicks & Ranger fans, watch out ‘cuz mouse crap was found at food stands in Madison Square Garden.  ESPN published a report on food vendors across the country, and they were all pretty scary.  Here’s specifically what they had to say about the Garden:

Madison Square Garden
New York Knicks, New York Rangers
Vendors with critical violations: 61%

Inspection report excerpt: At one stand, inspectors found “53 mouse excreta” (38 on top of a metal box underneath the cash registers in the front food-prep/service area and 15 on top of a carbonated-beverage dispensing unit).

If it’s on top of beverage dispensers, that means I’d be wary of even buying “foods” you don’t need to prepare like beer.  Next time you go to a game, I recommend you chow down and liquor up before you get there.

“The National Editor of Forbes predicts that LeBron James will join the Knicks, with one of the major financial drivers being James’ ability to buy shares in the publicly-traded New York franchise.

In his position at Forbes, Ozanian specializes in corporate earnings, economics and sports team valuations.”

Via Forbes.com

This could change a lot of things going into this summer. The argument made by a lot of analysts is that Lebron won’t make anymore money in New York then Cleveland or anywhere else, well it looks like that may not be true.

Very interesting article and could be a key component to luring Lebron this summer.

(source: Yardbarker.com) Like a little girl in puppy love, New York hopes we're the one LeBron's eyeing.

Seems ESPN has launched ESPN NewYork.com today and decided to promote it by rehashing the ol’ Will LeBron James Go To New York story.  There’s a surprisingly large amount of Nothing New, mixed in with Shameless Sensationalizing, Idiotic Conclusions Based On Personal Feelings, and just Awful Math.  That said, there were maybe a couple of Intriguing Bits to me, but it might all feel redundant to y’all.  Without further ado:

Idiotic Conclusions:

The worst part was where the sportswriters speculated the percent chance of LeBron going to one team or another.  Let’s start with Mark Stein saying there’s a 10% chance that LeBron will go to Dallas.  10%???  10% means 1 in 10!  You’re going out tonight and your choosing between your ten favorite restaurants — that gives each one a really good shot at being chosen.  Thankfully, of the four other Dallas writers, they all only gave it a 1-3% chance.  I like Stein’s writing a bunch, but his thesis his based on this you-can-substitute-LeBron’s-name-with-anyone statement:

I firmly believe LeBron likes the thought of playing with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, trusts Mark Cuban to be an owner who will always spend whatever it takes to contend and loves the city of Dallas and Cowboys football

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Move over James Cameron! The Pacers try to go for 3 Ds against Patrick Ewing in 1995. (source: ESPN's "30 On 30")

The 30 On 30 series will be premiering the Reggie Miller/Knicks documentary tonight at 9 (Eastern time) on ESPN.  If you miss it, it’ll be on ESPN2 a few hours later, and well, at all sorts of hours and channels forever afterward.  It looks pretty darn good, and for you young fans who’ve gotten used to seeing your Knicks always lose — don’t worry, the winning time refers to Indiana not New York. As they describe it on the film’s site:

Reggie Miller gave New York the finger. The whole city.

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"Dude, you said the Knicks sucked!" "Yeah, well you said TMac was done!"

The Oklahoma Thunder have made one of the most remarkable turnarounds in NBA history.  After winning only 21 games last year (or in a glass half-empty view, losing 61 games), they now are 5th in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.  They are in the middle of the longest current winning streak in the league (nine games), and they have third-year phenom, Kevin Durant, a legit MVP candidate.  It could be argued that Durant is second in the MVP race to only LeBron.  Plus, he’s in the middle of a streak of having scored 25+ points in 27 straight games.  At first that last statement didn’t seem that impressive to me, ‘cuz after all like LeBron and Carmelo are averaging nearly 30 a game, while others like Kobe and Allen Iverson have averaged that much (or more) for a whole season too.  However, in the last 35 years there is only one person who has ever accomplished that feat: Michael Jordan.  Yup, no other active player has done it.  Not LeBron, Kobe, Wade, Shaq, AI or even the Knicks’ newbie, TMac (a man who’s lead the league in scoring a couple of times).

All of which goes to say that after the way the Knicks have been playing, it was pretty darn remarkable we almost won this game, let alone played well.  The big story, as everyone’s already heard, is Tracy McGrady’s big game.  That he’s back.  Not to be glass-half-empty again (what am I, thirsty or something?), but I’m skeptical that he can bring that kind of production regularly.  What I do think that he can help keep bringing back is the energy in the Garden.  The crowd was more alive than they are on Free Taco Night.  Okay, there’s no Free Taco Night (the correct question here is: why the hell not?), but Madison Square was rocking Saturday night.  For once, people came to see the Knicks, not the other team, or just to be “seen.”

McGrady's most athletic play of the night: When a Thunder-ite goes to block his shot on the right, mid-air Tmac does a loopedy-loop and scoops it in lefty

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Clusters of spectators occupy sections in every arena, waving Israeli flags, chanting his name, pleading for an autograph, a high-five, or even a glance.

These past few days in particular have been a blur of activity: Pregame and postgame chats with a throng of fans Sunday in Toronto; a post-practice gathering Monday at Madison Square Garden with members of the media, including several Israeli television and print journalists; a private audience with Commissioner David Stern in his Olympic tower office hours later; a reception sponsored by the Israeli Consul General in the early evening and, finally, tonight’s long anticipated Kings-Knicks matchup that is being marketed as Jewish Heritage Night.

A Jewish acappella group sang the National Anthem

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After scouring the internet, I was amazed at the dearth of material on Dick McGuire.  Here was one of the greats, and the only footage I could find of him playing bball was on MSG’s memorial for him.  In an age where every moment is recorded of people who are famous simply for being famous (like Paris Hilton or Jon&Kate), it’s sad that the exploits of a true pioneer will likely fade away into nothingness eventually.  How many websites do we need devoted to David Hasselhoff?  It’s up to us to keep our history alive.  How many great films, great books, great songs have been lost?  Someone recently said to me that the reason most books from before 1900 haven’t stood the test of time is because they weren’t that great.  I have a hard time believing that.  Yes, they may not have been Shakespeare, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have books that if they came out today would be considered one of the top 50 books of the year.  It’s also not just about whether things from the past are as “good” as things in the present, it’s about understanding how things have evolved.

For instance, one silent film which was considered a shocker at the time it came out was the original “The Great Train Robbery.”  If you watch it today, well, probably the recent “Taking Of Pelham One Two Three” is more suspenseful to our modern sensibilities.  However, the key to appreciating “The Great Train Robbery” is understanding why it was a shocker.  It wasn’t about the plot.  It was about a shot that they showed at the very beginning, and then the exact same shot shown at the very end.  It’s completely unremarkable to you and me.  It’s just a guy looking at us (ie.the camera) and shooting his gun.  The thing is that up until that point, they’d never had a person look right at the camera before, so when he shot that gun, the audience was literally instinctively afraid that he was shooting at them.  They ducked to the side.  In a sense, it was to them what the first 3-D films were to our times.  That’s incredible.

Similarly, while doing a bit of research on McGuire, naturally a lot of things came up about his contemporary dribbling maestro, Bob Cousy.  There’s an anecdote on him that reminds me of Michael Jordan’s famous improvised shot against the Lakers.  The one where he went up in the air for a right-handed lay-in, then seeing Sam Perkins preparing to block it, mid-air MJ switched the ball to his left hand and flipped it in.  Here’s the description of Cousy in a 1949 college game from an old Sports Illustrated article:

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