I say all of these things because today, more so than any other day before it, there seems to be some significant stress in the air surrounding almost all of the New York City-area sports teams.

Seriously, let’s think about this, one team at a time.

Starting with the team this site is dedicated to following, the New York Knicks. Simply put, this time frame is the calm before the storm kicks back up. There are so many other sports distractions taking the spotlight off the Knicks after a very hectic summer. Even with the impressive performance by Carmelo Anthony at the 2012 London Olympics, including an Olympic-record 37-point performance, this team still feels like multiple tomato juice baths away from coming close to washing off the Jeremy Lin stench left by his free agent exodus.

The amount of questions this team has to answer heading into the season are alarming. Concerns of this team wanting to improve the locker room morale by adding well-established veterans well past their primes aren’t going to vanish overnight. While there are those who think Jeremy Lin won’t live up to the massive expectations he now has in Houston, I think there are fewer that truly believe he’ll be any worse than the combination of Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd. Not to mention, we still have to see if J.R. Smith can step up and be a good fit at the two-guard, if Carmelo Anthony can build off the Olympics, if Tyson Chandler can be the anchor for another season, if Amar’e Stoudemire has anything at all left in the tank. The questions go on and on and on. And they’re concerning.

Then we turn to the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets. True Knicks fans aren’t at all concerned about them jumping the river and finding a comfortable spot in the city. However, their addition to the new market has to at least concern a few along the edges of the organization. Everybody loves the new and the exciting, and at least for one season, that’s going to be the Nets. By them simply existing in New York and not New Jersey adds an extra level of stress to the traditional area fan’s life, because now they’ll have to deal with Mike Francesca or Stephen A. Smith or someone else clamoring for fans to jump from one wagon to another.

Turn your attention for a second to baseball. Usually, this is a tale of the haves (Yankees) and the have-nots (Mets). However, in 2012, this is a story of the failing (Yankees, again) and the failed (Mets, shocker). The Yankees are currently deep in the heart of a late-season collapse that absolutely nobody that follows baseball closely could have predicted as recently as the All-Star break. Once upon a time, the Yankees had a 10-game lead in the East and seemed to be cruising to the best record in the American League. Slowly, the Yankees started to drop games left and right, while the Baltimore Orioles (yes, those Balitmore Orioles) and the Tampa Bay Rays, who almost predictably start their playoff runs in early August, charged to the top.

Now? Not only do the Yankees find themselves in a dead heat with the O’s, the Rays are only two back in the loss column, knocking on the door to the final Wild Card spot the Yankees currently hold. Even though most of the Yankee fans I know are still in the semi-denial “Oh, we’re just a little rusty, this is no big deal” phase of the fall, this has the potential to get really frightening and borderline embarrassing.

And then there are my beloved Mets. Outside of R.A. Dickey’s continued dominance (won #18 today, first pitcher in baseball to reach that peak) and his chance at a National League Cy Young, there aren’t many reasons for a non-die hard to be watching anymore. I mean, I’ll still watch with blind optimism. But, that’s what happens when you’re in love. You play tricks with your mind and convince yourself one thing is something completely different from what it really is. Maybe next year…

Flip the switch to the NFL, which as we stated is about to kick-off (pun intended) tonight in New York. The defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants will start things off against their NFC East rivals, the Dallas Cowboys. Now, to my deep sports knowledge, I believe this is the least talked about defending Super Bowl champion within the last decade. There is seemingly no pressure what so ever on this team entering this season, partly because this team overachieved last year and partly because there are much bigger story lines throughout the NFL (Peyton Manning’s return, anything Saints related, the ridiculous number of rookies starting at quarterback).

Actually, as far as the mindset of New York sports fans go, Giants fans have to feel the best out of any other fan base. I mean, what do they have to lose? They’ve enjoyed two Lombardi trophies in the last five years. Literally anything else is just a bonus right now. They’re all just strutting around the city with that smug look on their face like they just won the lottery…again. I hate it. But, I digress.

Speaking of bigger story linse in the NFL, there’s the mess that also plays in MetLife Stadium. Want to know why nobody talked about the Giants this off-season? Its because the Jets made all the headlines, none of them seemingly for the right reasons. There’s the fact that people talk more about the Jets new back-up quarterback, Tim Tebow, than their returning two-time AFC Championship Game starter, Mark Sanchez. Or the fact that the first team offense literally didn’t score one touchdown in the preseason. Or the growing tension between the Jets media-happy head coach and media-shy general manager. Or the fact that the Jets might just not be that good this year. Either way, Gang Green is one giant mess. The only good news for Jets fans is that more often than not, Jets fans are also Mets fans. Which means they’ve already been disappointed once this season. Which means they’re better prepared for this upcoming disappointment.

I think.

Oh, and we haven’t even talked about arguably the best team that currently calls New York City home. No, not the Islanders. Its the New York Rangers, who are flying high off their huge off-season trade that landed them Rick Nash to partner up with Brad Richards, Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist.

Only problem is, this team may never see the ice of Madison Square Garden this year. The NHL is flirting with yet another lockout that could eliminate the 2012-13 season. Meaning, the best team in all of New York may not even play a competitive game this year.

Wow. How did such a huge sports-hungry city like New York get to this point? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Is this mostly just an over-exaggeration of a bunch of small problems manifesting into one giant headache? Could everything turn around for the positive in the span of one week?

Reality is, none of us will know until it happens. But, the swagger New York once had not even two months ago seems to be fading away faster than someone can say “quarterback controversy”.

Woodson then clarified his statements to say, again, he would love to be the Knicks coach after this season, but nothing is set in stone. Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire both reiterated their desire for the Knicks to keep Woodson as the coach, which is the strongest support any future coach will ever need in New York.

There is growing support throughout New York and amongst Knicks fans that the team should move quickly to re-sign Woodson and keep him as the coach on a permanent basis moving forward. The numbers speak for themselves when you consider what Woodson inherited after Mike D’Antoni resigned. The Knicks went 18-6 under the former Atlanta Hawks coach, and locked up the 7th-seed in the Eastern Conference after living on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. Furthermore, the defense played a much stronger defense once Woodson took the reigns, and Carmelo Anthony thrived once out of the Seven Seconds of Less offense. Top to bottom, the Knicks were a tremendously better team under Woodson than D’Antoni, and nobody is going to argue that.

Keeping all of that in mind, allow me to introduce to readers of Buckets Over Broadway what I like to call “The Jerry Manuel Theory”.

If you read this site regularly, by now I’m sure you have discovered my first true love in the sporting world resides in Queens with the New York Mets. My love for them runs about as deep as the love I have for my own family, because a lot of my memories growing up as a kid and with my dad come from the times we spent at Shea Stadium. Back in 2008, the Mets fired then-manager Willie Randolph, who was about eight months removed from the devastating 2007 collapse that saw the Mets lose out on a playoff spot and a second consecutive National League East crown on the final day of the season (ugh). To this day, its still one of the strangest firings in sports history. The Mets finished a twi-night double header against the Texas Rangers at Shea (my buddy Dan and I sat through both games, nearly falling asleep in the second from baseball overload), and the team immediately boarded a flight to Los Angeles for an inter-league series with the Angels. When the team landed at 3am eastern time, Omar Minaya landed in LA and announced that Randolph, who traveled with the team, would no longer manage the Mets.

WARNING: The Jerry Manuel Theory applies here.

At the time of the manager move, the Mets were 33-34, Carlos Delgado was playing terrible baseball, nobody was pitching and it seemed that the team was headed nowhere and fast. Minaya promoted bench coach Jerry Manuel. Manuel was a former American League Manager of the Year with the Chicago White Sox, and was a well respected baseball mind who many said kept a loose clubhouse, in stark contrast from Wille Randolph’s business-like mentality. From that time, I remember turning to my dad and saying that the Mets needed to play .600 baseball in order to win 90 games and get to the playoffs.

Once Willie left, something just happened to the Mets. Delgado exploded, with many pointing towards the apparent rift he had with Randolph that was holding him back. The Mets played incredible baseball in the second half of the season, which featured a 10-game winning streak and coming, again, within one game of a playoff appearence. After the season, the team removed the interim tag from his title and signed him to a two-year contract.

The similarities between Woodson/D’Antoni and Manuel/Randolph to me don’t just stop there. Both coaches had polar opposite mind-sets, and both Woodson and Manuel were generally liked among the fanbases, so much so that fans put aside their inherent desire for proven, championship-caliber managers/coaches like Bobby Valentine or Phil Jackson. Each fan base would talk about the names, say its nice to imagine, but acknowledged that the way the interim’s did, they deserved another chance.

Needless to say, the next two years for Manuel were nothing like his first 2/3 of a season. 2009 wasn’t completely Manuel’s fault, considering how many injuries the Mets suffered. But, 2010 was such a brutal mismanagement by both Manuel and Omar Minaya that it can’t be understated how poorly they planned the Mets for the future.

To me, the reason why Mets fans rallied behind Jerry Manuel in 2008 was because he wasn’t Willie Randolph. He was our rebound manager. Anybody could’ve been better than Willie because Willie was awful. We needed to break up with him, and we, as a fan base, were ready to shack up with anyone and everyone. In fact, the Mets probably could’ve put any manager in Manuel’s 2008 shoes and they would’ve done better. Once the honeymoon ended in 2009, Mets fans looked at each other and now didn’t know how to get out of a mistake relationship. Like any rebound after a series girlfriend that you had remarkable highs and devastating lows with (Randolph), the first girlfriend after should never be your next long-term option.

That’s the reason I’m skeptical about Mike Woodson staying with the Knicks beyond this season. Personally, I thought the Knicks missed their real opportunity last off-season when Rick Adelman was available. Now, Adelman is entrenched in Minnesota and not going anywhere with that young nucleus. If at the end of the season and Knicks management sits back, evaluates all of their options and comes to terms that Woodson is the best coach moving forward, then no Knicks fan will complain. He’s earned our respect.

But, Knicks fans need to be cautious. The last thing I would want as a fan is to see the Manuel Theory in play once again. I’m not emotionally prepared for that.

Even ref Joey Crawford is pointing for LeBron to leave Cleveland (Source: Yardbarker.com)

New York Magazine has a funny, phenomenal, and pretty darn convincing, pitch for LeBron to come to New York. Here are some of the highlights:

1. If You Want to Make That First Billion Before You Turn 30, This Is the Place to Do It

Features a great picture of the Chrysler Building, and if you look closely, there’s a basketball hoop on top with James dunking it.

3. Allow Us to Introduce You to Chris Bosh

Before the 2009 All-Star Game, you told a reporter, “I would definitely love to play with Chris Bosh. Being around him last summer [in the Olympics], I got to see how smart he is. His basketball IQ is unbelievable.” We completely agree with your assessment, and, as you two may have discussed, Bosh also happens to be a free agent this summer. Are you thinking what we’re thinking?

The Toronto Raptors’ big man is perfect for you. David Thorpe, the private coach to some of the NBA’s best players and one of the game’s greatest minds, told us the first thing you would need to succeed here is a lithe, shot-blocking, rebounding big man who can make the outlet pass and push the offense into motion. Bosh is nearly seven feet tall, runs like a deer, and is one of the five best rebounders in the game. Thorpe says the combination of you two would be devastating—two fast, powerful players in their primes. Realistically, New York is the one place where you two can play together without leaving money on the table. You’ve never played with someone of Bosh’s caliber before, and you probably won’t get another chance.

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