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A series of unfortunate transactions

Steve Kerr

STEVE KERR'S THREE POINTS

1. PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Mike Bibby. With Chris Webber gone and Peja Stojakovic still struggling, the Sacramento Kings have become Bibby's team. Since the Webber trade, Bibby has responded with totals of 26, 19 and 38 points as Sacramento has won two of three games. He has taken over the dubious distinction of "Best player to have never appeared in an All-Star game."

2. GAME OF THE WEEK
Thursday: Detroit Pistons vs. Phoenix Suns. This matchup is proof that there are different ways to build a good basketball team. Can two teams be any more different? This is like Ruben Studdard taking on Kelly Clarkson in "American Idol." The Pistons will try to slow it down, but Steve Nash is scheduled to return for the Suns. Whoever controls the tempo will win the game.

3. STAT OF THE WEEK
Kyle Korver wins this week's Damon Jones Award for Most Likely to Shoot a Three-Pointer. Of Korver's 214 baskets, 156 have come from behind the arc. Despite his love for the long-range shot, Korver has become a more well-rounded player in his second season. His defense is much better than he's given credit for, and he's shown the ability to put the ball on the floor and create a play occasionally. No wonder Billy King wouldn't give him up in the Webber trade.

The New York Knicks' ongoing mediocrity can be traced to one move: the trade of Patrick Ewing before the 2000 season.

For 15 years, Ewing had been the anchor of a successful franchise, and despite never winning a championship, the Knicks had been very good through most of the 1990s. New York routinely made the playoffs and advanced at least to the conference semifinals nine straight seasons. The Knicks made the finals twice, losing to Houston in 1995 and San Antonio in '99.

Fans flocked to the Garden and cheered on a tough, defensive-minded team that was led by Ewing, Charles Oakley and John Starks. The familiar refrain of the song "Go New York, Go New York, Go!" echoed through the Garden as celebrities lined up courtside next to Spike Lee to cheer on the Knicks.

But with Ewing in decline and in the last year of his contract in 2000, Knicks general manager Dave Checketts was faced with a choice – trade his aging All-Star for a package of other players, or let Ewing's contract run out and begin the process of clearing salary cap space and rebuilding. Checketts chose the former, trading Ewing for three players with large, long-term deals: Glen Rice, Luc Longley and Travis Knight.

The theory in New York was – and still is – that you can't rebuild from scratch. With ticket prices higher than anywhere in the NBA, and an impatient New York audience demanding a winner, Knicks management has subscribed to the theory that you must reload, not rebuild. Thus the Ewing deal.

Unfortunately for the Knicks, the trade not only didn't pan out – Longley, Rice and Knight never made an impact in New York – but it led to a series of other trades that further hamstrung the Knicks' salary-cap flexibility.

Even after Checketts left and Scott Layden took over, the Knicks' "reload" philosophy remained, and one bad move was followed by another. Before you knew it, the Knicks were in a pattern of recycling bad contracts.

Like a dysfunctional family tree, Ewing's deal spawned the acquisitions of Howard Eisley, Shandon Anderson, Penny Hardaway and Stephon Marbury. Knicks management maintained a similar pattern when dealing with other players. Marcus Camby became Antonio McDyess. Latrell Sprewell became Keith Van Horn. Van Horn became Tim Thomas. One bad contract after another was loaded onto the Knicks' payroll, and yet the Knicks' roster was devoid of any real stars around whom to build a consistent winner.

Isiah Thomas, upon taking over the team last season, has continued the tradition. He made the blockbuster Marbury deal, which to this point hasn't panned out. He signed Vin Baker and Jamal Crawford to big deals. Last week, he added two more huge contracts belonging to Malik Rose and Maurice Taylor, meaning the Knicks will have a payroll of more than $110 million next season. And all they have to show for it is a last-place standing in the Atlantic Division – the worst division the NBA has seen in a long time.

At some point, the Knicks are going to have to go through the process they should have gone through five years ago – paring down their salary cap, letting contracts expire and creating financial flexibility. They'll have to take some lumps along the way, but it's the only way to get themselves into a decent position to move forward.

Salary-cap flexibility would get the Knicks into the free-agent market, where they have a huge advantage. Most players would love to play in New York City. A couple of down years for the team would also lead to high draft picks, which is the best way to acquire future stars.

The problem is that with each long-term contract the Knicks acquire, they fall further and further down the NBA's salary abyss – and further away from being able to create cap flexibility.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you really can't rebuild in New York. Maybe Knicks fans wouldn't stand for the difficult process. But I know one thing.

They surely can't be enjoying the process that's been going on the past five years since the Ewing trade.