Renaldo is the new Darko
Published by The Cavalier June 30th, 2006 in New York Knicks, Isiah Thomas, Rookies, NBA Draft
Well, Renaldo and the other botched draft pick were introduced to the NY media yesterday, and in typical Renaldo fashion, nobody knew who he was.
Isiah Thomas, on the other hand, is the man everyone knows, and swears that if you ask the coach of Florida, Renaldo was a great pick. (We know what he meant, but we like to take that as he thinks the state of Florida has a coach.)
Zeke also made it clear that there are actually a few things he’s rock solid sure on.
“I’m not here waiting for Santa Claus to come save us,” Thomas said Thursday. “I was told early on we didn’t have any money and there was no Santa Claus. And I’m not looking for this great player to come save the day for us.
“The guys that we have, we’ll make them better and we have a job to do. Nobody’s coming to save us.”
Again Mr. Thomas, you’ve been rich for far too long to keep falling back on that “I grew up poor” thing. We grew up upper middle class - you don’t see us using it as an excuse for everything we do wrong.
Zeke aside for a moment. Know this - whether he averages 1.2 or 2.7 points in the course of his 1.5 year pro career, Renaldo will go down in the annals of NBA history.
This whole thing wouldn’t have worked if Zeke’d picked “Jim Smith”, y’know. The name “Renaldo” will forever be linked to the “inexplicably awful draft pick”, and somehow, somewhere deep inside, Isiah Thomas knew it.
Renaldo’s place in the books is secure - in 2076, when some futuristic GM picks some horrible guard from the University of Mars at Sarasota, the announcers will surely say, “Zarkblat! That’s a “Renaldo” if I’ve ever seen one! Somebody better turn the gravity back on, cause it’s getting crazy in this domed city that protects us from the laser ships of the Southern Moon People!”
Zarblapt would have been a better choice, or better yet moon people than Renaldo…
that said, he did score like 100 goals for brasil in the world cup
I hope he does alright. I am starting to really feel for the guy.
by the way, when did Santa become a superhero and start saving lives and shit? I always thought he just brought presents.
So now, not only has he ruined the Knicks, he’s ruined Santa Claus for sports obsessed kids who read quotes in the newspaper. I’m a father to one of these kids. Thanks Zeke.
I honestly believe that Isiah could not win in this draft. Not only was everyone already ready to shit on him because of the lost Curry pick (and deservedly frigging so) who was he supposed to pick at 20? Marcus Williams? Then every columnist would quickly spend the next six weeks deriding the pick for increasing the glut of guards and Peter Vecsey would say Isiah added yet another offensive minded player with a history of character issues rather than a hardnosed defender. I thought the NBA writers these days were nominating defense-only, offense-zero players like Bowen and Wallace for sainthood? Someone grabs one of those guys and suddenly they’re the poster child for draft screw ups before they’ve even played a game! I hate Isiah but I would love to see Jay Bilas eat his words and eat them hard over this.
I hate Jay Bilas. Kudos to you Panorama. I could not agree with you more. And if Bargnani or anyone at the top of the board does not turn into a better player than Eddy Curry, what will all the critics be saying then? That said, I’m telling you Isiah is a good motivator. He was not a bad coach in Indiana. He had the same problem Rick Carlisle had for the past couple of years. And that was Ron Artest being Ron Artest. You live and die with the guy and he killed both the Carlisle and Thomas run squads. Lastly, the Knicks salary cap and squad were FUBAR way before Thomas came in to take the job. I recall Isiah coming in and saying that he would rather let all of the contracts expire and rebuild, but that his bosses said that was not possible in New York, so he did the impossible and tried to rebuild on the fly. That is why he is in the mess he is in now. Basically the problem here is Dolan. He throws these impossible expectations down, and then wonders why the Knicks suck. Any logical person (including Isiah) would have known that the best route for the Knicks would have been to rebuild. But with Dolan that was impossible.
In regard to the media being hypocrites: That’s nothing new. These guys hop on whatever the flavor of the week is. They are there to sell papers. And in New York, bashing players and putting out tabloid like articles sales more than anything.
No, Isiah has not been the perfect GM by any means, but considering the situation and the owner, I can honestly say that even Jerry West couldn’t have fixed the Knicks. Maybe they wouldn’t be as fucked up as they are now, but they definitely would have still been bad. The only way to fix this team is to scrap everything, and trade for expiring contracts and build through the draft. The only players worth keeping on that team are the players under rookie contracts. The rest need to go.
holy. shit. those jerseys are hilarious. you rock the yay
“Any logical person (including Isiah)”
Isn’t that like… an oxymoron?
So I went and saw Superman Returns instead of doing more posts. Thoughts?
btw the problem with the Renaldo pick is that he was projected at best to be a late second rounder, and some said he may not get drafted at all.
He’s a nice pick to take a chance on, but not at #20.
Jones I hear you on Dolan, but do you really think Jerry West would’ve bent to the guy’s will? I tend to think he would’ve quit or said “Look, idiot-face. I know what I’m doing. Leave me alone or I walk.”
Did superman act all gay? And did they show the trailer for spiderman 3? Then everybody would be all “fuck yea” and just leave and wait for may of 07 to come around
Nah Superman was fine, but the script has huge problems.
Spider-Man 3 looks (SWEAR WORDS) awesome.
I think you totally misinterpreted what Isiah said when he got hired about getting under the cap and rebuilding. I’m actually surprised people don’t quote it more often - he said that every single GM he talked to told him that he needed to strip the team and rebuild but that since he clearly knows better than naysayers like Jerry West his super mega plan could fix the knicks NOW with a few simple trades. That’s the reason Dolan hired him - he was the only guy telling him that he didn’t need to sit through three or four years of painful rebuilding he could have his cake and eat it too. It’s also why he’s such a horrendous asshole for constantly talking about “rebuilding” and multi-year plans after his whole purpose in joining the Knicks was to avoid it.
As for coaching, at this point its the only way to make the season fun. The Knicks are ruined for the next four to infinity billion seasons, we might as well go down spectacularly with the man responsible at the helm. Would we really prefer Billy Donovan or some sad sap in charge of the same crappy set of players?
The funny thing is when he says getting Steve Francis is part of the rebuilding, which he did after that trade.
Dan: If that guy said that he could rebuild the knicks on the fly like that he is an idiot, and he is getting exactly what he deserves. But I just remember him coming in and saying that Dolan said he did not want to strip everything down, and that is the reason he didn’t let all of the contracts expire. But you’re probably right, Dan. Either way the Knicks are a mess. I just think that anyone hired under Dolan is not going be looked at as a very good GM.
The History of Isiah with the Knicks:
http://www.allsports.com/cgi-bin/morestories.cgi?category=nba/knicks
I’m glad Dallas is around and winning though, so there’s still the chance that some other poor team will be tempted to go the “let’s trade all our expiring contracts for former all stars who’ll play 3rd string small forward!” route. I’m thinking Minnesota or Philly.
Renaldo will do and is doing just fine. I have faith in him.. Michael Jordan didnt start out as pro.. but he sure made a name 4 himself as he got better over time.. Be careful not to speak so badly of others too soon .. youll end up eating your words. Renaldo is a hard player and doesnt need to prove himself to anyone.. he does it for the love of the game and plays harder than anyone else..he’s strong minded, determined..and worked his butt of to get to where he is now… Itll pay off. Just wait and see b4 u speak to soon. Go Renaldo…!