When it comes to the Knicks, I have always been the irrevocable optimist. I put a positive spin on every transaction no matter how senseless it might have been in reality, I remind myself of the on-court chemistry in a positive two minute stretch of a blowout loss, and I find possible reasons why the team might be better in the future. At this point at the end of this frustrating season I find myself all out of positive spin. Save for a few late season Jamal Crawford buzzer beaters, this Knicks team looked like it would have set the franchise mark in futility, but unlike the dark years of the mid-80s, there isn?t a twenty year old Patrick Ewing waiting in the wings.
       
The Knicks? rebuilding process has taken a giant step backwards this season. If I had glimpsed into the future this past summer and seen the team?s record at 23-59, I would have been shocked. Hell, after the six-game win streak in January that had all of New York thinking first-round upset, I didn?t think it was fathomable that the team would plunge so deeply thereafter.
       
It?s a little pathetic that I am longing for the good old days of January 2006, where Stephon Marbury was ?Starbury,? Eddy Curry was ?Baby Shaq,? Jamal Crawford was a Sixth Man of the Year Candidate, and Channing Frye, Nate Robinson, and David Lee made Isiah Thomas look like the Billy Beane of the NBA draft. I find myself asking why that six game stretch was so different from the rest of the season? I have to believe it?s that Larry Brown was finally playing a set rotation, and it was the right players!  Here lies the real shame of this wasted season, that I genuinely think it could have been avoided. I can tolerate the losing; after all this was the fifth straight year with a losing record, but I cannot stand the obvious detrimental coaching decisions that ?legendary? coach Larry Brown has made since day one.
       
This past off-season I believed Larry Brown was the best thing that could have happened to a young talented Knick team that just needed to find an identity. Instead Larry Brown has given this team Multiple Personality Disorder with the games he has been playing all season. He initially stated that the first twenty games would be a test run of lineup experimentations and unusual rotations. While it pained me to watch players like Matt Barnes and Malik Rose take time away from others younger, athletic, and talented rode the bench, I reasoned that Brown would eventually settle on a lineup and make a push for the playoffs. A record setting forty-two starting lineups later, I am amazed at how poor of a coaching job Brown has done. He has started players in their hometowns like a middle-school ?B? team, benched players who showed heart and energy in favor of overpaid veterans, and embarrassed himself with his constant whining to the media. At this point Brown has me questioning his ?thirty year career? which he so proudly decided to compare to Stephon Marbury?s, igniting an embarrassing media feud.
       
I don?t want to come across as another fan/writer who thinks he knows so much more than the coach, but is it really even questionable whether Channing Frye should have been playing over Mo Taylor all season?  That David Lee should have been playing over Malik Rose? That Jerome James never should have taken off his warm-ups this year? Several times this season Brown has claimed that he would finally settle on a rotation, or that he would start playing the younger players more minutes, but then the next game eleven out of twelve players will see playing time before the end of the first quarter.
     
I distinctly remember ESPN analyst Greg Anthony describing Isiah?s signing of  Larry Brown being good for ten more wins. This season he has single-handedly LOST over ten games; one example being the third game of the season. After the Knicks started 0-2, they found themselves down double digits to the Golden State Warriors at home when Brown inserted the ?youngins? into the game; Trevor Ariza, Channing Frye, David Lee, Jamal Crawford, and Nate Robinson. This energetic and passionate squad erased the deficit and had Madison Square Garden rocking. After a time out late in the fourth quarter, Brown pulled the team and reinserted among others, Antonio Davis and Malik Rose, as the Knicks squandered the lead and lost 83-81. After the game Brown said ''It's going to take some time. We're trying to figure out who can play and who can help us.'' One would have hoped that game provided some serious evidence.
       
I understand the reluctance of an experienced coach to bench his veterans in favor of rookies, but as the season bore on and the Knicks? playoff chances diminished, wouldn?t it have been beneficial to their development had they been playing more? Channing Frye surprised everyone in the league with his play the first few months of the season, but his play since then has ushered in references to the ?rookie wall.? Frye didn?t hit any wall other than Larry Brown, who relegated the star rookie to less than twenty minutes a game. David Lee went from a starter during the celebrated win streak to the inactive list for no apparent reason. Wasn?t he a ?Larry Brown guy? who hustled for rebounds and played tough defense? The same could be said for Nate Robinson, and Trevor Ariza, who Brown pushed out the door, getting rid of one of the only true role-players on the roster.
     
If I sound confused when describing some of the general trends of the season, it is because there seems to be no common sense or logic behind them. Brown?s constant altering of the rotation, his random assignments to the inactive list, barrage of insults towards his players in the media, and preaches for specific players to be brought in have destroyed all morale in the locker room. I almost feel proud of the Knicks players when  they show emotion on the court, or when the camera flashes to the bench players (whoever they might be that game) pumping their fists after one of their teammates makes a good play. Lucky for the players, and thank god for the fans, this season is over and most likely many of them will be shipped out, away from Brown?s mind games.
       
Perhaps next year Brown will have players he can actually work with. Perhaps he will come out of training camp with a rotation of seven or eight that he will stick with for a season. Perhaps I just found a little more of that optimistic spin.