Let's fix the Knicks

Most NBA teams have a bad contract or two, a Brian Cardinal or a Kenny Thomas, someone who gets $6 or $7 million per season to sit at the end of the bench.

Well, there are most NBA teams, and then there are the New York Knicks.

Once a proud playoff team, the cheese slid off the cracker for Knicks' management somewhere in the past decade, as horrific contracts began being distributed like contraceptives (definitely blocking any chance for division titles.) Madison Square Garden became a boneyard where the Malik Roses and Stephon Marburys of the NBA could go to quietly die, the Knicks transforming into a traveling circus of financial insanity. They have the kind of payroll that would make MC Hammer look like Warren Buffett.

I did the math for seven of their worst contracts, and here's what I found:

$73.7 million.

No, that's not the gross GDP of Estonia. That's how much this season the Knicks collectively pay Eddy Curry, Jerome James, Jared Jeffries, Quentin Richardson, Zach Randolph, Rose and Marbury. Granted, Randolph is a prototypical power forward with major talent (along with an equally major attitude), and Richardson's statistics look far improved over last season, after just a few games. Otherwise, though, this bunch is about as formidable as a bunch of mothballed battleships.

Here's the salary breakdown for this Un-Magnificent Seven:

Curry, $9.7 million
James, $6.2 million
Jeffries, $6 million
Rose, $7.6 million
Richardson, $8.7 million
Randolph, $14.7 million
And the big winner, Marbury, currently inactive on New York's roster at a staggering $20.8 million plus change. At least that contract expires after this season.

Looking over the list, it's a veritable rogue's gallery. Of the talented players, big man Curry came from the Chicago Bulls with a known heart problem, Marbury had a long history of destroying teams with me-first point guard play, and Randolph was a pariah even on his previous squad of juvenile delinquents, the Portland Trail Blazers. Of the three, only Randolph is currently playing. Then there are the head scratcher deals, Jeffries, James, Rose. What those guys ever did to merit a collective $20 million is absolutely beyond me.

Now I realize this may all seem like beating a dead horse. The Knicks have sucked for the better part of a decade now, it seems. But I remember a different time for New York, back when I was growing up, when the Knicks were feared. I remember Pat Riley standing courtside in all his slicked-hair glory, Anthony Mason and John Starks inspiring my disdain every time they played the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals. My dad liked the Knicks, just as he liked the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s, but I was a Michael Jordan fan. And the Knicks were thugs.

At some point, the Knicks became an embarrassment. Still, it's never too late to turn things around. And there actually is some promise. Next to all those overpaid veterans sits an impressive mix of discount-priced young talent, comprised of guys like David Lee, Nate Robinson and Wilson Chandler. Cut the veterans loose, get a star or two in there (Dwyane Wade? Chris Bosh? LeBron James?) and New York could once more be a playoff squad. The Knicks were great fifteen years ago when they had Patrick Ewing, a bunch of spare parts and attitude.

It's never too late to get some semblance of that back.