Knicks reveal new uniforms

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Rubens Borges

With the start of New York’s Fashion Week, the New York Knicks unveiled their new uniforms officially. Since it leaked earlier, it was a chance to see details.

Front

The lack of black is obvious. Finally, the Knicks lost the late ’90s “let’s add black to look cool” look. It really brings us back to the days of John Starks, Anthony Mason, Charles Oakley, Clyde Frazier and Earl Monroe.

The trim stops at the lettering. I still find it weird, but it is supposed to accentuate NEW YORK in the chest.

The number is elongated. The collar is round, not in a V shape anymore.

Back

The blue is not as light as I was led to believe, which is a great thing. No trim on the sides is a great addition by subtraction. The blue waistband in the home uniforms seem a bit much, but it borrows from the first ic uniform, back in 1946.

Once a Knick, always a Knick

A nice detail inside de collar reminding players that “once a Knick, always a Knick”.

Overall, a much improved look for the New York Knicks.

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NEW YORK KNICKS: new uniform details

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Rubens Borges

As you may or may not know, the New York Knicks will unveil new uniforms on September 6th. But, as things go on the internet, some details have already leaked. First, some NBA 2K13 footage showed a “back to the ‘90s” feel to the new getups.

Above, we can see that the Knicks ditched the black and removes the lateral stripes, going back to a more traditional look, reminiscing of the good ol’ Bernard King days.


Some sources told me that the new blue will look a lot like the one above. This blue is all over the New York’s website, by the way.

Besides, the Knicks removed the “subway token” NYK logo from the back of the jersey, going back to a alternate logo that looks a lot like the 1968 one.

Knicks also remove the triangle that was on the back of the logo. Now, the logo looks a lot like the ‘90s logo, sans black.

Finally, on the t-shirts available on the team’s store, we can see that the NEW YORK is smaller and less arched than before.

PROS: clean look. Although I like the “token” alternate logo, the new one looks closer to the franchise’s rich history. NO BLACK!

CONS: blue is a little bit too light. NEW YORK looked better bigger and arched. Shoulder piping stops under arms.

All in all the Knicks will look better. A return to the glorious days of the franchise, at least in the uniforms.

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Worked hard for his money

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Rubens Borges

With his last NBA contract, Kevin Garnett just passed Shaquille O’Neal as the highest earning NBA player. With his 3 year, US$ 34 million contract, KG will have earned US$ 328,562,398 in his career.

Shaq earned US$ 292,198,327 in his 18 years as an NBA player.

Kobe Bryant is right behind, with US$ 279,738,062. Followed by Tim Duncan’s US$ 224,709,155, Dirk Nowitzki with US$ 204,063,985, highly overpaid Joe Johnson US$ 198,647,490, New New York Knicks Point Guard, Jason Kidd US$ 193,855,468, Ray Allen’s US$ 181,127,360, Chris Webber US$ 178,230,218 and Paul Pierce US$ 169,486,218.

Since he made most of his NBA money after his first retirement, Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of all time, made US$ 90,235,000 in his career.

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NBA 2K13 featuring the Dream Team

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Rubens Borges

The folks at 2K Sports promised and deliver. Since last night, Ronnie2K was talking about a big announcement regarding NBA 2K13. And it is big. Gamers will be able to play with the Dream Team and the 2012 USA Olympic team.

DREAM TEAM!

And with Charles Barkley!

Unfortunately, Scottie Pippen will not be in it. Like Barkley in previous games, 2K Sports could not reach a deal with Pippen.

But, Barkley will. And, with Chuck, we hope the 1993 Phoenix Suns show up.

Last time we saw Chuck playing 5 on 5 basketball in videogames, it looked like this:

NBA 2K13 releases on October 2nd in the United States and October 5th in the rest of the world.

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Ray Allen and the mystery off the different sneakers

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Rubens Borges

For a while, a picture of Ray Allen, still with the Boston Celtics at the time, has been baffling the internet sneakerheads and basketball fans.

The picture shows Allen wearing the “Bin 23” Air Jordan IX in his left foot and the “Championship” PE Air Jordan XI in his right.


Many theories were made: was he trying to add up to his number 20?  Was he hurt and one foot felt better than the other?

Well, NiceKicks had a great interview with Allen. And, it turns out, it’s much simpler than that.

Oh, I remember that. I did that because I was trying to decide which shoe I was going to wear for that game, but I ended up wearing that 13. It was ironic because I had a 9 and an 11 on my feet, which add up to my jersey number 20. The sneakerheads said I was doing that to try and add up to 20, but I was really trying to decide which one would be more comfortable.

Now go read the rest of the interview. It’s pretty great.

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Olympics records bonanza

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Rubens Borges

USA’s performance against Nigeria was amazing. So amazing that, even a couple of days late, let’s check all those Olympic records out:

Olympic record: 29 of 46 3 pointers
Olympic record: 59 field goals
Olympic record: 71.1%FG
Olympic record 156 points

Also, Carmelo Anthony beat USA Basketball’s record with 37 points. Is Melo the best USA Basketball player?

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Stop the NBA from putting sponsors on jerseys

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Rubens Borges

Recently, the NBA pre-approved sponsors on uniforms. It will be put to a vote on September, but most of the owners seem to be in favor of it. Surprising that the owners that locked the League out because they wanted “guaranteed profit” would want to do that.

As fans of the game, we have a few ways to get our disapproval out there:

We can tweet the NBA at @NBA, maybe using the hashtag #NoUniAds stating our disapproval.I’ve done that a lot, saying I don’t plan to buy any NBA product if they approve this idea.

Or, we can e-mail Adam Silver, the deputy commissioner and man in charge of this, at asilver@nba.com.

Below, is the e-mail I sent. feel free to use it as inspiration. But, please, keep it classy.

To Mr. Adam Silver and NBA executives,

I am a long time [insert team name] fan. As I live in Brazil, I did everything I could to follow the NBA before the days of cable and, specially, the internet. I asked relatives and friends that went to America to bring me NBA products – jerseys, t-shirts, anything really – before we could buy them online. To sum it up, I worked hard to keep up with the NBA.

Now, I read that the League is seriously considering putting advertisement on the jerseys. As a fan, I’m subjected to a lot of advertisements. On TV and on the many games I attended. The uniform, specially on the American Leagues – is the last ad free zone.

One of the notions is that “the players are the product we come to watch”. But, you foget that, no matter who is wearing that jersey, we still root for the teams. When Shaquille O’Neal left Orlando for Los Angeles, people didn’t follow him. Magic fans remained Magic fans. We, as fans, LIKE the players, but LOVE the teams.

Putting sponsors on jerseys will, also, dilute the team brand. People WILL see the brand first, even if it is a small patch, and the team second. Soccer is proof of that.

Furthermore, I think more people than expected will stop buying NBA merchandize, I will be one of those. As an example: a few years ago, a Brazilian team went sans sponsor – former sponsorship contract ran out, it took a little while to negotiate a new one. So, to not lose any shirts sales, they started selling them without the sponsor. The sponsorless shirts were always sold out. This remains true for any team that sells sponsorless shirts.

So, I hope that reaches your screen and you take into account the myriad of fans who despises the idea of sponsors in the jerseys we love.

Sincerely,

Rubens Borges.

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The obligatory Jeremy Lin post

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Rubens Borges

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the New York Knicks and Jeremy Lin. Specially after the Knicks let Lin walk, becoming a Houston Rocket. But, was it right or wrong for the Knicks to let him go? Most press members piled up on the Knicks. But, what if it was a good idea?

Now, I’m not saying I’m 100% right about any of this. We’ll know in the coming years. Still, I can’t help but feel a certain way.

Lin only had 25 games to prove what he could do. I don’t care about your projections; 25 games is not enough. How many times we saw a young players cause havoc on the League and vanish?

Big risk. Specially after the press and fans used to kill the Knicks for spending too much.

I wrote about Lin before. I still think he can be a very good Point Guard. But, is he willing to be a supporting actor to his leading teammates? I kinda missed seeing that during the whole Linsanity thing. Lin never gave up the ball as much as he should.

Another thing people say to defend the Knicks matching Houston’s offer is the Asian market. Because Yi Jianlian has the same market share as Yao Ming, right? Unless he performs, Lin will not bring much revenue for the Knicks.

And by performs I mean, be a starter, not a borderline bench player, which he was for most of the season.

Lin said he “wanted to be a Knicks”. If he really wanted to, he wouldn’t go back to the Rockets to rework the offer. He had a 4 year – 4th year a team option – backloaded offer for $28M. But, after learning the Knicks would match that, he went back and got a new, 3 years, $25.1M, earning $15M in the last year.

With taxes, that last year could cost up to $40M for the Knicks. Really? $40M for an unproven PG?

Other than that, Lin never seemed to match with Carmelo Anthony. You can hate Melo, but he IS New York’s top dog. One of the best offensive players in the league. Working hard on defense. he is trying.

With Lin, Melo averaged 18.5 points per 36 minutes and had a Player Efficiency Rating of 16 – NBA’s average is 15. Without Lin, New York’s main talent had 23.9 points per 36 minutes and a PER of 23.

In the end of the season, with Lin out, Melo took over the team – helped by fewer injuries and a system that worked with him – and averaged 27 points per game, hitting .480% of his Field Goals.

Now, I know I wrote about Omer Asik’s contract and how it was not bad. Lin’s contract seems a lot alike Asik’s but, it has two big differences. Or three. Asik won’t cost the Bulls – if they match – near $40M in the last year. Asik did his defense thing for two season, not one quarter of one. And, it is easier to trade a big man bust than it is to trade a point guard bust.

Now, only time will tell if the Knicks were right. Still, I can’t blame them for moving on.

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Gangs of New York – Knicks try to take over the NBA

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Rubens Borges

While the whole of the NBA were waiting on Dwight Howard to the Nets deal, the New York Knicks didn’t stop. Although none of the players acquired will cause waves like the 28 teams and 230 athletes trade the New JerBrooklyn Nets offered for Howard, the Knicks are stronger.
The Knicks kept Steve Novak and J.R. Smith and brought Marcus Camby back, to help Tyson Chandler with rebounds, blocks and defense.

But, are those changes enough? *spoken like the old Batman series presenter, starring Adam West*

The Camby Man Can?

Marcus Camby was a part of New York’s 1999 Eastern Conference Champion team. He arrives with a 3 years, US$13.2 million contract. The sign-and-trade that landed Camby in New York sent Toney Douglas, Josh “Jorts” Harrelson, Jerome Jordan, two 2nd round draft picks (one in 2014 another in 2015), and money that will be used to pay for Toney’s salary in the next season.

Camby is 37 years old but, with Tyson Chandler in the roster, he’s not here to take over the paint, but to help with valuable minutes while the Defensive Player of the Year rests, or is in foul trouble.

His contract is a little bit too long for a 37 year old player, but it’s not like the Knicks had anywhere else to run to. Since Amar’e Stoudemire refuses to help on the boards, the Knicks need to protect the paint while Chandler is on the bench, or they are having trouble rebounding.

Camby played 22.9 minutes per game last season. He grabbed 9 rebounds per game (2.7 offensive boards per game). When you look at his per 36 minutes averages, his rpg soars to amazing 14.1 per 36min. Some help for a team that finished 15th in offensive boards and 18th in defensive boards in the League.

Camby had 1.4 blocks per game – 2.3 blocks per 36min. The Knicks finished 27th in bpg in the last season.

It’s a good deal for the Knicks. Only a little bit over 2 years of Camby’s contract are guaranteed and they got rid of a big problem in Toney Douglas. Fans didn’t like Jorts leaving, but it reminds me of their gripe with Timofey Mozgov’s inclusion in Carmelo Anthony’s trade: a good big man, but will never really have a great future. Good to have around. Not irreplaceable.

Stevie Knicks

Novak had a breakthrough season. For the second time in his career he averaged more than 8.6 minutes per game (18.9 mpg with the Knicks, 16.4 mpg with the Houston Rockets in 2008-09). Novak led the Knicks, and the NBA, in 3 points FG% (.472%).

His eFG% (Efficiency Field Goal. Takes into account that 3 pointers are worth one more point than 2 pointers) is .675%.

Novak will stay with the Knicks in a 4 years, US$15 millions contract. His paycheck jumped from US$992,680 last season to US$3.75 millions per year. A little bit over the top for a player whom cannot create his own shot. But, in this case, the Knicks would leave a great shooter to another team, had they not signed Novak to this contract. Now, they gotta root for Novak to keep his shooting up.

Dr. J.R. & Mr. Smith

Oh, J.R. Typical case of “if he keeps his mind in the game, he can become a great player”. But he never seems to do it. Smith will be back for 2 years, second year being a player’s option and his first year will pay US$2.8 millions.

Whatever the Knicks overpaid for Novak, they saved on Smith.

Smith is still a player that can bring your team back to the game, or take it out of it with his crazy shot selection.

His performance during the Playoffs was one of the reasons Anthony stopped passing and tried to do everything by himself. Smith went from hitting .347% of his 3 pointers in the regular season – eFG% .490 – to .179 in the Playoffs – eFG% .349.

Still, for US$2.8 millions, that’s a nice price tag.

The Knicks added Jason Kidd and are trying to trade Dan Gadzuric. But, this is a story for another day.

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Going white for blood

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Rubens Borges

 

I usually write about basketball, sure, but, I couldn’t let this piece of soccer news go by without a mention. A really cool thing a team from Brazil’s second division is doing.

Vitória da Bahia wears black and red striped jerseys. Always. They are going black and white for now.

Fear not, the red stripes are coming back. One by one. The team is promoting blood donation. Vitória set goals for its fans to reach. When the first goal is reached, the bottom stripe will go back to red. When the second goal is reached, the next stripe will become red again. And so on, and so forth until the whole jersey is black and red again.

A nice way to help those in need and promote a great cause.

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