It turns out that Cheeks was part of knocking down a Celtics dynasty that was virtually on its last legs, leading the Knicks to a 5 game playoff series victory including a memorable Game 5 victory on the Garden parquet. I’d me remiss if I didn’t mention Charles Oakley’s 20/20 game that day as well. If memory serves he had 22 points and 25 rebounds, or something in that range.

Fast forward some 20 years later and the Knicks are led by another veteran point guard Chauncey Billups who possesses a similar veteran acumen that Cheeks did. Both won championships and lived, for years, in the second season. Both nearing the end of their careers who want one last shot at the big time.

As a Knicks fan you can talk about the series with the Celtics in many ways. You can point to different keys and you’d be right. The bench needs to step up and keep the game close. The stars have to do what stars do to give the Knicks the chance to win.

But, to me, it comes down to Billups and his ability to defend. The obvious thought that anyone would think of would be will we see a lot of Toney Douglas on Rajon Rondo, which would leave Billups the assignment on Ray Allen. I’d leave Billups on Rondo. I mean, can Chauncey’s legs allow him the ability to get through screens and chase Allen around all night? Would you even want him to? I’d leave that for Landry Fields, or Douglas (ahem, derrick brown) and tell Billups to stay 5 feet off Rondo and keep him in front of him. Let him shoot jumpers all day long.

But that’s just me.

The playoffs are about matchups and performance, and the Knicks will needs a huge one from a player whose been there before. That’s why the biggest key to me in this series is Chauncey Billups vs. the Celtics’ back court.

It’s an absolute pleasure and privilege to be one of the new additions to The Knicks Blog.  Many thanks going out to the main man Tommy Dee for giving me this opportunity to communicate and connect with the largest network of Knicks fans on the Web.  I’m hoping to bring you all great content with interesting insight and ideas while keeping things light at the same time.  So what better way to start things off than with my favorite Knicks anecdote about my phone call with Charles Oakley back in the Summer of 2007:

After graduating from college, I spent a year living at home in Westchester.  My mom was bugging me to go get the cars washed, so I took the old Honda first, to where else, Oakley’s Car Wash in Yonkers.  While waiting for my car, I had a nice conversation with the woman behind the counter just chatting about the Knicks and Oakley and how much I missed those teams.  The next day I brought in our other car to get washed and saw the same nice woman sitting behind the counter.  We chatted a little bit more and I walked outside to wait for the car.  A minute later, she was knocking on the glass, waving me back inside. I walked in and she held out the phone to me.  ”It’s Charles,” she told me.  I grabbed the phone from her and said hello.  To my surprise, a groggy sounding, 6’8″ from Virginia Union, Charles Oakley was on the other end.

“What’s up man, thanks for coming to the Car Wash,” he mumbled, almost inaudibly.  Was he hungover?  For the sake of the story, let’s say yes.

“No problem Charles, love your car wash” I said. “I’m a big fan, I loved the way you played the game.  I can’t believe the Knicks haven’t retired your number yet.  Now we have to watch Eddy Curry bringing shame to 34 every night,” I told him (Remember this was waaay back in 2007 when Eddy Curry actually played basketball).

“Man, that fat f*** is an embarrassment.  Just a total embarrassment.  He shouldn’t be allowed to wear my number.  It’s a f***in’ joke man.  It’s just terrible.”

Apparently, I struck a chord with the Oak Man.  The rest of the conversation is a blur.  Charles Oakley cursing at me over the phone was terrifying.  I now have a decent idea of how opposing forwards felt playing against him on the court.  Fear aside though, Charles Oakley had just made my day.  He was stating the obvious, but hearing it from a Knick legend made it that much more important.  More than anything though, it was great to know that Oakley, the pillar of those great 90′s teams, shared my frustration about the state of the Knicks.

So there you have my “Charles-Oakley-calling-Eddy-Curry-a-fat-f***” story.  Sorry TKB, but it’s all downhill from here.

Oh, and I don’t think LeBron is coming.  More on that to come.

Via Isola:

“…There is no communication on defense,” Oakley, the former Knicks power forward, said Saturday over the telephone. “They don’t dive on the floor for the ball. They should be getting five to six charges a night. But I don’t see that.

“I’m going to put this on the players because it’s up to them to fight every night. The coach can’t fight for you. You can’t just let teams get layup after layup.”

When Oakley was reminded that most of the Knicks are in the last year of their respective contracts and probably won’t be around next season, Oakley said that should give the team more incentive to play hard. “They’re getting paid, right?” Oakley said. “My thing is, if they want a contract next season they should start playing for one right now.”

Oakley has made it clear that he’d like to coach in the NBA. There were preliminary talks between Oakley and Walsh about a possible position but nothing ever materialized. Oakley is considering running a big man’s camp during the offseason because “I feel I can help. It’s not for the money.”

Nothing materialized because the organization loves Herb Williams, who caught the brunt of a Nate Robinson tirade the other day on the sideline.

Here’s my deal. Oak is my favorite All-Time Knick. Bar none. As a kid, he lived around the corner from my buddy who was the team’s ball boy and whose family used to car sit for him. He had a sick souped-up Explorer (and a benz) with a remote control for the stereo. I had never seen that before. I met him a dozen times and he watched some of my high school team’s summer league games. He once complemented me on an alley oop i threw while we were eating pizza.

My hesitation to get after D’Antoni’s system at this point is because I don’t want to make this about the 1990s Knicks. They couldn’t score in the half court at times and stood around far too often watching Ewing get deep in the shot clock. But defensively, you, as a fan, had as much pride as they did. No one was coming into our house and pushing us around.

But it was a different era then, I’d I think it’s essential that fans understand that the game has changed. Yes, defense is still a staple and I can understand if there are reservations about D’Antoni, I’m just not ready to give up on him because I want the Riley and Van Gundy days back.

“…Meanwhile, Charles Oakley is under consideration by Walsh to help big men get down and dirty at the defensive end. Does that mean the Knicks president is unhappy with how easy and how often opponents scored last season? My second question is, how do you teach bringing intimidation and intensity to work every time you get on the court? Oakley also was contacted by Portland officials who suspect it might be good for the team’s health if a trace of his brutish attitude rubbed off on Greg Oden…”

“…The Knicks’ record is what the record is and the record for the decade is what it is,” said Van Gundy, the third-winningest coach in franchise history. “You can’t spin that for anything positive. But the positives they do have going for them is an owner that wants to win and will spend money to win. They have an executive in Donnie Walsh who has proven to be an astute judge of talent and character and has put together near championship teams. And they have a successful coach.

“What they need are starting-caliber players. They have nice guys if you’re talking about four or fifth starters or rotation backups. They’ve got to find a best player that they can build around.”

Van Gundy’s style is very direct. He’ll mix in humor with pointed commentary but he’s also loyal to the coaching fraternity because “I know how difficult the job is. My only comments about coaches have been positive.”

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FTB: I agree with Jeff Van Gundy 100%. The truth is as much as Knick fans want the Knicks to make it to the playoffs and be an above 500. team it is not going to happen with the current roster. It did not happen this year, and if we do not get a real star play next year it will not happen next year. There are many things that you can knock James Dolan for, but being cheap with players and the organization is not one of them. James Dolan is willing to spend money to put the right product on the court. Now it is up to Donnie Walsh to find the right star player. A winning team is all fans have asked for.  Knick fans want to return to the days that they can  finally be trilled to call themselves Knicks fans…”

One is an ex-Knick who despite being traded for one of the most popular men in team history, a player who personified the fans in many ways, became a fan favorite in his own rite. Replacing Charles Oakley is not a small feat in the world of New York sports.

The other is a player was often defended by fans yet never played much defense.

When the Knicks traded Oakley for Marcus Camby in 1998 my first sense was that of shock. Like every other Knick fan, I loved Oak as did his coach, who took a long time to warm up to the lanky Camby. I remember hearing stories about Marcus in college and his propensities and his overall lack of maturity hampered his early career.

But it was his play in 1999 that endeared him to the fans of this city as he was an integral part of the Cinderella 8th seed. Many highlights show a high-flying Camby protecting the hoop and finishing with thunderous dunks on the other end.

There were always questions coming from Knicks management regarding Camby’s durability yet ironically, or fittingly for the Scott Layden Era, Antonio McDyess, whom the Knicks received in return, broke down right away in New York shortly he arrived from Denver for Camby and the 9th overall pick.

Zach Randolph’s stay in New York was a dubious as McDyess’ in a lot of ways, which is to say that he was a wonderfully talented player who fans never really connected with. Unlike McDyess, Z-Bo played plenty but he never seemed to mesh in a culture that wreeked of negativity.

Randolph was brought in as part of a trade which sent Steve Francis and Channing Frye to Portland, a one-sided deal from a talent standpoint as his career 20 points/10 rebound totals had fans believing in a possible “double post” tandem with Eddy Curry, or so that was the vision of then-president Isiah Thomas.

Randolph was the center of plenty of trade rumors this off season and was almost shipped to Memphis. Here’s what we know about that situation. Memphis wanted the Knicks to fork over a first round pick along with taking on the brutal contract of guard Marko Jaric and disappointing center Darko Milicic in exchange for Z-Bo. The ever-patient Donnie Walsh wanted one of Memphis’ young guards back in the deal and when that didn’t happen talks broke down.

So Walsh, who seemed intent of ridding Z-Bo’s contract sooner before later, finally shipped Randolph to the Clippers, the only team interested in taking on his contract, for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley on November 21st. It was a huge weight off the cap for the Knicks, yet the deal bothered some fans who felt Walsh had received too little in return. The Knicks, who were 6-5 at the time of the trades would finish the new year 6-13.

The short-sighted fan would like to believe that Walsh could have held longer and got more out of the Clippers than just Mobley, who never suited for the Knicks, and Thomas who would be shipped out months later. In fact, they blame Walsh for not bringing Camby back. Our moles have told us that Camby was very much the bounty, but the Clippers balked, and Walsh realized that in this economy if he walked away from a deal with the Clippers, he probably had lost his only chance to get his team in a much better cap position for 2010.

And there is a lot to that. Had Walsh kept Z-Bo where would the team be? Would they, in this economic environment, found any other takers for that contract without having to surrender a first round pick? With all the negative news about the lowering of the salary cap, how would you feel about the Knicks prospects of any future success with $17 plus million on the books for the next few years?

The patient fan is thankful that Walsh was able to create some roster flexibility.

How about on the court? Does a 6-5 record make you truly believe that the team could have made a playoff push with Z-Bo?

Granted, recently, SI has done a great job staying relevant with the Torre book and the A-Roid scandal, and they’ve recently done a great job putting together a Knicks photo scrapbook.

If you know me you know that my favorite All-Time Knicks were Oak and Ewing, which is odd because I was a guard. Although he was only here a short time, Derek Harper’s ability to lead from a defensive standpoint always made me admire him tremendously. He would have been the finals MVP in 1994 had we won, as far as I’m concerned. He’ll always be one of my favorites as well. Heck, they change the hand check rules because of him.

Imagine bring the ball up all game against that guy?

Anyway, enjoy the photos. They are special across the board and they tell the story of the Knicks over the past 50-plus years.

“…The Nuggets, sources said, did not have enough to get Lee after withdrawing Kleiza and offering a package built around guard Chucky Atkins (who makes $3.2 million this season and $3.5 million next season) and two first-round picks.

Yet it seems safe to presume that Atkins will be offered up to the Knicks again between now and the Feb. 19 trading deadline, in one trade scenario or another, given his perpetual readiness to hoist a shot — never discouraged in Mike D’Antoni’s offense — and the Nuggets’ well-known desire to shed at least one more salary to get under the luxury-tax line…”

Remember due to NBA rules the Nuggets would not be able to offer 2009 and 2010 first rounders because they gave up their pick last year to the Bobcats.

From what we are hearing, the Lee for Kleiza talks had some steam but fell through, and one has to wonder why Donnie Walsh wouldn’t want to swing a deal for two first round picks. My thinking is that he is waiting for Eddy Curry‘s return before moving Lee. Maybe he can use Lee to move Curry’s contract. As I’ve said before, to rid, Randolph, Crawford, Curry then Marbury in the same season is beyond my wildest dreams.

Either way, if Walsh can manage to bring back a pick or two, or get rid of Curry’s contract, it makes sense for him to trade Lee.

And I think Walsh knows it. But how can you trade Lee? The guy is a fan favorite, blue-collar type much like Charles Oakley was. Is he limited? Yes. Does his lateral quickness get exposed far too often? Sure.

But he’s a double double machine.

In saying what I said about Curry, Walsh still has next year to deal him but time is running out on what to do with Lee.

I don’t envy Walsh on this one.