The Knicks are only two games into their season and already there are signs of discord.
After Friday night’s 102-100 double-overtime loss at Charlotte, point guard Chris Duhon said he and his teammates “lost the game before it even started” because of a lack of focus.
“We lost this game before the game even started,” Duhon, who had 13 points and 8 assists, told reporters. “A lot of us weren’t taking the game serious — joking around, not really preparing for the game, and it showed. It just seems like we’re always taking a team’s first punch.”
He added: “We’re not that good. We can’t come in here and joke around and take the game lightly. It is a precious game, and we’ve got to be serious.”
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HARRINGTON, DALEMBERT TO REUNITE
The Knicks begin a four-game homestand tonight against the 76ers, and it marks the first game I’ll cover for NBA.com. Check that site later tonight for my story.
The game will feature a reunion of former Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick teammates Al Harrington of the Knicks and Sam Dalembert of the Sixers.
They teamed up to lead the Celtics to the 1998 New Jersey Tournament of Champions title under head coach Kevin Boyle.
“That was the first time my school ever won it,” Harrington said earlier this week after practice.
The ’98 team featured former Rutgers standout Herve Lamizana, as well as Dalembert and Harrington.
“We played there I think two years,” Harrington said of Dalembert. “He was my starting center. I was the three man on my team so we had a team that could probably beat most colleges.”
During their early years in the league, the two players would do dinner together after games involving their teams.
“When he first came into the league we used to do it all the time,” Harrington said. “As he’s gotten older, he has a lot of other things on his plate. So we haven’t hung out as much. but I’m always sending him tickets. He’s sending me tickets so we still definitely have a good relationship.”
Harrington pays for a player section for Knicks home games and said some St. Pat’s players may come Saturday. Jeff Robinson, a former St. Pat’s forward now at Seton Hall, told me last week that all the current and former St. Pat’s players look up to Harrington and Dalembert because they made it to the pros.
“It shows that because they did it, maybe we can follow in their footsteps,” Robinson said.
Harrington still returns to the Elizabeth school periodically and is amazed that the kids still know who he is.
“Definitely,” he said. “Every time I go up to the school just to hang out it’s amazing how I was there 12 years ago and all the kids there now seem like they know everything I did there so it’s a special feeling for sure.”
St. Pat’s won back-to-back Tournament of Champions titles with Robinson and current Villanova guard Corey Fisher in 2006 and ’07 before Bob Hurley’s undefeated St. Anthony team that featured six Division 1 seniors reclaimed the crown in 2008. That team is featured in the tremendous documentary film “The Street Stops Here,” which you can read about in this post.
But last season, St. Pat’s won the TOC title for a fifth time with a team featuring North Carolina-bound senior guard Dexter Strickland, George Mason-bound senior forward Paris Bennett, junior guard Kyrie Irving (now committed to Duke) and sophomore wing Michael Gilchrist, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2011.
This year’s team features Irving and Gilchrist; Chris and Julian Washburn, the son of former troubled NBA star Chris Washburn; senior guard Kevin Boyle Jr; and senior guard Derrick Gordon, who committed to Western Kentucky.
Irving and Gilchrist are both projected as potential NBA players and Harrington said he wouldn’t be surprised to see them land in the NBA one day.
“Oh yeah, definitely,” he said.
Then he put in final a plug for St. Pat’s.
“St. Pat’s [is] a powerhouse,” he said. “If you could play any type of basketball, go to St. Pats.”
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STEPHEN A. SAYS LEBRON TO NEW YORK
For what it’s worth, Stephen A. Smith says LeBron will come to the Knicks in 2010.
“I believe that LeBron James is coming,” Smith said Friday on The Michael Kay Show. “I believe that Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade will come with him.”
Smith also ripped the current team, which is now 0-2 after the Charlotte loss.
“[They are] pretty bad,” he said. “I can’t imagine them winning more than 30 games.”
On injured center Eddy Curry, Smith tossed out this gem: “You’re hoping that Eddy Curry will show a pulse and show that he’s worthy of putting on a concession worker’s uniform, let alone a New York Knicks uniform.”
(Photos courtesy NBA.com)
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