Is this as close as the Knicks will ever be?
Admit it, you're all Celtics fans right now. You've all sold your souls, pulled on the green and are rooting for the enemy. Someone check for me tonight. Is the Empire State Building lit up in green?
Ugh, you shameless, loathesome, lot. Trading in your dignity for desperation. Selling your self-respect for a dollar and a dream.
Not that I blame you.
As the Celtics were putting a stunning finish on that stunning Game 5 in Cleveland, I tweeted that this might be the closest the Knicks will ever be to realistic hope of convincing LeBron James.
Surely a second-round ouster will put plenty of doubt into his mind. Hell, he can lose in the second round in New York, with better scenery.
A defeat here in Boston certainly would mean the end for Mike Brown -- perhaps only a championship run can save him now -- and then owner Dan Gilbert has to go to the man running his franchise (no, not Danny Ferry) and ask him who he wants to hire as coach.
There will be epic clamoring. There will be smear campaigns that rival any political race. One silly rumor already making the rounds is that Donnie Walsh is in bad health. He was seen in Europe struggling to climb stairs. People should know Walsh has a hip issue and he's fighting through it until after free agency is over because he refuses to be out of commission for any amount of time.
All the Knicks want is to get to July 1 with LeBron at the other side of the table. Just get that moment where they can make the pitch and leave it up to him.
But that's still a long ways away. We're a few hours still from Game 6, this game that suddenly has been promoted by some media outlets as the most significant game in LeBron's career. Do we forget his Game 5 performance in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals against the Detroit Pistons? How is that erased by what happened this year?
How is a 25 year old's career -- "legacy" was the word some chose to use -- hanging in the balance over this?
I'm not convinced this series is over, not by a longshot.
But the question on the minds of Knicks fans tonight, as they wave their green banners and cheer for Ray, Paul, Kevin and Rondo is simple: Is this the closest the Knicks will get to having a shot at luring the best player on the planet?
Root hard, Fixers.
