Kobe Bryant just came up with a 61 point performance in leading the Lakers to a 126 to 117 victory over the Knicks.

As long as Mike D’Antoni is the coach of a bad Knicks team then high scores will abound, but there is definitely something special about scoring 61.

Kobe’s New York moment turned out to be a once-in-a-lifetime thrill ride as the league’s reigning MVP poured in 61 points – the most ever by any player at the Garden – in the Lakers’ 126-117 victory.

King, the former Knick, held the previous Garden record of 60 points set on Christmas Day 1984. Jordan’s 55 points on March 28, 1995, were the most by an opposing player.

The movie director Spike Lee, who 14 years ago dubbed Jordan’s performance as the “double-nickel” game, paid homage to Bryant by calling his masterpiece the “Roger Maris,” in reference to the late Yankee’s 61 home-run season in 1961.

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Man, just think of all the great players that have played in Madison Square Garden.

61, unbelievable.

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Brad Miller to New York?

Mike D’Antoni has got it going on. The Knicks have been cleaning house and adding new players to fit the D’Antoni system.

The latest trade rumor, as reported by Eric Pincus of the most excellent hoop site Hoopsworld, has Sacramento trading Brad Miller for Stephon Marbury.

While this has yet to be confirmed, the Kings might be an ideal suitor for exiled point guard Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks.

In addition to bolstering one of the Kings’ weaker positions, a Marbury trade could provide Sacramento with enormous salary cap flexibility this summer.

The Knicks would prefer to trade Stephon and are looking for players with two-year deals to field a somewhat competitive roster for the 2009/10 season – but more importantly have as much cap space as possible to go shopping for a banner crop of free agents.

Miller’s passing ability and face up game would be a nice fit in Coach Mike D’Antoni’s system. The Knicks would be able to cash out a disgruntled player for a very workable center.

Based on simple economics – can the Kings even refuse an offer of Marbury for Kenny Thomas and Miller?

Thomas has been languishing on the Kings bench for years. His contract finally runs out conveniently before the summer of 2010.

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Last week against the Pistons, with Rasheed Wallace on the bench, Brad Miller manhandled the Pistons. He is for real and still has a lot of hoops left in him.

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Man, today there was this crazy thought rolling through my head. What if the Pistons had kept Chauncey Billups and Iverson had stayed on the Nuggets?

Nowhere to go with that thought, so how about taking a look at how some of this player movement and coaching movement is working out?

Chauncey Billups from Detroit to Denver
Denver is 7 – 3 in their last 10 games and in 1st place

Allen Iverson from Denver to Detroit
Detroit is 4 – 6 and in second place.

Ron Artest from everywhere to Houston
Houston is 7 – 3 and in 1st place

Jermaine O’Neal from Indiana to Toronto
Toronto is 3 – 7 and dead last in the Atlantic Division

Rick Carlisle to coach Dallas
Dallas is 8 – 2 but only in 4th place in the Southwest

Terry Porter to coach Phoenix
Phoenix is 5 -5 and in second place behind the Lakers

Mike D’Antoni to coach the Knicks
3 – 7 and 4th place in the same division as the Celtics

Mo Williams to Cleveland
9 – 1 in the last 10 and first place over the Pistons

This is a fun one
Elton Brand from L.A. Clippers to Philadelphia
Baron Davis from Golden State to L.A. Clippers
Corey Maggette from L.A. Clippers to Golden State

76er’s 4 -6 3rd place
Clip’s 2 – 8 5th place
Warriors 1 – 9 but still in 3rd place

Which just begs the question, what if Chauncey Billups had never left the Pistons?
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Zach Randolph is sent to the Clippers

The Knicks have shown the door to half the team or so it seems. Time to clean out the deadwood and find some winners.

The summer of 2010 is still almost two years away, but on Friday the New York Knicks officially made themselves players in what is expected to be the richest free agent crop in recent history. In two bold strokes, Knicks president Donnie Walsh has shed a pair contracts that have hung around his neck like an albatross since he assumed control of basketball operations last April: Jamal Crawford, the offensively-effective-yet-defensively-putrid guard who was shipped to Golden State for forward Al Harrington, was owed more than $20 million on a contract that ran through the 2010-2011 season; and Zach Randolph, a stat stuffing machine who, along with reserve guard Mardy Collins, was sent to the Los Angeles Clippers for forward Tim Thomas and guard Cuttino Mobley, is scheduled to pocket $38 million through ‘10-’11.

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So are the Knicks setting up to get LeBron James or Chris Bosh as some are saying?

Maybe they are just cleaning out the losers and trying to get players that fit in D’Antoni’s fast paced system?
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What are the Knicks thinking?

Sometimes you have to just cut your losses and move on. Are the Knicks listening?

No, it seems not.

The New York Knicks have no plans to do anything with Stephon Marbury, except pay him his $21.9 million salary and give him a great seat to watch all their games.

Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni and team president Donnie Walsh said that they will not waive, buy out or trade Marbury. They also will not let him play in games, unless there is an injury to their top three guards, Chris Duhon, Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson.
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Stephon Marbury will be a free agent at the end of the year. Get rid of him. Even if all your guards were injured and could not play, do you really want to go to Stephon Marbury?

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Eddy Curry does not have the quick look

Watching the Knicks struggle last year, the games often revolved around sloppy play or selfish moves. The one area where they seemed to have some strength was down on the box with Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph. New coach Mike D’Antoni just does not see it that way. Eddy is out and small ball is in.

After playing in four of the seven Knicks preseason games (including one DNP/coach’s decision), Curry was surprised by the news that he is not part of his coach’s regular rotation.

“Definitely stunned, especially being that [D'Antoni] didn’t tell me that,” Curry said Tuesday. “I haven’t talked to him. I’m here with him every day. All he has to do is tell me. I’m definitely stunned to hear that.”

Last season, the 25-year-old Curry averaged 13.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. During the preseason, he averaged 4.3 points and 2.5 boards in nearly 14 minutes.
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This was often a complaint when D’Antoni coached the Suns. He would go small and quick for his quick shooting offense. During the regular season the Suns would pile up the victories, but in the playoffs the lack of size often caught up with them.

Last year the Sun tried adding the Shaq to the mix to give them some size when the game went half court in the playoffs, but Shaq is kind of old now and it just did not work.

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