IF you are a Knick fan, you’d better start worrying. There were some bad signs yesterday coming out of Purchase College.
Out of the parking lot at Purchase, that is. That’s where the Knicks braintrust – Jeff Van Gundy and GM Scott Layden – met the media to deliver their post-mortem macadam spin on the season.
When you think about it, a parking lot was the perfect place for Van Gundy to meet the press for the last time this season. After all, he parked the Knick offense against the Pacers – except for Games 3 and 4 when the Knicks ran away with wins when Patrick Ewing was injured.
Layden spent most of his time kissing up to Ewing, which tells you the Knicks are trying to get back on Ewing’s good side. Pouting Patrick is upset because critics maintain the Knicks should run more and have less Patrick in their tank, critics inside and outside the locker room.
While the organization was bending over backwards to tell the world they are committed to Ewing, who has one year left on his contract at $16 million, the Knicks would not make the same assurances for Latrell Sprewell, who is the heart and soul of this club. That means if the right deal comes along, if Detroit will take Sprewell for Grant Hill in sign-and-trade, Sprewell’s New York run is over. The Knicks may not be able to make such a trade, though, with Allen Iverson being used as Hill bait. Figure Sprewell and Marcus Camby – because Van Gundy is on a durability-rebounding kick now and that could be Camby’s ticket out of town – will be offered around the league.
Layden would not say the Knicks need Sprewell to get back to the Finals. This should be Spree’s Team now, not Patrick’s Team.
Asked by The Post if the Knicks would make a similar commitment to Sprewell, who was spectacular in Game 6 despite a broken bone in his left foot, Layden, who seems to be a nice man, took a deep breath and said, “OK, here we go. Hum, I, ah, I’ve said before during the year how we feel about Latrell and I think that he is very important to our team and he was courageous and heroic during the playoffs, so, he’s something special.”
Then another reporter asked, “Is that a commitment to him?”
“Well, I mean, I don’t know,” Layden said, “should we go down the roster from here?”
“Yeah,” the reporter countered.
“No,” Layden said. “That’s all I’m going to say, I don’t want to get too far into individual players.”
Does Layden consider Sprewell’s popularity with the Knick fans in the big picture? “I don’t want to answer your question related to Latrell,” he said, “OK, but you just have to make decisions that you feel will help you win. Hopefully you can make clear decisions that will help this team get better.”
The team that did not double-team a rampaging Reggie Miller in Game 6 had their double-talk defense working yesterday as Van Gundy and Layden both made similar statements about what a great year it was for the Knicks, who couldn’t get to the Finals this year like they did last season. “You can’t lose sight of the great things that happened this year, when you consider the whole year,” Layden noted.
A championship should be the only goal of this organization, now it’s fine to get blown off your homecourt to end the season, not even extending to seven games a team the Knicks destroyed last year in the playoffs.
That was a different Knick team, of course. One that ran. Because of injuries last season, Van Gundy had to let the players be themselves. This year he had Ewing to rely on again and although everyone in the NBA knows the way to beat the Pacers is in transition, the Knicks went back to their plodding ways and paid the price. Once again for the record, the Knicks were 5-1 without Ewing in the lineup against the Pacers the past two years in the playoffs and 1-5 in games he started.
Evidently, that’s a winning combination for Van Gundy, who calls all the shots with the Knicks, and Layden. When Layden was asked if the Knicks should “uptempo the game a bit,” he answered, “The tempo of the game really should be answered by coach.”
No need asking.