HOPE

What jumps out at me is that the Los Angeles Lakers have oodles of dollars to spend. The team inked superstar LeBron James to a 2 year, $85 million extension. Then they corralled free agent Anthony Davis for 5 years at $185 million. As if Davis was ever going anywhere else? 

LAL is positioned to make a serious run at a second straight NBA Championship, having fortified their team with the addition of the Sixth Man of the Year winner Montrezl Harrell AND the runner-up to Harrell, Dennis Schroder. GM Rob Pelinka also signed  Wesley Matthews and Marc Gasol to replace Danny Green, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo and Javale McGee. Plus Pelinka resigned last season’s late addition, Markieff Morris. 

The intent here is to give James and Davis less of a load to carry in the upcoming 72 game season, considering how the 2020 playoffs ended not so long ago, and James is no child anymore. With stalwarts Alex Caruso and Kyle Kuzma still in the fold, the Lakers appear to be more dangerous than ever. 

Fans will see the retooled Lakers on national TV on December 22, when they meet the cross-the-hall Clippers and then host the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas Day.

The Klay Thompson-less Warriors tip off the season in Brooklyn, meeting former teammate Kevin Durant in his first game in a Nets uniform. Kyrie Irving is scheduled to play, but he has become a tad fragile lately with injuries (I can understand a plethora of pain). Golden State heads to Milwaukee for a Christmas game against the Bucks and two-time M.V.P. Giannis Antetokounmpo, perhaps in his last year in a Bucks uniform before becoming a very rich free agent. The Nets’ foe on Christmas Day will be the Boston Celtics in Boston. 

Will Golden State be 0-2 with this unfriendly start to the campaign? Or could Steph Curry and his mates rise up and win a road tilt? Can the Nets start strong with a 2-0 mark on the way to a possible Eastern Conference crown? 

One team not vying for anything will be the New York Knicks. Another season of frustration for the loyal and vocal New York fans. I hope they don’t desert the ship for the oasis in Brooklyn. Be patient, Knicks loyalists. Your time will come. Not necessarily soon, but it will happen. 

The Knickerbockers were moribund in my youth. Until the mid-1960’s, when Willis Reed and Walt Frazier arrived. Then the parts started to fill in and two of the best teams in NBA history won two long-awaited NBA crowns. 

I know that 1972-73 was the last hurrah for the Knicks. 48 years is a long time. I realize that the Patrick Ewing-led teams were exciting and the Garden rocked. Keep the faith, Knicks fans. It ain’t easy, but you must. For better or worse, they are New York’s team—not those newbies in another borough. The Barclays Center will never be confused with the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. 

I hear what you are thinking, Knicks brethren. James Dolan is a bad guy. He’s the reason there haven’t been any banners hoisted in the MSG rafters. 

This may be true—privately ask Charles Oakley how he feels about the team owner and I am sure he will burst his spleen about the man. Ditto Spike Lee, who sat court side and epitomized the ebullient and energetic Knicks fan until he was riled up by the Garden security. 

And maybe the draft picks have not been the greatest and the coaching only so-so along with the ineptitude of upper management. This is not a time to be grim about the prospects. Just because there are lots of other teams better than New York in the Eastern Conference—Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Philadelphia with new head man Doc Rivers, last year’s finalists, the Miami Heat, Indiana, Toronto (playing out of Tampa due to COVID-19), surprise playoff team Orlando, and even Boston, without Gord Heyward, who signed with Charlotte and made the Hornets playoff-ready. Washington acquired Russell Westbrook, one of the premier players in the league in a trade with Houston, which received oft-injured John Wall, so the Wizards are also in the hunt. I dare say the Bulls, Pistons and Hawks appear to be better than New York. Which leaves some really intense games with the equally moribund Cleveland Cavaliers. 

I used to look forward to Christmas basketball at MSG—I even attended one with Larry Bird and the Celtics as the rivals. I can readily say that, unless I am so wrong about the team, the Knicks aren’t going to be on national TV unless it is to showcase their opponents. 

But it is only one season. Like the last 48, with more of them like the last 20 years or so, as the the last playoff appearance was in 2013. Having been in existence for 70 years, the franchise has made the playoffs 36 times. In the past ten seasons, spanning 2011 to 2020, the Knicks won at a 40.1% rate, accumulating 3 playoff appearances, which is a 30% rate. So in two years, barring the unthinkable, the Knicks will have made the NBA Playoffs 50% of the time. 

For years, I was proud to be a New York Rangers fan and season ticket holder. All I ever heard was 1940, alluding to the last time the franchise hoisted the Stanley Cup. Then, miraculously, Mark Messier was skating around the Garden ice with the Cup in 1994. In 93 seasons, the Blueshirts have won 4 Cups in 59 playoff attempts. In the past 10 seasons, the teams has won 53.7% of its games and made 7 playoff appearance, which included a Stanley Cup Finals loss in 2014 to the Los Angeles Kings. 

So the Rangers have performed slightly better than the Knicks. Only slightly better, with not much more to show for their efforts. 

Which leads me to the inescapable conclusion—it must be the water at MSG which created a vapor that has mystified its tenants. How else can you explain such mediocrity for so long? Maybe Mr. Dolan should conduct an air and water study in his building. He might be very surprised with the results and perhaps that would lead to a revival of the dormant New York teams. Or then again, maybe not. 

Rutgers fans have had a very interesting 2020 football season thus far. The 2-4 Scarlet Knights have two road wins—at Michigan State and Purdue. While Michigan State is having a down year, they rallied from the opening loss to RU to defeat arch-rival Michigan and West-leading Northwestern. Purdue is, like Michigan State, 2-3. 

RU should have downed Michigan in that epic comeback loss in 3 OT. The Knights couldn’t hold the lead against Illinois. This team easily could have been 4-2 rather than 2-4. 

Saturday’s game is with the team RU fans hate the most: Penn State. In the 18 previous meetings with the Nittany Lions, the tally is 16-2 in favor of Penn State. The two RU victories came in the first contest between the schools and a great upset in 1988 in State College. 

Penn State has its own issues, coming into Piscataway at a miserable 1-5, the lone win was by seven points last week at Michigan. Yet the oddsmakers gave RU no respect—the Lions are an astounding 11.5 point favorite. 

I would take that bet. RU has been focusing on winning and there is no bigger win in the program’s eyes right now than defeating Penn State, no matter how bad a year they are having. Greg Schiano’s ties to Penn State go back to the clouded, scandal-ridden days at the end of the late Joe Paterno’s reign at PSU. He has had to endure so much for being unfairly tied to the horrific lack of action by Paterno and his aides over the sexual assaults by Jerry Sandusky. (Former PSU President Graham Spanier had his child endangerment conviction restored by a Federal appeals court on Tuesday)

It will be a game played in some wind and heavy rain. RU appears to be pretty healthy, with starting QB Noah Vedral seemingly to be ready to return from his one game absence due to injury. Backups Artur Sitkowski and the versatile Johnny Langan are poised to come in should Verdal be unable to go. The duo acquitted themselves very well last week in the victory over Purdue.

While my daughter received a very fine education at Penn State, I intensely dislike the school. Some of it goes to the Paterno days and his fraudulent, holier-than-thou ways, along with the coverup by Spanier and his administration. 

The rest of my dislike is focused on James Franklin, the Nittany Lions’ head coach. I have never liked his arrogance. It reminds me of the arrogance of Jim Harbaugh at Michigan—who I also cannot cheer for. I think it is great to see Franklin get his comeuppance at Happy Valley. 

A bit of humility would help greatly. With a dose of Rutgers frustration parceled out to his team as the Scarlet Knights give Greg Schiano what will be there first of many wins over the Nittany Lions.

The two Rutgers wins were more than projected. Wins versus Penn State and Maryland next week would mean a 4-4 record. Certainly not a given. Nonetheless, very achievable. RU football fans have something to really look forward to. 

Rutgers basketball is 3-0 to start the season, with a meeting at home with Syracuse on tap for December 8. The team looks pretty good, even in the absence of Geo Baker, their leader, who sprained his ankle in the first nine minutes of the opener against Sacred Heart.

There is more height and size on this team. Jacob Young, Ron Harper, Jr and Paul Mulcahy have shined with Baker sidelined. This team  is fast, runs the floor well, ruggedly rebounds and adapts accordingly. 

Make no mistake, home wins against the likes of Sacred Heart, FDU and Hofstra isn’t going to impress too many people. The Knights have retained their #24 national ranking for now. 

The schedule gets decidedly tougher with the Syracuse game and then when conference play starts. Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois are presently ranked #3, #4 and #5. Michigan State is at #8. Ohio State, at #23, is also ranked just ahead of RU. 

To garner that elusive first NCAA tournament bid since 1991, RU must get Baker back, play within themselves, recognize that there is no home court advantage this year, and shoot free throws better than the less than 60% they have converted in the first three games. 

Just like the football team, there is something real going on in Piscataway. Finally. 

I watched the oft-delayed Baltimore at Pittsburgh NFL clash on Wednesday afternoon. I thought it was mediocre football, largely due to the lack of practice time the teams had and the uncertainty of the game itself being played. 

The biggest thing was to watch a game on a Wednesday afternoon with a start time of 3:40 P.M. Eastern time. This will mean, by the end of the season, an NFL game will have been played on each day of the week. Only in a pandemic year. Only in 2020.

I watched the Kansas City Chiefs riddle the Tampa Bay defense and befuddle the great Tom Brady. KC has its defensive weaknesses. They also have the best QB in football right now, with apologies to Aaron Rodgers—Patrick Mahomes II. To see KC go 15-1 is not out of the question. To see Pittsburgh go 16-0 from what I saw is highly unlikely. 

My Jets comment is this: 0-16 looms for the Jets. How miserable. 

The Giants’ fate rests on Daniel Jones’ recovery from the hamstring injury which forced him to the sidelines in the win at Cincinnati. They were’t going to win on Sunday at Seattle. Not to worry. Nobody in the NFC East is going to run away from the pack. Getting Jones healthy with three of the last five games at home is imperative. 

Since I had a dear reader complain about the lack of Yankees’ stories, I provide the following. The Yankees signed Gary Sanchez to a one year deal. 

He is a mess behind the plate and at bat. If there is a way to fix him, and I don’t know how feasible that would be, the Yankees batting order would be absolutely lethal. If everyone remained healthy. A big if. 

Kudos to former Vanderbilt soccer goalie Sarah Fuller, now the kicker for the football team. She did the second half kickoff at Missouri, making her the first women to play in a Power 5 football conference game, earning her co-SEC Special Team Player of the Week honors and a nomination for the Capital One Orange Bowl—FWAA Courage Award. 

Alas, the game for this week at Georgia was postponed due to COVID and has been rescheduled to December 19, provided that Georgia is not in the SEC title game. A game on December 19 would offer Fuller her only chance to kick a FG or PAT. 

Finally, another reader told me that Los Angeles is the center of the sports world right now. Hard to argue when talking about the Dodgers and Lakers. He added the Clippers into the mix. However, he conveniently left out the Angels, the Chargers and the Ducks and Kings, who both failed to make the NHL bubble last season. 

For all those teams in LA that haven’t won a recent title, for the smug establishment out West rooting for repeats by the Lakers and Dodgers, for the Chiefs and Steelers fans who want a Super Bowl, for the Knicks and Rangers (maybe, begrudgingly, the Nets), the Islanders and Devils, RU football and hoops, Giants fans this year and Jets fans forever, and Sarah Fuller, there is one word which we all can embrace as the coronavirus continues its deadly dominance. That word is HOPE. HJ