The joys of fatherhood must be so joyful that it simply makes my eyes well up. Thinking of Kevin Costner playing catch with his dad on that Iowa cornfield makes me realize what dreams are made of. Watching your children mature into adults, making life decisions and realizing that you had such a huge part in their life has to be so satisfying.
But then, there's the case of having a bad apple, a bad seed, a devil child, Rosemary's baby. The kid just spirals out of control to the point where you don't know who he or she is related to and you start questioning your wife on her extra-marital affairs those years ago.
That's what it's like being a New York Knicks fan.
Their baby was so cute, so adorable in the mid ‘90s. It was that little kid who would play around in the sandbox and get all messy, but you'd still want to pick him up and squeeze him. With leaders like Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley, there wasn't anybody cuter than the New York Knicks.
Yeah, they would always finish in second to those mean, popular jocks from Chicago, but that didn't hurt their appeal. They would have boo-boos on their legs, and Knicks fans would just cover them up with giant ice packs and send them right out there again.
But then something started to change. It was right before high school, when puberty was kicking in, and they started hanging out with their friends really late. Weird ideas about society started filtering into their heads.
In 2001, Charlie Ward told a New York Times reporter that the Jews have ""blood on their hands"" from killing Jesus Christ and that ""Jews are stubborn"" for not accepting Christ as their savior. Furthermore, he insisted that Christrans ""are persecuted by Jews everyday."" The Knicks weren't so cute anymore. Their class photos were going from ""awww"" to ""pimple palace.""
They started hanging out with the wrong crowd and tossing aside their old reliable friends. Just giving away Ewing in the final year of his deal wasn't so nice, and getting an aging Glen Rice and Luc Longley in return wasn't the best option either. Nor was extending their relationship with Allan Houston to the tune of $100 million.
Then there was that really shady former high school valedictorian who dropped out of college who the Knicks started hanging around with. Sure, Isaiah used to be a promising young child, a Hall of Famer in his youth, but as of late, after driving the CBA into bankruptcy, and ruining the Toronto Raptors' hopes, the Knicks could have chosen better friends.
So Isaiah started doing his thing. He traded for Stephon Marbury, he traded for Penny Hardaway, he traded for Tim Thomas, he traded for Steve Francis, he signed Jerome James, he traded for every selfish ball-hog/over-the-hill guy making too much money without a true position he could find.
But Isaiah was really a bad influence on my kid when he essentially dealt Tyrus Thomas and possibly Greg Oden for Eddy Curry, a fat big man who can't rebound and has a heart problem. Not to mention his trade for Jamal Crawford, who, going into Monday night's game with the Spurs, is now shooting under 18 percent.
Knicks fans just don't know their kid anymore. He used to have the voice of Marv Albert, the strength of Oakley and the mind of Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy. He used to have the toughness of Anthony Mason and the grit of John Starks. Now their little boy has the flow of Ron Artest's new album and a face like Sam Cassell's.
They want their little boy back. They want him to listen and not draft Frederick Weis (famous for getting dunked on by Vince Carter in the World Basketball Championships a couple years ago) in the first round. They want him to stick with youth, let these awful contracts expire and rid himself of Isaiah and other horrible influences.
The memories of his baby pictures (Ewing's arms opened wide after clinching the East title in '94 and Larry Johnson's 4-point play in '99) remind Knicks fans of the good times. There's still time for him to redeem himself. The problem is children are supposed to make their own decisions and learn from their mistakes, but he just keeps screwing up.
Knicks fans will always love their little boy, but they just want to be able to relate to him. They're this close to disowning him and throwing him out on the curb. Maybe then he'll learn a lesson but probably not. He'll probably just sign DeSagana Diop to a max contract.
Ah, kids these days.
To learn more about superstar DeSagana Diop, e-mail Sam at sepper@wisc.edu.
