Topic: Knicks

Mike D'Antoni left the Knicks amidst accusations that his coaching style was too rigid. This after his tenue in Phoenix, where he earned a reputation as a free-thinking revolutionary who opposed any and all basketball orthodoxy. Neither one is exactly true, and neither does the man justice.

Before he became an intermittently dazzling, generally vexing NBA role player, Bill Walker was the next big thing. Now he's the NBA's Everyman, for better and for worse—and that's totally fine.

Tyson Chandler and J. R. Smith both came to the Knicks as free agents this year, drawn there by the allure of the city as much as the franchise's plans. One of them had every right to do so. The other, well, that depends on what you think it means to play for the Knicks. 

In the fortune cookie splashed on the screen, we can decipher two games Lin is playing and winning—one is basketball, the other is the portrayal of Asians in the American media complex. Winning one wins the other.