Have We Reached the Nexus of the Universe - The Knicks are good

There's a scene in Seinfeld when Kramer calls Jerry from a payphone at East First Street and First Avenue in the Lower East Side and says he's at the Nexus of the Universe.

After years of losing and in the quagmire with no end in sight, we've sort of reached that point with the Knicks. We knew the Knicks would be better, how could they not be after last year, but open up with six wins in nine games, I don't think we saw that coming.

But that's where they are after Friday's 116-106 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Don't let the score fool you, it wasn't that close, they were up 30 and outscored 52-32 over the final 15 minutes or so.

Regardless of the near-collapse and the soft schedule, a win is a win. If the Knicks are jostling in the playoff race, a 10-point win counts as much as a 30-point rout.

The Knicks haven't opened up this well since 1999 - the last time they made the finals. They haven't sniffed three games over .500 since December 29, 2004 when Stephon Marbury scored 32 points against Minnesota following a pep talk from the former front office executive who shall not be named.

He is gone and Marbury's time as America's highest paid no-show worker seems to be ending sometime soon.

The Knicks have not been four games over .500 since the end of the 2000-01 season. They can get there by beating old "friend" Jason Kidd and giving him a real headache instead of the one he claimed to have last December.

The Knicks probably won't be very good but at least we'll have an idea of what's going on

In case you've been scoring at home, the Knicks over the last seven years have been terrible. They've appeared in four playoff games and won none of them and their combined regular-season record is a sterling 218-356. They've also been stuck in the stone age when it comes to information but since Donnie Walsh has come aboard, those media policies have become a thing of the past.



Proof of that besides the obvious comes from Jamal Crawford blogging for Newsday, which happens to be owned by Cablevision. Perhaps the best evidence is today's episode of Real Training Camp on NBA-TV. If you've ever seen the show, it's an open practice coming into your living room with commentary and today the Knicks were the featured team.

Today's episode saw them do a lot of running which is what the system of new coach Mike D'Antoni is about. In Phoenix he liked to get the shot off in seven seconds or less, whether he can do that here is another story.

One thing that viewers saw is Eddy Curry practice for the first time after being stricken with a 104-degree fever last week. Viewers also saw Stephon Marbury look in the best shape of his career as he prepares for a possible role as a reserve.

The Knicks will probably not very good, maybe somewhere in the 30s in the win department. D'Antoni is throwing it against the wall and see what sticks but the fact that the organization is allowing fans to watch a practice on TV is a step into the modern era even if it's a little late.