The Earthing of the Knicks

'Melo and Co. need too take a look in a mirror and rid themselves of this arrogance (Credits: Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty Images)

Somewhere in the Knicks scintilating and surprising 18-5 start, they had tapped the DNA of a championship team. They had suffocating defense, whirling ball movement, deadly three point shooting and a superstar who was playing at a level that no one knew he had. By dismantling the Heat twice, stinging the Spurs in a great comeback and mangling everyone else in between, the Knicks had made their statement to the NBA: "We're for real."

But in the last 29 games something in the internal workings of the Knicks has failed them. You could try to sit here and blame it on the Raymond Felton injury or pin it on the Knicks old, old age, but something else has been lacking, seriously. A complacency and arrogance has begun to plague them and it's costing them embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss. Jason Kidd's magic has lost it's power over this team. 'Melo is reverting back to the selfish, all-for-me player that he was early last season. Steve Novak is no longer a game changing three-point assassin. Shumpert just doesn't look right. J.R. Smith is well...J.R. Smith. Amar'e Stoudemire couldn't guard a tree. AndMike Woodson's only answer? A ever-present death stare which is now starting to stare into my soul and not just the players on this team. (Honestly, it burns a hole in your head).

Simply put, this team is playing like that 18-5 start is all they need to get into the playoffs. They just don't seem to care until the fourth quarter when they think they can just turn it on, play lockdown D and embarrass their opponents on offense. For a good part of this last 29-game stretch they've been able to get away with it, but now? Now their arrogance is turning on them and it's leaving them treading in muddy waters.

Folks, these are your critics' Knicks. This is Charles Barkley's Knicks. This is Reggie Miller's Carmelo Anthony. This is a hater statistician's wet dream. This is when the uneducated sports fan says, "Classic Knicks, they won't ever win anything." This when the retirement home jokes become tirelessly relevant. If you're a Knicks fan you should be disgusted by the thought of Heat fans (still not sure if there are any) basking in the glory of what should be a open freeway to the NBA Finals, because if the Knicks play like this in the playoffs they'll have a hard time escaping the quarter-finals.

Yet I'm not here to harp on the negativity nor am I here to dwell on how ugly the Knicks' play has been. I'm here to say that this putridness can be removed; that the Knicks can re-find their winning ways. Yeah, it might help that Rasheed Wallace and Marcus Camby are close to returning (hopefully), but a turnaround starts internally. Accountability needs to written across the forehead of everyone in that clubhouse. Someone in that locker room needs to stand up and test the manhood of the rest of the squad. You'd think that it'd be Tyson Chandler, easily the Knicks most consistent player. I mean without him this team crumbles to the ground faster than Chris Bosh in an All-Star game. But I think it's got to come from somewhere else and they might have just found their foreigner. Enter Kenyon Martin.

Let me say this, K-Mart is a shell of his old self. He is no longer the defensive stalwart with a penitence for putting people on posters, nor is his body even a sure thing on that court anymore. But there is something about Kenyon Martin that will never die, his fire. K-Mart isn't afraid of anyone, he doesn't bow in the presence of greatness instead he wants to fight it, to test it and if it's on his own team he wants to turn it up a few notches. That's the most important asset this old, creaky Kenyon Martin can give the Knicks. As Alan Hahn put it so graciously when they signed him, "He can come in and shake up this country club attitude." I'm 100% sure this 10-day contract will transform into a guaranteed one and that K-Mart will come in and make his presence felt off-the-court. In the small percentage chance his presence is felt on the court then things could turn around for the Knicks immediately.

Kenyon Martin or not, this team needs to look in the mirror and stop acting like a couple blowout victories over the Heat in December makes them the favorite in the East. There is a serious amount of work to be done just to win 50 games. 50 GAMES! People we're clamoring about this team winning 60 GAMES and they are now struggling to just get to 50, in the Eastern Conference no less. But that also adds to my point, a championship has been written into this team's DNA. I've never felt so good about a team in a 23-game sample (legitimate sample size) then I did in the beginning of the season. This team can win the championship, but will they? Who knows. It's honestly up to them. If they are "so desirous," as they say, of the Larry O'Brien trophy they will get it. I 100% believe that.

However conjuring up the magic of the beginning of the season and pushing the clear favorite Miami Heat in the playoffs is much easier said than done. So at this point all I can ask going forward is that they play with every ounce of effort in their body, get that #2 seed and make the Eastern Conference Finals. From there on anything they do is the cherry on top, but anything less than a date with LeBron James in the NBA Finals will be extremely disappointing.

Gut-check time, 'Melo.