As for J-Kidd, I don’t trust him. I think he’s just trying to get more money by using the NYK as a bargaining tool. All we can offer is the MLE for one year and the promise of a bright future (a future that he can’t possibly be a part of due to his age and declining skills). Outside of that, why wouldn’t he sign the mid-level and play for a championship contender like BOS, LA or CLE?

Furthermore, I feel that it would be awfully altruistic of him to come and play for less. This team could use his leadership and the insight he has on a winning culture. I also think it would be nice for his kids to be able to see their father more often. However, I just don’t believe in his interest in playing for the NYK.

This was a hard fought win on a night when the majority of the team just didn’t bring their A game and energy. Nate is really starting to come around since Duhon went down on the last West Coast swing before the break. He’s a very talented player and he shows that an aggressive attitude with his play. I knew D. Lee wasn’t going to make those free throws with a minute to go in a tight game. He also missed some clutch ones in the home game against the T-Dot. I won’t hate on him, that’s just not his stage. Can’t argue with his 20 double doubles. Garnett had 33 in the 2005-2006 season (check on the year i might be off). If Lee continues, that would really make this an impressive year for him.

Overall, I’m happy with the way these guys are playing so far. I’m looking forward to how this will go the closer to the end we get. Hopefully, Hughes gets his legs back and learns how to get his points within the flow of the system. It’s not fair that NY is judging him right now but, then again, you gotta be able to take it if you’re playing in the City. It’s’ up to him to prove the naysayers wrong. It looks like Wilcox should fit in nicely with the system. It would be nice to get some ruggedness into the offense.

As it stands, the transformation of the Knicks has taken place this season. It’s a welcome change from the past 8 years. The future is looking brighter…

On the Knicks side of the ball, it just looked like we don’t have any cohesion. The personnel we have assembled don’t work well together at all and our talent level is more suited for bench roles (borderline blow out losses bench).

The game is so much different when you see it up close and in person. As much as I do appreciate the character and hard work of David Lee, his points and rebounds have no impact. He plays passively and doesn’t box out or anything. Everytime he gets the ball it looks like he wants to immediately get rid of it. Or to put it a better way, he doesn’t look confident playing the game. Al Harrington is selfish, Gallo is too young physically, Duhon is limited, Tim Thomas plays no D, and Nate is too small.

The fact that these guys look as good as they do is a complete credit to Coach Mike D’Antoni. In retrospect, I can see D. Walsh’s thinking. He has D’Antoni and his system make the product look better than they are so that he can trade and gut the team. then he’ll try and get at least 2 stars from the 2010 class a la how the Celtics have done with KG and Ray Allen.

It’s going to be rough but we’re finally rebuilding…

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/business/economy/10corporate.html?ref=politics

Hollinger’s Scouting Report on Stoudemire:

“The one big negative in Stoudemire’s game is his defense. He’s a poor help defender and tends to pick up cheap fouls. His effort level was particularly awful early in the year but picked up quite a bit as the year went on. As mentioned above, fouls tend to be a big differentiator with him — if he gets a quick two, he’ll don a toreador outfit for the remainder of the half…

If Stoudemire has an offensive weakness, it’s that he’s largely a finisher. He doesn’t have much of a post game and has posted very low assist rates his whole career. Also, he tends to run people over on those rolls to the basket — he was fourth in the NBA with 44 offensive fouls. Nonetheless, the big picture is that he’s the most efficient scorer in basketball right now.”

According to Hollinger’s critique it seems like STAT doesn’t have a low post game and doesn’t play defense. It seems like he’s more of a stat stuffer and that worries me…

“There were nervous months after the switch as the company awaited the reaction from advertisers and readers, but before long InfoWorld’s Web audience was growing and its business improved. Today, I.D.G. says, the InfoWorld Web site is generating ad revenue of $1.6 million a month with operating profit margins of 37 percent.”

As the Web Producer for InfoWorld, it’s good to see hard work pay off.

Here’s the New York Times article: “Publisher Tested the Waters Online, Then Dove In”

My first impression of Dr. Fontenot was that he seemed like a reasonable man. He seemed to be very serious but not serious in an uptight way but instead focused and very direct. I was skeptical when I was recommended to him but as I sat there watching him look over my past semester’s work I felt like my academic future was in good hands. That was until he recommended English 225 as a required course for the semester.

I explained to him how I thought it wasn’t such a wise idea to be taking a higher level English class when I didn’t do so well previously. I pleaded to him to reconsider another course of action by explaining to him how my last English teacher didn’t help me to improve my work. I told him about the time when I came up to my teacher after class to help me get above “C” work and how she replied that a “C” was a good grade. This teacher, who looked at me as a dumb jock, thinking that I had no intelligence and that I wasn’t going to get any better. I didn’t want any part of English. I fulfilled my English requirement at this university and didn’t plan on taking any more English courses…or so I thought.

I remember how I dreaded the first day of this new English class. It didn’t help that the whole campus seemed to be going into the same building at 12 noon. It was bottleneck getting into the front door thanks to the new construction that was taking place. As I finally found the classroom I saw some friends of mine were taking the same class. Whew! At least if I gotta grind this semester out, I got some peeps that I can work with. I found a seat next to them and started bullshitting about the party last night and the party going down at my house that night.

The last person to enter the classroom was this 6 foot 3 inch middle aged man in an olive suit. I remember thinking, “damn, this dude is HUGE”. I mean, when this guy stepped in the room, you knew he was there. Then he introduced himself – Dr. Ralph D. Story, badass from Cleveland, Ohio – and instructed us to take out a pen and a pad. The in-class assignment (WTF?) was to argue any 1 of 10 topics.
Luckily for me, one of the 10 topics was to argue whether or not the university should pay student athletes. Considering I had just argued this point the night before at my house party, I felt like I was in good enough shape to write a decent paper. “Maybe I’ll get a ‘B’ out of this”, I thought.

The following week I was heading into the same bottleneck as I trudged into class. As I was walking – more like standing in place – up the stairs, I bumped into Dr. Story.

“Hey, you’re Kwansah Madani”, he said.

“Yup”, I replied.

“You’re a dope ass writer”, he said.

“Thanks”, I said incredulously.

“I’ll see you in class alright”, and with that he walked through the entrance.

I walked to my desk slightly dazed. “How did he know my name?”, I wondered. “Wow, he thinks I’m a pretty good writer.” As i took my seat, Dr. Story got up and announced to the class that we were going to be joining into groups and critiquing the top 10 papers from last weeks in-class assignment. This exercise was to help us discover what it takes to write a good paper. The only request was that the people who wrote any of the 10 papers be anonymous when we critique it.

I remember it feeling similar to English class in high school. As we sat in our groups of four and got down to critiquing these papers, I was interested to uncover the secrets behind being a good writer. Going through each paper, one by one, I saw how impressive each writer’s talent and style was. Then, to my surprise, the next paper we went to critique was mine. God, I couldn’t believe it. I was smiling my ass off on the inside. I couldn’t believe that me who couldn’t do better than a “C” the semester before, could write an “A” paper. I remember when my group started asking my opinion about my paper and how I had to tell them that I couldn’t participate. I felt like a million bucks.

At the end of class, I went up to Dr. Story and told him how much I appreciated him giving me an “A”. To this day I think about how that class was one of the turning points in my life. Not only did it give me confidence in myself but it also established a real friendship that still lasts to this day.

Any energy I had at the start of the New Year I used up for the past month developing mobile and desktop UI for this Windows Sentinel widget. Since late March – early April I’ve been working on this project in order to implement a tool that we can develop for both mobile and desktop platforms for InfoWorld Online . One of the coolest things about this project was that I got my very own iPod Touch just for “testing purposes”. At least that’s what I tell my girl. Okay, it’s a half truth but I needed to understand what the user experience was going to be for any user attempting to get this widget through a mobile portal. Well, I see that our research and hard work paid off because yesterday I just saw that Apple is promoting our new mobile widget on their site.

Apple/InfoWorld Windows Sentinel promo

InfoWorld Winsentinel Landing page

I am very impressed with the 76ers resiliency. I thought that they were about to get their ass handed to them after watching them fade in the first half of tonight’s game. However, the Andres (Iguodala and Miller) turned it on in the second half to lead them back. They didn’t exactly close the deal as Detroit had numerous opportunities to force OT. But, in the end, Philly hit their shots and Detroit didn’t.

What was probably more surprising than Philly’s win was Detroit’s lack of interest down the stretch in the second half. It seemed like this team lost interest midway through the third quarter as they seemed to be pulling away. Lately I’ve been reading alot of praise for Rasheed Wallace, the misunderstood voice-box of the Detroit Pistons. However, I felt that his lack of leadership has cost this team over the last few years. Now, I understand that Rasheed doesn’t want to be a leader and would rather be a teammate. But, the most unselfish , team-oriented thing you could do is play your part when your team needs you. In this case his part is to elevate your game and lead the way for your teammates. Show them how it gets done.

On the other spectrum is Andre Iguodala who looks like he plays hard. I haven’t had a chance to see him play that often this season but, what I saw today was impressive. He actually reminded me of the original and only “A.I.” just by his grit and determination. It seemed that he was willing his team to win. When the going got tough, Andre put the team on his back and made it happen. When the 76ers needed FT to seal the deal, it was Igoudala who accepted the challenge.

Look out Detroit. It seems you have a challenge in the first round.