Knicks beat Spurs, acrimony remains
KNICKS 94, SPURS 90
NEW YORK — When Charles Oakley was yanked from his seats and put into handcuffs, the New York Knicks didn’t just embarrass a stalwart from their past.
They may have ensured more futility in their future.
The Knicks managed to end a turbulent week Sunday with a 94-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs, a model of stability and success — everything New York isn’t.
A couple of more victories would halt the Knicks’ slide in the standings, but the fallout from what’s happened off the court won’t be so easy to fix.
Current and former players and people around the NBA, already puzzled by the Knicks’ treatment this season of Carmelo Anthony, were in disbelief at what they saw happening to Oakley on Wednesday night.
The 6-foot-8 former Knick was arrested and dragged away from his seats during a game, and Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan banned Oakley from the arena Friday. That came after team President Phil Jackson tweeted a dig about Anthony and his will to win Tuesday.
“If you’re a [free agent] to be, why would you play for an owner who treats the past greats like this or a President who stabs a star player in the back?” Hall of Fame player Reggie Miller wrote on Twitter.
Free agency is a problem for July. For now, the Knicks (23-33) are stumbling to the Feb. 23 trade deadline.
“I think the other night, what happened is just an accumulation of an incident on top of an incident on top of everything that’s going on that’s surrounding the New York Knicks organization right now,” Anthony said. “It’s just kind of this cloud over us right now that we have to figure out a way to get out of it, and I think you have to be in it, you have to be going through it in order to understand it.
“From the outside looking in, it looks bad, and it’s even worse when you’re going through it.”
Dolan made it clear Friday that Jackson will be the one who leads them out of it — if Jackson wants. Either side can opt out of the remaining two years of Jackson’s five-year contract this summer, but Dolan said during an ESPN Radio interview that he plans to give his president of basketball operations the full five years — and maybe even more.
And he pledged again to allow Jackson to make all the basketball decisions, which will include whether to seek a trade for Anthony or re-sign Derrick Rose.
Anthony’s salary, age (32) and ability to decline any
trade make it difficult for the Knicks to find a deal that works for both sides, and a long-term contract for Rose could be risky given his injury history and the questions he created about his own commitment to the team when he skipped a game this season without alerting team officials.
Jackson hasn’t given much reason for confidence that he has the answers. The Knicks had their worst record ever in his first full season and are 71-148 since that 2014-15 campaign, and the damage he’s done to his relationship with Anthony makes it look like he’s better at fracturing a team than building one.
Yet Dolan hardly expressed any disappointment in the radio interview.
“Whether I like the results or don’t like the results, I am going to honor that agreement all the way to the end,” Dolan said, “and it’s not over yet and my hope is that the team will become much, much better and that Phil will be successful.”
Sunday’s victory came just two nights after the Knicks yielded 131 points in a dismal defensive performance against Denver, which came after losses to Cleveland and both Los Angeles teams to start the homestand.
Kawhi Leonard had 36 points for the Spurs (41-13), who had their two-game win streak snapped and failed in their first attempt to secure what would have been an NBA-record 20th consecutive winning season.
The Knicks didn’t let the Spurs reach 70 points until fewer than eight minutes remained.
In other NBA games Sunday, Andrew Wiggins scored 27 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 22 to help Minnesota beat severely short-handed Chicago 117-89 in Minneapolis. Ricky Rubio had 17 points, 11 assists and 6 rebounds and Minnesota shot 54 percent to help Coach Tom Thibodeau sweep the season series against his former team. … Tobias Harris had 24 points off the bench, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 21, including a go-ahead three-pointer with 13.2 seconds left and visiting Detroit overcame a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Toronto 102-101. Andre Drummond had 10 points and 18 rebounds for his 36th double-double of the season as the Pistons snapped a four-game skid in Toronto. DeMar DeRozan scored 26 points for Toronto. … DeMarcus Cousins had 28 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists for Sacramento Kings, which rebounded from a halftime deficit to beat New Orleans 105-99 in Sacramento, Calif., for their third consecutive victory. The Kings assumed the lead late in the third quarter and never relinquished it in winning for the fourth time in five games. Anthony Davis had 32 points and 10 rebounds for the Pelicans, but was limited to 11 points following a huge first half