Some Knicks fans joined in unison on Sunday and voiced their frustrations with their team’s struggles, calling for Mike D’Antoni‘s job in the waning moments of New York’s fifth consecutive loss, a 106-94 defeat by the 76ers.
With a minute to go in the contest, chants of “Fire D’Antoni!” reportedly rang out briefly from portions of the Madison Square Garden crowd. It’s the first time that’s happened since January, just before Jeremy Lin came in and temporarily resurrected the team (and also D’Antoni’s job security). But Lin’s numbers recently have begun to subside and so too obviously has the frequency of Knicks wins. Sunday’s loss brought the Knicks’ record to 18-23, good enough for eighth in the East. With the rest of the team also bearing the brunt of boo birds Sunday, it might be safe to say Linsanity is now dead.
When you have a team such as the Knicks that made a lot of aggressive moves with their roster, of course there are going to be massive expectations attached, especially in a market like New York. And when a team like that stumbles as badly as the Knicks have, jeers are more than likely to come, and it’s been a sore subject for the Knicks and D’Antoni’s family.
The only problem is things might be getting worse. New York faces the Bulls on Monday and the Pacers back-to-back on Friday and Saturday. D’Antoni right about now probably wishes he had a Jeremy Lin clone who can respark last month’s magic while also helping out on defense and the boards.
Photo credit: Matthew Emmons, US Presswire
