Hank Kalet

The basketball preseason opens tonight for my beloved New York Knickerbockers, so forgive me a moment of obviously unwarranted optimism — it’s likely the only chance I’ll have to be optimistic about the Knicks.

Five reasons for optimism:

1. Channing Frye — The young power forward showed last season that he will be a good player in the NBA, possibly an all-star. But he was a bit soft. So this year, he comes in bigger and stronger and could be the down-low presence the team needs.
2. Eddy Curry — The center has all the tools. The big question is whether he has the attitude. Freed from Larry Brown’s accusatory stare (and let’s face it, Brown was as much to blame for last year’s disaster as the players, the GM and ownership — it truly was a team effort), Curry might just find the confidence to shine.
3. The Marbury/Francis tandem — If these guys can find a way to coexist and play some D, then we could have one of the best backcourts in the league — especially with Jamaal Crawford developing into a solid performer.
4. Jamaal Crawford — Right now, he is the team’s best player. His defense has improved, he handles the ball well and he’s a streaky shooter. But he has game and is willing to take the big shot.
5. Isaiah Thomas — Thomas is bringing a fresh attitude to the team after a year of turmoil and bad vibes. This is his roster and he maybe the right guy to get it to play better.

Five reasons for skepticism (call this the reality-based category):

1. Isaiah Thomas — This is his team and it remains dysfunctional and badly constructed. If he comes to this job with the same lack of foresight and shapeshifting that he approaches roster building, then the Knicks are doomed to repeat last year’s debacle.
2. Marbury/Francis — If they can’t coexist, if they can’t share the ball with each other or the other important Knicks then guys like Frye, Curry and Crawford will not grow as players and the team will lose 60.
3. Eddy Curry — He proves to be the next Jerome James.
4. Jalen Rose — What is he doing here? His presence can only mean trouble down the road.
5. Dolan and Thomas — No one should have any illusions that these guys know what they are doing.

So there it is. At least I can watch the Mets.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Tyler Stanger died in a plane crash in New York City yesterday.

He was a flight instructor and the plane in which he was flying crashed into a high-rise apartment building in Midtown, killing him and another man.

Oh, did I mention that the other man was Cory Lidle, New York Yankee pitcher?

I didn’t have to because that has been the focus of all the coverage — whether it be on ESPN or Good Morning America, whether it is in the New York Daily News or The New York Times.

I need to state up front that this little rant has nothing to do with Mr. Lidle, a useful big-league pitcher. His death was unfortunate as are all accidental deaths, whether they occur in the air or on the ground, whether in a plane, a car or wherever.

My complaint is with the media, of which I am a card-carrying member, and the celebrity-obsessed culture in which we live. The Lidle angle has taken off, mostly because he was a C-level celebrity. That, in the culture we live in is enough to elevate him above the rest of us.

Again, no disrespect to Mr. Lidle, but he was one of two to die. And yet, Mr. Stanger’s life has been reduced to an afterthought:

It took The New York Times, for instance, nine paragraphs in its Web version to mention his name and The New York Post 13 paragraphs in its Web version. And Good Morning America only mentioned him in passing this morning. Even the Associated Press, waited five paragraphs to offer the name — even though it was the newest piece of information available in the story.

I’m not asking that we devote the same level of coverage to Mr. Stanger, or that we even present his biography — that info was not available (his name didn’t come out until this morning) . All I ask is that he be treated as important, that his name be in the first few paragraphs, that we recognize that he died in the same crash and that there are people who care as much about him as care about Mr. Lidle.

That’s all I’m asking.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

the second victim

Eric Alterman blogs on a report from The Washington Post that estimates that 655,000 more Iraqis have died since the invasion than would have had we left the country alone. And yet, where’s the outrage?

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

I’m not sure what to say about this aside from commenting on how odd it is and unfortunate;

Lidle dies as plane crashes into Manhattan high-rise

NEW YORK — A small plane with New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle aboard crashed into a 50-story condominium tower Wednesday on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, killing at least two people — including Lidle — and raining flaming debris on sidewalks, authorities said.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Here are what some of the state’s bloggers are saying about Tom Kean and his unwillingness to engage the families from Military Families Speak Out:

Opinion Mill:

Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr., who wants people to think he’d be bold enough to be his own man even within the Republican Party, lacks the spine to directly address relatives of soldiers who are now facing deadly danger in Iraq. Kean, who supports the war and echoes the GOP line about staying the course instead of doing a “cut-and-run,” did a little cutting and running of his own a few days ago when a member of the anti-war group Military Families Speak Out confronted him at a studio taping. Kean turned his back on her and later accused his opponent, incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez, of “using their personal grief for his own partisan agenda.”

Trouble is, by not offering anything approaching a coherent explanation for his continued support of a disastrous war built on lies — and by refusing even to look a woman in the eye who wants him to explain his position on the biggest issue in this race — Kean is also trying to gain political advantage by not alienating conservative voters.

Blanton and Ashton’s:

Kean’s attack says much more about him than it does about these frightened New Jersey citizens. They aren’t political animals, these members of Military Families Speak Out. Their political position is all about one issue and they have no hidden agenda: they don’t think this war was worth the sacrifices and they want their people home. It isn’t a nefarious scheme. But Kean, the son of former Governor Tom Kean Senior, is a politician to the core of his being. For Kean, it’s not about public service. Last spring, with the state in a budget crisis, instead of showing leadership and remaining on the Budget Committee to help hammer out a budget for the state, he quit the committee so that he could avoid being responsible for the budget, just in case anyone complained about it. His goal is winning elections, period.

And the conservative blog, Enlighten-New Jersey:

Fausta describes how desperate the Bob Menendez for Senate campaign has become and provides a link to a must see report by WCBS TV on the anatomy of a smear campaign against Tom Kean by Menendez. The report entitled Behind the Scenes of a Political Smear catches the Menendez team in action. Check it out.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick