Generally, it’s not sufficient to easily crave the fairytale ending. Generally, actuality will get in the way in which, takes a Zippo lighter to the ultimate few chapters, turns them to ash. Generally, it seems Thomas Wolfe was proper. Generally, you may’t go dwelling once more.
That isn’t the way in which this leg of Kemba Walker’s basketball journey was presupposed to go. Again in August, when the Knicks first imported him through Oklahoma Metropolis, there have been quick recollections of Walker the hoops phenom out of Rice Excessive, the newest in a protracted lineage of New York point-guard royalty that dates to Dick McGuire.
There have been crimson flags, certain: his age, his latest damage historical past, the 25,000 NBA minutes’ price of tread already on his tires. The greeting he received from the Backyard, opening evening in opposition to the Celtics, was a welcome-home roar he’d waited his entire life to listen to. And if solely the closing credit might’ve rolled then, perhaps everybody would’ve walked away happy.
However there was little or no satisfaction from there.
“We knew there was threat concerned,” coach Tom Thibodeau stated Wednesday, after Walker determined to close himself down for the remainder of the season, successfully ending his tenure as a Knick. “And we thought it was price it.”
Because it seems, the warning flares had all been honest. Walker was a step slower than earlier than. He shot barely 40 % from the sphere. He couldn’t guard anybody. Thibodeau was the primary to do one thing about this, gluing Walker to the bench 20 video games into the season, a wholesome scratch for 9 straight in December.
There he could have stayed, completely, if the Knicks hadn’t gotten ransacked by COVID-19, if Derrick Rose hadn’t gone down with an ankle damage. Walker got here again. He had a couple of throwback nights, together with a 44-point explosion in opposition to the Wizards on Dec. 23, and a triple-double in opposition to the Hawks on Christmas Day.
However that was a mirage. He received damage once more, and when he returned he really was a shell of what he’d been. Throughout his last 13 video games as a Knicks he averaged solely 8.1 factors, shot solely 37 %. What occurred Wednesday has felt inevitable for weeks; the query was actually if it could occur this manner or with a buyout. Now, Walker will get to try to get effectively sufficient to play once more. It can virtually actually be elsewhere; with an expiring contract subsequent summer season, he's formally an asset for the Knicks.
Extra helpful as a line merchandise than a basketball participant. Sure. The Hollywood ending certain did wind up in flames.
“We totally help Kemba’s choice to close it down for the rest of the season and to make use of this time to arrange for subsequent season,” Knicks president Leon Rose stated in a press release. “His long-term success on the courtroom stays our precedence.”
That quantities to a concession speech from the Knicks’ boss, for whom Walker was (together with Evan Fournier) a prize pickup of the summer season, within the hope the Knicks might construct on final 12 months’s 41-31 success story.
As a substitute, Walker (and Fournier, to a lesser extent) develop into emblematic of what certain looks like a troubling strand of dysfunction percolating between the 2 most essential members of the Knicks’ hierarchy. Neither participant matches snugly into Thibodeau’s favored system, and whereas the coach stated the fitting issues after they have been acquired — and has continued to start out Fournier — Walker’s benching was clearly a cudgel the coach used to show his displeasure.
Walker was most likely going to be additional minimized anyway. Rose is anticipated again, and although Alec Burks will most likely begin at level for now, Rose will instantly gobble up Walker’s minutes. Thibodeau has stated he's dedicated to turning the Knicks right into a meritocracy over the remainder of the season, and whereas Walker wouldn’t have been alone, there’s little query he would’ve fallen prey to that the way in which his sport has decayed.
Both method, the narrative had already been damaged. What started in The Bronx, on the Sack Wern Homes in Soundview and moved on to the Gauchos and to Rice and to at least one unforgettable week on the Backyard whereas he was at UConn was presupposed to culminate on this grand last act, a No. 8 on his again and “New York” on his chest.
Besides somebody received their arms on that model of the story. And somebody took a Zippo lighter to them.
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