Weekly Mail July 2, 2017

Happy July!!

The year is half over. Summer is here! All is right in the world. Well, not really, but I find it's easier to deal with when the days are longer.

So let's see what we got here....



POLITICS: A Better Comparison:

I love New York Magazine. It may be more left of center than my politics would allow, but it's very well written and many of the stories suck me in.

Frank Rich sometimes drives me nuts with some of his right wing bashing, but I have found him to be honest when it comes to dealing with the likes of President Trump. Although he was one of many who compared Trump to Adolf Hitler, he also pointed out the fallacy in that, pointing out that the score on killing people was several million to 0 in favor of the fuehrer.

In last week's NY Magazine, Rich made a more apt comparison, putting our 45th President up against our 37th.

And even in that, Rich, certainly no fan of either pointed out that Richard Nixon had several attributes. Ones that the Donald couldn't even dream of.

Rich points out that Nixon, for all his faults and demons, was a brilliant man. Nixon rose from dust bowl poverty, while Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Nixon was an officer who saw combat in WWII, Trump dodged Vietnam. Nixon had a firm grasp of American History, was extremely well read, and a loyal husband and father. Trump? None of the above.

Of all the things Nixon had over Trump, the most impressive was his landslide victory. Trump as, everyone loves to point out lost the popular vote. Nixon, running for his second term, won in the biggest rout in history to that point.

But the press paranoia, the lies and the cover ups are all too similar between the two men. Nixon had G. Gordon Liddy, Trump has Steve Bannon.

The gist of the piece is that for everybody whose afraid that because of a GOP led Congress Trump has no chance of being impeached, there is hope. Rich says that Trump is still fully capable of imploding to the point where even skunks like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell will have no choice but to show him the door.


NBA: Knicks have their Phil of Jackson:


I don't know what was celebrated more..the announcement in March, 2014 that Phil Jackson was coming here to run the Knicks, or the news this week that he was being run out of town.

Some people were apprehensive about letting a 68 year old with no front office experience take over a franchise for the first time in his life. I kind of took the Donald Trump approach to it, you know when Trump would say on the campaign trail, "Vote for me, what the hell do you have to lose?"

What indeed?

I thought if your going to roll the dice on a 68 year old rookie GM, rolling it on one with 13 rings (11 as a coach 2 as a player) is as safe a  bet as you're going to get. I figured he would be motivated to build a winner, if for no other reason, when they handed him the Larry O'Brien trophy, he could say, "There are only two men who led this godforsaken franchise to a title. Myself and my basketball father Red Holtzman."

When he was coaching the Bulls, and beating the Knicks a$$es, it was hard to remember how much being a Knick had meant to him. The first time I remember saying to myself, "He truly was a Knick" was when he had to cut short an NBA Finals pregame press conference, because he was overcome upon learning of the death of his former Knick teammate, Dave DeBusschere in 2003.

In 2013 he came to MSG as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the last Knicks NBA title, and he received the loudest ovation... even louder than Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier. At that moment, I thought he'd come here in a heartbeat if he got the chance.

And when he did, I'll admit I was excited. Not only that, I preached patience, even when people started calling for his head.

Yes, he signed some disastrous free agents. Yes, he probably should have given Mike Woodson a chance to work with him, instead of bringing in Derek Fisher.

Yes, he should have given up on the triangle offense. People try to diminish what he accomplished as a coach by saying he only coached the greatest players. I always say that his main talent was convincing Michael Jordan to utilize Scottie Pippen, getting Shaq and Kobe to work together, and convincing Michael and Scottie to tolerate Dennis Rodman. I don't dismiss any of that, I honestly don't think too many other people could pull that off. But that was his true genius, not some offensive system.

But he made a real nice draft pick in Kristaps Porzingis, a pick that was pretty much universally panned at the time. Another youngster he acquired from the Sixers, Wille Hernangomez, just made the all rookie team. If this point guard from France turns out to be a solid player, that's three good building blocks provided by Jackson. Isiah Thomas didn't even provide one.

Unfortunately, he signed Carmelo to a long term deal and then spent a good deal of time trying to trade that contract off the books. He also pulled another Trumpian trick and relied on tweets rather than face the NY Media, when he promised a transparent relationship with them. Finally, he tried to screw up one of the few things he got right by trading Porzingis because the young Latvian blew off an end of year meeting. Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!

I think what ultimately sank the Zen Master was that he ended up treating this as a part time gig. He spent as much time in Los Angeles as he did at the Garden. Shoot if I had the choice of sitting on the beach or freezing my a$$ off here in the Big Apple, maybe I'd opt for the former. But if I'm getting paid big bucks to produce in NY, I'd stay in NY.  I have my beefs with Sandy Alderson, Scott Gordon and Mike Macagnan, (Mets Rangers Jets) but I know those guys pour their hearts into their jobs. I didn't get that feeling with Jackson.

I really felt like he wanted to put a cherry on the sundae that was his career. It's pretty hard to tarnish a resume that includes as many titles as he has, but he sure did try to do that didn't he?

TV: Hawaii Five-Oh No!

My dad used to bust my chops, because when I would hear of a star leaving a show, I would automatically predict said show's demise. The first time I pulled that was when Shelley Long left Cheers, (the show lasted 7 more seasons), then again when David Caruso left NYPD Blue (11 more seasons). If I was old enough at the time, I'm sure I would have made the same predictions after MacLean Stevenson and Wayne Rogers left M*A*S*H, (8 more seasons).

So maybe I'm jumping the gun here (who ME?) but I really can't imagine Hawaii Five-0 lasting many more seasons now that two of it's core four are not coming back.

Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, who played Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakuana respectively, are leaving the show due to a contract dispute, namely that they are not getting paid the same as stars Alex O'Loughlin (Steve McGarrett) and Scott Caan (Danny Williams). I believe they have a serious gripe. Yes McGarrett and Danno are the two main characters, but Chin and Kono are right there as well. Cutting them loose is a sure case of penny wise pound foolish. It's almost like paying George more than Kramer and Elaine. (Since Jerry created the show, I'm sure he got paid a ton more).

Maybe the show will survive, maybe they'll bring in some new blood. But I'm not sure. Chin and Kono lent a local flavor to the show set in Honolulu. I guarantee at the very least, they will be sorely missed.

On Tuesday, we wish America a very Happy 241st Birthday.

Have a Great Week