Everything is set up for the New York Knicks to succeed. The franchise is based in the lucrative surrounds of one of America's major metropolises and according to the Forbes Team Values, are second only to Los Angeles Lakers in terms of revenue.
Yet they perenially under-achieve and are probably dollar for dollar the worst team in the NBA.
Indeed this season, they really are the worst. Rock bottom of the Eastern Conference, the Knicks have won just 10 games from 53 in the regular season and have the worst winning record of the 30 current NBA teams this campaign.
But why are they so bad despite being quite wealthy?
We tried to answer that riddle on Off The Ball tonight with the help of Frank Isola of The New York Daily News .
"The NBA is a different sport. It's not like in Europe where the top soccer clubs can just keep buying players by spending a lot of money. There's a salary cap. So once you make a mistake in the NBA and signing the wrong kind of players to long-term contracts, it's tough to get out of that," said Isola.
Legendary ex-Lakers and Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson ©INPHO/Getty Images
"So the Knicks have made bad signings, some guys have under-performed, they've traded away some assets including first round picks. So here you are after the '90s where they were contenders for most of the decade. For the last 15 years, apart from one season, they haven't done much to say the least."
Isola says the Lakers and Boston Celtics are the teams that really drive popularity, and highlighting how Knicks' two NBA finals appearances in the '90s garnered relatively low ratings, he adds that the New Yorkers do not capture the imagination to the same degree.
"New York City itself has not produced that many great players. It's funny that over the past ten years, you realise that Toronto, Canada - which is really a hockey town - has produced better basketball talent than New York has, believe it or not."
Signing 11-time NBA title-winning coach and former Knicks player Phil Jackson as an executive in 2014 in a five-year $60M deal was meant to be the start of a renaissance. But as results prove this season, they have only gone further backwards.
"Phil Jackson never built a team [in his coaching spell]. He never assembled the talent. He did a good job coaching the talent, no question about that, but Phil never went out and put the team together. So he's a 70-year-old rookie at it, basically," said Isola, highlighting the difference between coaching and working behind the scenes within an NBA franchise.
Isola pointed out how the courtside celebrity culture tends to hog the limelight, revealing that he has seen the likes of Manchester United's Wayne Rooney, Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger, the entire Everton squad and Milan legend Paolo Maldini attending games at the iconic Madison Square Gardens.
Isola also scrutinised the controversial and unpopular owner James L Dolan.
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