<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It's only been a few years, but it seems as if the Knicks have been in salary cap hell since some time during the 1970s. This summer they won't get under the cap, but they'll get close enough that it's time to start examining long-term fiscal strategies for the ballclub. At present, the Knicks financial mismanagement has been an oftrepeated joke. With a payroll of $139 million, they are not only over the cap, but they've doubled it. The next closest team is the free-spending Dallas Mavericks, yet their payroll is nearly $50 million lower than the Knicks outlay. And Dallas fans are reaping the benefits of the spending; their Mavericks made the Finals last season and have the best record in the league this year while the Knicks' win total for the last two seasons doesn't approach the Mavericks' either this year or last. The Knicks payroll is about to lose more than $60 million in excess baggage this summer. That's when the contracts of Allan Houston, Jerome Williams, Shandon Anderson (!), Maurice Taylor, and Jalen Rose come off of the books. While only Houston at his peak was an All-Star, those five players combined to make ? I can't say "earn" ? more than $60 million this season, and not one of them played even a minute for the Knicks (and it's not as if they would have helped much if they had). In short, the Knicks have written the book on fiscal mismanagement in North American team sports. But they are nearing the end of that era. What happens now? As of July 1, the Knicks payroll will stand at just more than $87 million for the coming season (some of the $60 million saved from the bad contracts will go into annual raises for players with long-term pacts). But with the nearly $40 million due to aging guards Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis due to come off the books in 2009, it's time for the Knicks to set a new financial agenda.</div> Source: NYSUN
