I spent much of this past year sulking in Cohen 202E, collapsed in my friend Bill’s chair watching him play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Head in hand, I sat recalculating the odds repeatedly to comfort myself: “Even if you assume that the Red Sox had a 50 percent chance of winning each of games 4-7, the odds would still be 1:16. And you have to assume that the Yanks had better than a 50 percent chance per game. A-Rod’s an MVP. Mo’s unhittable. Giambi’s on steroids. And Jeter is Jeter. The Yankees were the superior team with momentum, and they needed just one game. God, Bill was such a fool to take that bet.”

Alas, simply convincing myself that betting on the Yankees was the correct decision could not reverse the Yankees’ collapse in last fall’s American League Championship Series. So, there I sat, trying to get my “money’s worth” – so to speak – watching Bill, under the guise of a black cocaine-addicted car thief, knife unassuming prostitutes in the dark alleys of an indescript Southern California city.

It was allegedly a $50 entertainment value – the spoils of a victorious $5 bet with 10:1 odds, made immediately following the Yankees’ 19-8 Game 3 victory, that the Red Sox would win Games 4-7 of the ALCS. And this flea-market-frequenting and eBay-patronizing thrift shopper intended to recover every penny of the $50 spent on that game if possible, even if it was merely by watching someone else play.

However, now that the Yankees’ fortunes affected my my own – not just the Boss’s – I wanted answers. I thought Bill’s room, the venue for watching each ALCS game, would incite enough ire to allow me to find those answers. But, as I tried to pinpoint the cause of the Yankees’ debacle, my frustration just grew to encompass the Knicks, the Jets, and even the MetroStars.

I lifted my veil of unconditional loyalty and optimism to allow me to objectively view New York sports, and I was finally able to acknowledge the managerial incompetence that has smote my favorite teams into being the most under-achieving, least credible, and least likeable in their respective leagues for the past several years.

Much of the blame can be put on the city of New York itself. The perception is that New York won’t tolerate a bad team. Most notably, since 1999, the Knicks have surrendered to this philosophy at the expense of its fans and reasonable judgment. I don’t quite know what defines “intolerance” – or “bad” for that matter. Perhaps Knicks brass expects a mob of enraged Knickerbocker faithful to raze Madison Square Garden to the ground if the Knicks have a “bad” season. More probably, though, it expects there to be empty seats at games and, therefore, fewer profits. But for whatever reason, the Knicks, who have been in dire need of rebuilding, have refused to employ the generally accepted approach: a few years of sensible drafting and proper payroll management.

The alternative that they have taken - overpaying for a glut of undersized, journeymen power forwards (see Othella Harrington, Clarence Weatherspoon, Jerome Williams, and Malik Rose) to serve as backup centers to Kurt Thomas and trading away the franchise to assume the gaudy contracts of has-been combo-guards (Anfernee Hardaway) or never-been combo-guards (Shandon Anderson, Howard Eisley, and Erik Strickland) while simultaneously trading away draft picks and fan-favorite players and having a payroll that exceeds the luxury tax barrier – if you can call it that – by $30 million.

This has been the Knicks management’s strategy to rebuild while remaining competitive. The Knicks, though, haven’t been particularly competitive in the past four years nor has the roster been properly rebuilt for future success. The past four years have seen “competitive” records of 30-52, 37-45, 39-43, and 33-49 respectively. Meanwhile, Mike Sweetney appears to be the Knicks’ only draft pick in recent years poised to make a significant long-term contribution to the team. Sweetney, chosen eighth overall in the 2003 draft, proved last year to be the team’s best rebounder and its lone post scorer. Yet, despite his proven talent and apparent promise, rumors abound that Sweetney is president Isiah Thomas’ foremost trade pawn this off-season for either the decrepit Chris Webber or the cancerous malcontent Antoine Walker.

The team’s star point guard, Stephon Marbury, for whom it traded Antonio Mcdyess (the main cog in the Marcus Camby, Nenê trade), a couple of first-round picks, several second-round picks, and cash, would also figure to be a long-term fixture with the team given his dazzling skill and popularity in New York. However, with the impending knighting of Larry Brown as the Knicks fifth head coach in three years, it seems likely that Marbury could be traded. Thomas, who has been courting Brown since his firing as the Pistons head coach last week, appears likely to make any accommodations necessary to sign Brown, one of which could very possibly include trading Marbury.

Brown’s style of basketball is no mystery. It is a defense-centric game oriented around an unselfish, distributing point guard. Marbury’s game is devoid of defense, and he is generally thought to be more of a scoring point guard rather than a distributing one. In fairness to Marbury, though, he was fourth in the league last year with an 8.1 assists per game average. Moreover, the relationship between Brown and Marbury is not entirely speculation. During the 2004 Athens Olympics, Marbury ran the point for the US National Team, which Brown coached, and reportedly, the two frequently clashed because of their differences in playing style.

Whether or not Marbury and Sweetney remain on the team is, however, entirely speculative at this point. And if either goes, it will just be one more dagger in the heart of a fan who has seen too many of his favorite players leave or get shoved off of a cliff by the Knicks in recent years. From Ewing to Camby to Latrell Sprewell, the Knicks have incessantly erred in trades involving fan-favorite players, which has made rooting for a team wallowing in mediocrity ever the more difficult.

As a fan, I am loyal to the team, but I cheer for and embrace its players. Roster continuity is appreciated especially when those continuing are the team’s stars- its best players. Thomas and former Knick president Scott Layden (responsible for the release of Ewing, Camby, and Sprewell) are not the only New Yorkers to have rejected this concept. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner seems incapable of functioning without making major mid-season and off-season roster changes. More often than naught, though, Steinbrenner finds himself besotted with an available player whose acquisition requires the sacrifice of a popular – and often better – player.

The Boss would sooner remain endlessly loyal to the shot-up Jason Giambi, the boozed-up David Wells, and the Ensured-up Randy Johnson than to Tino Martinez, Andy Pettite, and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, three all-stars in their own right.

Giambi’s signing in 2001 forced Martinez, who was perhaps more popular than even Derek Jeter, out of the lineup. It was no secret that Giambi was signed exclusively for his bat and that he often struggled on the field. It seemed logical, therefore, that Giambi could have flourished in a DH role, much like David Ortiz has in Boston, allowing Martinez, a Gold Glove winner, to keep his spot at first base. Alas, Steinbrenner gave Martinez the boot, and by the end of the season Giambi had been moved from first base to DH because of his defensive shortcomings.

This past off-season, despite being popular among fans and a reliable starter and set-up pitcher, Hernandez was released when Steinbrenner became smitten with Carl Pavano, Jarret Wright, and Randy Johnson. El Duque signed with the American League Central Division-leading Chicago White Sox and has compiled a 7-2 record in thirteen starts this year. Pavano, Wright, and Johnson have win-loss records of 4-6, 2-2, and 10-6, respectively. Hernandez’s win percentage is better than any of the five pitchers with whom the Yankees began the season.

In 2003, the Bombers lost Pettite in free agency because the Steinbrenner had made up his mind that his foremost off-season priority was to secure contracts with free-agent pitchers Roger Clemens and David Wells. Steinbrenner believed that Pettite, a long-time Yankee, would surely wait for his turn to renegotiate a contract. Unfortunately, Pettite signed with the Houston Astros while Clemens contemplated retirement. Clemens ultimately followed Pettite to Houston, and Wells agreed to terms with the San Diego Padres rather than the Yankees.

Steinbrenner’s disloyalty to his players was perhaps never more heart-breaking than it was then, as it left the Yankees’ pitching stable completely depleted.

That same year, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars of Major League Soccer let world-class goalkeeper Tim Howard leave to play with Manchester United. At the time, I was a high school goalkeeper whose favorite athlete in any sport was Tim Howard.
Needless to say, I was disappointed.

But I was never critical. I generally assumed that things which seemed illogical to me were only so because I simply didn’t understand the complete truth about a player’s talent. I assumed that the Knicks selection Frederic Weis, a seven-foot center from France, over Ron Artest was sensible and that I just hadn’t had enough exposure to Weis. Now, though, I have watched several Knicks drafts and seen Ron Artest develop into an all-star while Weis has rotted in France, never once even coming to New York for a visit let alone to play with the team. And now that I have allowed myself to view the actions of my teams objectively, I realize that it was simply because the Knicks are dreadfully terrible talent-evaluators that Weis was selected.

As I sat recalling these incidents, my frustrations only grew more when I considered the reputations of my favorite teams and how they’ve been tarnished by recent managerial decisions.

Steinbrenner’s bombastic State of the Yankees Summit this year in Tampa was perhaps the biggest self-call of his career, and the entire week preceding the meeting made me nauseous.

Not to be outdone, though, the New York Jets this year have permanently ruined their image among many New Yorkers with the fiasco regarding a new Manhattan stadium. The Jets, whose home field is in New Jersey at Giants Stadium, understandably wanted to relocate to New York City. However – following in the footsteps of other disreputable institutions like the United Nations – the team insisted that the destruction to the city’s highways and pipelines caused by the stadium’s construction was the tax-payers’ problem, not their own. And even with the NFL’s promise of a 2010 Super Bowl and the possibility of the 2012 Olympics both contingent on the construction of the West-side stadium, state legislators couldn’t rationalize burdening its citizens with the cost and hassle accompanying the stadium.

I’ve always tried to defend the actions of my teams. I’ve been unconditionally optimistic. But I realize I shouldn’t be anymore. Disloyalty to players, disreputable business practices, and endless mediocrity don’t warrant infinite optimism and loyalty. Even the most faithful fans can and should be critical.

And so there I sat in Cohen 202E, reclined in Bill’s black leather chair, frustrated. I had found answers. They really weren’t the answers I wanted, and they didn’t come with a refund of $50 or even very much comfort. But, at the very least, they did come with a lifted veil.