Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 1:47 pm  |  5 responses

A Blue (And Orange) Outlook

The Niceguys’ rapper reps his NY roots from Texas.

As a member of the Houston-based hip hop group The Niceguys, rapper Yves Saint—who was born and raised in Queens, NY—is forced to watch his hometown New York Knicks make their return to relevance from afar. After leaving the Big Apple to attend the University of Houston, Yves has since stayed in Texas, but his undying love for NY’s pro hoops team hasn’t melted a bit. Throughout the coming season he’ll be chronicling his thoughts on the Knicks’ comeback right here on his new SLAM blog, “Feeling Blue (And Orange) In The Lone Star State,” and you can also check the video for The Niceguys’ single, “Mr. Perfect,” here.—Adam Figman

by Yves Saint

Enough for introduction. The season has officially started. Time for business.

The New York Knicks are a struggling team in a great city with a storied home and arena.And really, our mediocrity wouldn’t matter if we weren’t New Yorkers. That’s the first problem. The second problem is that as time passes it’s easier to forget why and that we were a force at one time, and, sadly, we need to re-encourage our players. Amar’e Stoudemire tweeting a new jersey is cool, but does losing in a new outfit feel better for the Knicks, for Knicks upper management?

There have been and still are plenty of rumors circulating about Melo and Paul joining Amar’e, but that will require upper management to finally deliver for once, and there are still plenty of questions about whether the Knicks have enough pieces to even make the moves happen. Will Amar’e be a franchise player? Will any of these “new” Knicks live up to the Knicks of the ’90s? Those questions all represent part of the mindset of a frustrated city, dedicated to greatness, and unwilling to accept anything less from its sports franchises. Yves Saint

I, myself, am guilty of the harsh and unforgiving attitude toward New York sports, but I now realize that we have to stop waiting for the second coming and focus on the pieces we have now—and we do have a few good pieces—and how we can make those pieces work. Between Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Anthony Randolph, Stoudemire and Ronny Turiaf there needs to be some soul-searching.

As for the fans, we need to nurture these guys’ development and confidence without coddling. Let them know we are behind them. It’s not just rebuilding the team; we need to be rebuilding the spirit. People used to be afraid of The Garden. People used to be and heckled intimidated by Spike Lee. Some players thrived on that fear, some crumbled. But the fear, the excitement—it was palpable. Now players can’t wait to play in The Garden (see: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James) and Spike can’t do anything but exchange pleasantries and light jabs with opposing stars.

Be back soon,
@EasyYvesSaint. Excelsior.

Make sure to keep up with The Niceguys at Facebook.com/TheNiceguysMusic, Twitter.com/theniiceguys, and download their new album, The Show, for free at http://thenicelook.com.

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  • fabo

    D-d-d-d-op-e.

  • IAMORANGE4EVER

    This is just the beginning for the Knicks in their journey back to the top. I am looking forward to watching this Knicks team grow this season…then there will be the return of New York’s prodigal son, Carmelo Anthony.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tieuel.legacy Tieuel Legacy! aka the Devil’s Devil’s Advocate

    Ahhhh, a Knicks fan. Pleased to meet ya. Without taking jabs, I’ll say that ya’ll are few and far between these days. I’m kidding.
    Being from Houston, I understand the down years. Nobody here supports a sub 500 team. Everyone here knows that TRUE fans are from that Prairie View A&M area. (0-80+ at one time).

    I’ll get to the Knicks. They haven’t been the same since Ewing missed that layup that would’ve tied up the game. That was against the Bulls in the semis, right? They were decent after that but the heart was thrust into the pit as if they were in Sparta (300). They are the Utah Jazz of the East and the 90′s Buffalo Bills of the NBA. They could eventually be the Denver Broncos (Elway years) but they have a lot of ‘splainin to do. Whatever happened with Isaiah Thomas when he was the coach was a huge NO NO. I watched a few games during that period and team was only a few baskets better than a middle school champion. The support really wasn’t there as the coach went through torment. They brought a pointguard (Marbuy) to the team that was always more concerned with himself than the team. Plus Curry’s contract seems to have stuck them in the rear for a while. At any point, I would’ve chosen last year’s Nets over them. They were really that bad. Spike knew it.
    They should be concerned with what they have right now and not focus on the MIGHTS. If they obtain Anthony and Paul, then that’s great start. However, they were too concerned with not receiving LeBron last summer (just like everyone else was). Play ball.

    By the way, I like the duds in the pic. Looks like one of those classy Rat Pack pics in front of the Las Vegas casino. Good look for you in this mag.

    “Also if you didn’t know, this is called the Show.”

    Tieuel Legacy! Motion Pics (Houston)

  • http://slamonline.com Ben Osborne

    Nice logo, good stuff. Thanks for joining the slam team!

  • http://TheNiceLook.com Yves

    @Ben Glad to be here
    @Legacy What it is man? Thanks for the insight. The Pat Ewing layup was the beginning of the descent forreal. I remember thinking, “Just DUNK the ball!!” That was against the Pacers correct? I feel bad for the Rockets and their lack of a fan base. People at least come to The Garden to socialize.
    @Orangeforever Sounds like you’ve got a heart of gold. One more piece to the puzzle is needed. how they perform will affect who it is and how soon. Carmelo is more than welcome in my house.
    thanx @fabo

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