Rant time

I apologize in advance to those who think I take this stuff a little hard. It's cost me a lot in my life. But when you care like I do, it's not realistic to shrug it off like it doesn't matter. And with what I am watching tonight on ESPN, I have to say a couple of things.

1) Let's see...Amare is out for at least six weeks with a bad knee, Melo has had a chronically bad knee longer than anybody knew about, and now, top top it all off, our defensive stalwart, our All-Star center, our heart and soul, Tyson Chandler injured HIS knee tonight. And Jason Kidd is playing like he's 90 years old, 60-year-old's Kenyon Martin and Kurt Thomas are going to be playing 20 minutes a night, Steve Novak is useless against any quality team, and Raymond Felton's and JR Smith's outside shooting are more inconsistent than Stevie Wonder. And as I speak, they just lost to the Denver Nuggets by 31 points on national TV. Their defense allowed 117 points to a decent team! Not a great Denver team. they're decent. No more, no less. There is no joy or buzz watching this New York Knicks team anymore. None. And if Chandler is out more than a week or so, forget it. That is the backbone of this team. They cannot survive that loss. As they have been since 2000, the New York Knicks remain an utter disgrace.

2) NFL free agency is two days old. Let's track how my wonderful New York Jets are doing so far...

Losses: Bart Scott, Calvin Pace, Eric Smith (good riddance to him), Sione Pouha, Mike DeVito, Yeremiah Bell, LaRon Landry. And that's just the defense. Let's also throw in Shonn Greene and very soon, Dustin Keller and both their starting guards, Matt Slauson and Brandon Moore.

Restructured contracts: Antonio Cromartie and Santonio Holmes.

Gains: David Garrard.

That's freaking it...Not to mention the best CB in football, Darrelle Revis, will likely be traded to Tampa within 48 hours. So where is this new general manager?! Oh that's right, getting ready to fire the best head coach this franchise has had in the last 40 years, because he'll be a convenient scapegoat for the absolute dearth of talent on this roster. Same old Jets.

3) The Mets. Well, it's mid-March so I'm taking the wait and see approach. David Wright looks great in the WBC, I'm happy to see that. But can we lay off the Captain American nickname please? Can they get to the Finals before we anoint him? Johan Santana will hopefully return to the starting rotation by mid-April. The outfield still looks horrific, but I would bring in Brennan Boesch, who was just released by Detroit. I will say this though. If Jordany Valdespin and Colin Cowgill could emerge as a platoon leadoff/center field combination, that would go a long way towards making this lineup deeper and formidable. That way, Ruben Tejada can hit second, where's he's more suited to bat anyway. Follow him with Wright, Ike Davis, Marlon Byrd, Daniel Murphy, Lucas Duda, and John Buck, until Travis d'Arnaud comes up from AAA. Then on the bench, you can have the backup catcher, Omar Quintanilla, Justin Turner, Mike Baxter, and the other center fielder. I would be content with that lineup for this season.

4) The Rangers. Currently in ninth place in the East. Last season, I think they took one or two games off at the most. This season, they are taking stretches of games off. On Tuesday, they absolutely no-showed against a Buffalo team that had not won in 10 days and playing against a goalie who had not won a game since November 2011. They are right now just an average team, no more, no less.

5) The final real Big East basketball tournament is happening this week. I don't care anymore. I really don't. With so many teams leaving next year in the name of the Almighty dollar, I just have no excitement for it anymore. I'm washing my hands of the Syracuse Orange.