Madison Square Jared.

Defensive-minded swingman Jared Jeffries is now a New York Knick, after the Wizards declined to match Isiah’s $30 million offer and picked up DeShawn Stevenson instead. Not exactly what you’d call a silver bullet (6.1 points, 4.8 boards), and we almost definitely overpaid…still, it’ll be nice to have at least one player on the floor who plays D and doesn’t require the ball all the time.

The Round Mound is Sound.

“The word conservative means discriminatory practically. It’s a form of political discrimination. What do the Republicans run on? Against gay marriage and for a war that makes no sense. A war that was based on faulty intelligence. That’s all they ever talk about. That and immigration. Another discriminatory argument for political gain.” Basketball legend Charles Barkley sets the story straight about his political affiliation: “I was a Republican – until they lost their minds.” (Via Now This.)

Off the Charts.

For any sports gambling aficionados (or stock market junkies) out there who happen to venture by the site, a very good friend of mine from college has just started MLBcharts.com (although he also covers the NBA, NHL, NCAA, and soccer therein.) Basically, he’s been applying stock market valuation principles to sports gambling, with positive results (for him, anyway — a few March Madness games notwithstanding, I’ve been watching his success from afar.) At any rate, go check it out!

Dolan’s Land.

“He has one year, one season to do that. At this time next year Isiah will be with us if we can all sit here and say that this team has made significant progress towards its goal of eventually becoming an NBA champion. If we can’t say that, Isiah will not be here.” More post-Larry fallout: The Knicks’ freakshow owner, James Dolan, badmouths Brown and lays down the law with Isiah for next year.

Brownout.

At long last, it’s official: After a nightmare 23-59 season and several weeks of “dead man walking,” Hall of Famer Larry Brown has finally been fired from the Knicks. (In fact, the team isn’t even planning to pay out his contract, although Brown may be able to pay the bills in Charlotte in short order.) Worse still, in his place the team’s woefully inept owner, James Dolan, has — Oh No! — put the even more woefully inept GM, Isiah Thomas, in charge of the bench. Ok, Larry clearly wasn’t meshing with the ghastly hydra-headed line-up of shoot-first, one-dimensional, no-d-playing guards Thomas has constructed…still, I have to think we were probably a better team with him at the Garden. And with Isaiah in charge now, hoo boy. It’s gonna get ugly at MSG next year.

Czech yourself, soccer fans.

Ugh. And I thought Miami’s performance last night was bad: America’s hopes for this Cup pretty much wither away entirely after an egregious 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic this morning. The US now must beat — or maybe tie — Italy this Saturday to have any chance of moving on to the second round…It’s not looking good.

Garden of Freedom.

“‘We are engaged in a battle with people who hate our team and our way of playing basketball,’ Thomas said in an interview Tuesday. ‘We cannot afford to second-guess ourselves. You are either with the New York Knicks or you are against them.’” It is as we feared. As The Onion reports, Isiah Thomas has no exit strategy for the New York Knickerbockers.

Leisure Suits Larry.

What can Brown do for you? If you’re the Knicks, not much more, it appears. As the playoffs continue apace, owner Jim Dolan appears to be on the verge of firing Larry Brown (and thus eating his $40 million contract.) True, Larry hasn’t worked out at all…but don’t get too excited, fellow Knicks fans: Dolan is apparently thinking of replacing Brown with the fearsome vortex of egregious decision-making that is GM Isaiah Thomas.

Playoff Basketbluth.

Rasheed Wallace is the GOB of the Pistons…When watching the Pistons, I keep expecting him to unleash an earth shattering ‘COME ON!!’ after a bad call, then, after the ensuing technical, go to the bench and tell Flip Saunders ‘I’ve made a huge mistake.’” By way of a friend in the program, Rob Deer’s Mustache compares the Detroit Pistons to the Arrested Development Bluths.