Anyone who saw LeBron James score 52 points and dish out 11 assists against the Knicks onn February 4th could be forgiven for thinking that they were watching a cartoon. Human beings aren't supposed to be able to do all of the things he was doing on the court that night, and the Knicks looked on with the helplessness of a Bugs Bunny victim.
Surprisingly, that game wasn't the one New York artist Joel Kimmel chose to turn into a comic book, which we found out about from Ball Don't Lie. Kimmel turned the first Knicks-Cavs game at the Garden, the one in November that was overwhelmed by talk of James joining the Knicks in 2010, into a comic that's for sale on his website. It's got a color cover and black-and-white innards and it's a nifty piece of memorabilia for anyone who likes comics, basketball or both. In a nice touch Kimmel only asks you to pay whatever you can for your copy.
About the only thing left for Knicks fans to care about in this year's playoffs is how James and the Cavaliers do, but neither a title nor a near-miss makes the future any clearer. We all know James would be leaving millions on the table to come to New York, and we know that James doesn't need the Knicks half as much as they need him. So would winning a title, fulfilling an unspoken promise to the Cavaliers, be enough to help push him out the door to conquer new domains? Or would it be better if they lost, and lost again next year, and created a feeling that James had to go elsewhere to win?
Such questions are best considered in a comic book at this point, since no one except for James has any clue about the real answer.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
