Darren Rovell does an excellent job covering all things sports business for CNBC, but lives in the tri-state area, and as a result is in tune with the Knicks.

Darren shared insight with Knicks Vision on looking back at the week that was the Carmelo Anthony saga. Here is what the interview brings to the table:

• The story behind how he broke Anthony’s number
• What is really going on at renovated Garden
• The future between Donnie Walsh and James Dolan
• The impact Chauncey Billups had on search engines when he became a Knick

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I got a chance to sit down with ESPN’s Brandon Tierney and talk some hoops before his show today. You can read the transcribed interview in its entirety below or download the link. Just 15 minutes of time, but a chunk full of information and basketball talk. Get to know Brandon and where he came from, how he feels about new Knicks Chauncey Billups, and the signing of Jared Jeffries. All expanded on and more.

*

Knicks Vision: How did you get into the business?

Brandon Tierney: I started journalism with Marist and graduated in the mid-90′s and started my career with some internships and worked my way up the ladder, hustled a bit. Worked on a TV news show, Good Day New York, read scripts, and worked the green room, and helped book guests and do things to help structure the show. From there, I got my first job in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1999. Did four hours every day from 6-10 – touched on the Steelers and primarily the Philly and Pennsylvania sports… It was an interesting time.

continue

Since August 14, when Knicks Vision interviewed Tommy Dee, we have brought you one every single Wednesday since. Granted, it hasn’t been an obnoxious amount, but most of the beat writers and a majority of the notable bloggers have given their views on 2010-11 Knicks here.

On Tuesday night of last week, I recorded interviews with Frank Isola and Keith Finkelstein. Both were great to talk to, but I only got to transcribe one on my voice recorder. When Thursday night came around, I decided to mindlessly delete all of my files for Media Day to make sure I had room for player interviews, etc. Unfortunately, in those files included forty minutes of Keith’s time. If Keith agrees to do another one, we’ll be sure to have it up next week. On the bright side, I met another Knicks fan that is completely die-hard about the team and really cares.

While Keith isn’t acclaimed for his blog, NY State of Mind, he is a great guy to talk to on Twitter (and follow) and knows your Knicks just as well as you do.

If you’re wondering, Isola’s interview went up seven days ago.

The Knicks Vision Interview Series has highlighted proficient Knicks writers for the past six weeks. Bloggers like Tommy Dee to beat reporters like Alan Hahn have been ‘viewed by yours truly and taught us something new in the process..

Our latest installment of the series is Howard Beck. Beck has been writing for the New York Times since 2004 and contributes to a basketball column called Off the Dribble.

After talking to him for five minutes, you can tell why he’s writing for big shots like the Times (and doing a good job at it, too): he cares about what he does, but doesn’t let his emotional investments override his writing. That could be because he has no emotional investments in sports. Beck is a fan of no team.. The concept confused me at first (being a die-hard and that whole deal…), but I think I finally get it: it makes his work improve.

Other than his interesting take on being a fan, Beck’s storied career tales another chapter. This time, right here at Knicks Vision with our weekly Wednesday interview. This is a good chance for you Knicks fans to get an unbiased view at this year’s team. I know I needed to read this to feel the COLD, HARD TRUTH (it wasn’t that bad).

On to the ‘view!

**

[On getting into the sports journalism industry]

I grew up in the California in the 49ers heyday and started reading the sports section every day got me hooked on sports writing; I had a subscription with Sports Illustrated when I was twelve or thirteen. All of that led me down that path where I had a real passion for sports, especially football, and writing was something I enjoyed and so those were the seeds right there. I went to school in UC Davis and got to work at the college newspaper; the first day I was on campus I started writing.

What do you think is the outlook of this Knicks this season?

I think they have the potential to be a be a lower level playoff seed – I think that’s their ceiling. I think it’s a reasonable expectation, I don’t think they can be much more than a seven or eight seed in the Eastern Conference. The East is really strong at the top, with Boston, Orlando, and Miami. And then there are a couple of teams that are so strong that you have to assume they’ll be in the playoffs: that’s Chicago – for sure – and Milwaukee is going to be in there too, and Atlanta. Even though the Hawks didn’t do anything to improve, they didn’t anything to fall very far either. There are teams that you can very well bet on
to make the playoffs. So that leaves the Knicks to fight for one of those last two spots.

[On the new Knicks]

Here’s the tricky thing about the Knicks this season, though, and I think it makes it more difficult to try to predict how good they will be: it’s an entirely new team. A lot of people say “well, you know, they won thirty games last year, they added a couple of players, forty wins, well, that’s an eleven win improvement. How many teams can win eleven wins in a year?” The problem with that is that logic it’s an entirely new team. You can’t even compare this Knicks team to last year’s team and talk about how they are going to improve because it’s a whole new team. You have only two holdovers from last year who are meaningful – Gallinari and Chandler – and extend to Toney Douglas. That’s it. Everybody else is new – and most of them haven’t played together. We don’t know what they’re going to look like as a group. We don’t know what the lineup and rotations will be.

Who do you think the breakdown player is going to be this year?

We’re obviously talking about anyone not named Amar’e. So for the rest of the roster, it’s hard to say Gallo can be a “break-out guy” because in some ways he has already broken out. I think he has so much more talent and ability then we’ve seen so far though. He’s just scratching the surface, based on his age, and having only one full season under his belt in the NBA. I really think he has an immense amount of talent, a great drive and a great attitude. He’s a guy with star-potential and the team does need a second star. Amar’e Stoudemire is not going to be enough to make the Knicks an up-and-coming team in the East. Gallo can be, should be, and probably will be that number two guy. I think he’s the guy to watch.

[On the hype surrounding Anthony Randolph]

He’s a wild card. There’s a lot less known about him. Where he plays; what role he can play; whether he can stay healthy? There’s a lot more questions surrounding him [this season].

[On the Melo situation]

Nothing new to tell there. It’s almost a cliche, at this point, to put it this way, but I don’t think the Nuggets will trade him unless they absolutely positively need to. And there’s still plenty of time to avoid that. In the history of this league, if you trade a guy to that caliber, you almost never get equal value in return and it sets you back a long, long way – it’s very hard to get one of those guys again. So, I think they’ll do everything possible to avoid that outcome, even when they come to the point of deciding to trade him. In the end though, the question comes down to whether the Knicks have enough assets to make a deal, which I’m not sure they do. People hear Carmelo wants to go to the Knicks and that’s great, but you can’t really force that. It’s still on Denver’s ability to make a deal and find the right team for them. Trades are rarely about where the guy wants to go, it’s where the team will get the greatest return.

Where do you see Raymond Felton playing into this offense?

I’ll be curious to see, because I don’t know. He’s had a solid career so far, but not a spectacular one. He’s had one good season from outside shooting – anomaly or is that progress? We won’t know until he gets on the court with the Knicks. But he’s got the right tools and has certainly got a lot of guys to pass to. There are a ton of great shooters – assuming Azubuike, when he gets healthy, and Roger Mason and Gallo and Toney Douglas (if they play them together). There’s a lot of pressure on Raymond.

[On the "good character" of the current team]

Felton is a really steady, sharp and stand-up guy. Between him and Amar’e, you have the makings of some leaders in that locker room. The last several years, there was never one guy to point the finger out. I think Amar’e and Felton are the two most important guys on the team in a lot of ways; it’s fortuitous that those are also two guys who are stand-up, vocal, strong personalities because they’ve been missing that.

**

Howard, on behalf of Knicks Vision’s loyal supporters, we thank you for taking the precious time out of your day to do this interview. It’s always appreciated!

This is the fifth interview in the Knicks writers series. For other interviews on Alan Hahn, Tommy Dee and Anthony Donahue, check here.

Knicks Fan Blog does an excellent job at doing one specific thing: analysis. Sure, the site’s not going to give you your latest news, but it’s obvious there is depth in every post. The two men behind those posts are Dan (@KnicksFanBlog) and Jon (@JonKnicksFan), the former being our interviewee here today.

This was fun for me to do because I look up to these guys as writers and as Knicks fans. They always bring well-thought out posts to the forefront and it was an honor to add this guest post onto the site.

Dan is a great-all around guy, pick his brain sometime on Twitter about what he thinks about the Knicks if the interview didn’t fully do it for you.

-How did you get your start at the Knicks Fan Blog?
The idea behind the blog had been a long time coming. Really the origin was in the constant conversations that Jon (@jonknicksfan) and myself had over the course of many years. We would come up with countless scenarios, and tons of analysis. We would discuss how poor we thought some of the local coverage was, particularly out of the New York Post. Often we would say to ourselves “we should have our own blog”. One day in the dregs of 2008 we decided there wasn’t anything stopping us and we finally did it. It costs about $40 a year and it let’s us interact with so many Knicks fans. Well worth the price.

-What are some of the Knicks blogs you follow yourself?
Obviously Knicks Vision. But also all of the beat blogs. Posting and Toasting is great. Tommy Dee and the other guys at The Knicks Blog are indispensable. And I check in on many others all the time like Knicker Blogger and Knicks Tweets. There are some that I’m leaving out but they’re all listed on the links section of my site.

-How much faith do you have in the Knicks win forty games this season?
I have faith that barring injury, the Knicks will be MUCH better this year. Certainly playoff worthy. Look, I was a David Lee fan, but let’s be real. Amar’e is world’s better than Lee is. I don’t care what some egg-head with his fancy math tells me about stats. When I watch the game, I can tell who has a bigger impact. The fact is that during the All-Star game last year (which Lee made due to someone else’s injury), Lee looked like a boy among men. Amar’e looked like he belonged. Amar’e is going to bring star power, leadership and accountability to the locker room.

Add to that a real point guard, another year under the young players’ belts, and better defensive players, and the Knicks are on their way.

If anything can derail them, it’s that I think they may have too much depth, as I wrote here.

-Who is your “breakout” player this season for New York?
Danilo Gallinari and Anthony Randolph have to be the obvious choices if only because they are still very young and have the most room to improve over say a veteran. They both have dynamic skill sets and are tantalizing talents. If they grow as players the Knicks can be dangerous.

I also think Toney Douglas, if he continues to improve and learns to run an offense, can be a very special player.

-What is the most hopeful thing you see out of the organization in the last ten years?
I have to go with the hiring of Donnie Walsh. The prior to GMs, Layden and Thomas were inexperienced and amateurish. It didn’t go well for us Knicks fans. When Stern persuaded (forced?) Dolan to hire Walsh, I knew that the new GM was going to be an old, steady hand, responsible for teams with remarkably sustained runs of dominance.

Donnie came in and did what was logical and obvious to most everyone except those who ran the Knicks for the better part of a decade: clean house and start over.

-If you could make the Knicks front office like one other in the NBA, which would you choose?
The Thunder are really the gold standard aren’t they? They managed their cap better than anyone and then used their cap space remarkably well to accumulate draft picks and young players. For example, they had cap space when the Suns were looking to slash payroll. They got first round picks out of Phoenix just to take on Kurt Thomas’ salary. Similarly, they got Eric Maynor simply by agreeing to take the final year of Matt Harpring’s contract. None of that happens without cap space.
Of course, luck helps too. They did get the second pick and this guy named Durant…

San Antonio built multiple titles managing the cap and retaining (until recently) tons of flexibility by not overpaying anyone, and paying large salaries only to the guys on their squad that really deserved it. Again, luck factors into the equation since none of it is possible without drafting Tim Duncan.

Portland employed a plan similar to Oklahoma City’s. They stockpiled draft picks and got a lot of young talent. Of course, they were able to draft Brandon Roy (or, more accurately trick the Celtics into trading them Brandon Roy for Randy Foye).

-If you knew the Knicks were not going to get LeBron James in free agency this year, how would you have changed the events that started in 2008?
If I knew they wouldn’t…hmm. No. Because I’d still be pretty stoked about Amar’e, Randolph, and the prospect of ‘Melo. In the darkest days of Isiah’s tenure, I would’ve jumped at that.

People who think Donnie is a failure because he didn’t land LeBron never point to a feasible alternative except doing nothing. Well if the Knicks did nothing they’d be going into this season with Z-Bo and Crawford and (since these folks presume the Knicks would’ve made the playoffs the last two years), a mid round draft pick from 2009 (though they always like to have it both ways and say the Knicks would’ve made the playoffs and would have drafted Brandon Jennings, even Peter Vecsey fell into this trap).

-What’s the best thing about being a Knick fan?
That’s an easy question for me to answer. Going to a Knicks’ playoff game. The electricity in the Garden is really an indescribable feeling and it really is an enthralling, electric buzz. If there’s anything some of the young fans are missing out on it’s that electric feel. I suspect that will change this year.

**

That’s it for now. Hope you enjoyed that interview from Dan and come back for more every Wednesday!

Anthony Donahue is really everything you ask for in a Knicks fan. He cares about the team, he goes to literally almost every single game at the Garden, and has somehow managed to make connections with great basketball players. The following (my longest interview yet) transcript was recorded through two separate, enjoyable, phone interviews. If you get the chance, definitely check out The Knicks Blog Radio where the guy is as hardcore Knicks as any radio personality ever will be about them. Anthony Donahue knows your New York Knicks, so definitely take some time out of your busy schedule and listen to this man preach his wisdom.

By the way, if we’re sitting here in May and the Knicks have found themselves a seven or eight seed and upset the one or two seed, Anthony has promised me a seat with him at Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Now that’s an offer nobody can refuse!

Let’s get right to the interview:

**

Where did you find your passion for the Knicks?

I don’t know, no one in my family is really is really into basketball. Most people in my family are hockey, baseball and football guys. I guess I was just five or six years old and I didn’t do it because of anybody, I found a love for the Knicks. I really started getting into the Knicks at the All-Star Break in 1993 and then I really got into the Knicks hardcore. The rest is history…

How did you get your start in the radio world?

Basically I graduated high school in 2001 I had no clue what I wanted to do. First two years I worked out in Manhattan at the Board of Elections then I was at Sports Talk Radio and listened to Michael Kay, Brandon Tierney, those guys and I said “I can do that” – I mean I’m not that smart, but I can talk sports and I have personality. And I went to the Connecticut School of Broadcasting and I got an internship at ESPN in 2004 – I worked there for four years. I did some on-air stuff for 540 WLIE. Got my start in 2004.

[On having relationships with so many different athletes]

I don’t know why I have these relationships because I’m nobody special, but I’ve somehow found a way to become cool with these athletes, get their number, have them on speed dial and most of them will do anything for me. It’s weird because I don’t know why that’s happened, but I really can’t explain. Every guest [on my show(s)] I’ve gotten I’ve gotten on my own. Even today, radio stations will hit me up, “Yo Anthony, can I get this person’s number?” Yeah, at some points it may be annoying, but that’s me.

Who’s your favorite player currently and why?

Wilson Chandler. I like his game. I’d love it more if Wilson was more aggressive, on the court, off the court, vocally, he’s not. People say Wil doesn’t have a motor, he does. Wil’s not the type of guy that’s going to get you thirty-five. In the NBA, if you want to have a game of thirty-five, you need to demand the basketball. Wilson doesn’t do that, even though I think he should. Favorite player right now: Wilson Chandler. He’s been on my show four or five on my radio show. Wilson’s a great guy. I like his game, I think he’s going to be better. If he keeps working hard, stays healthy, I think he can be a big part of this team.

What do you think about Danilo Gallinari?

I feel like us Knick fans are the only people in the country who see what we see in Gallinari. I truly believe that [he can be a go to guy.] I don’t know if he can be as good as Dirk has been, because heck, in the past eight-nine years, Dirk has been phenomenal, but I think Gallo’s tougher than Dirk right now, it’s his Italian blood, I love what I see from Gallo right now. To be honest, last year was really his rookie year. He only appeared in twenty eight games his first season and he wasn’t healthy those twenty-eight games. Yeah he was productive, but this year he was very productive. He had some issues, especially on the road. The thing about Gallo is he’s not necessarily a great defender, but he wants to guard the other team’s best player. And that’s important and that’s meaning that he wants to be a leader, he shoots a couple of shots in a row, he gets the team fired up. I really believe Danilo Gallinari will be an All-Star in this league some day.

What do you think the future outlook of this team in the next five years?

Yeah, that’s an interesting question, but as much as I like to think I know and have the information. The next five years: I have no clue. Are they going to bring in Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, are they going to let this group gel and add a piece here or there. Just being honest, I have no idea. Five years from now, I have no clue.

[On Madison Square Garden and his bad luck there]

I’ve been to almost every game at the Garden. I’ve probably missed ten total in the last ten years. You know what’s funny, I graduated high school in 2001, I grew up in Walton, NY, up by Onieanta throughout my junior high, high school career, I usually came to about ten Knick games a year. The Starks era, the Houston/LJ era, the Spreewell/Camby era. I graduate high school in 2001 and of course I’m excited to come down to the city and start my life and not live in a small town anymore. I was excited that I could go to a Knick game now and not have to drive for three hours. The first year I lived in the city, 2001-02 season, was the first season the Knicks were bad. I’m like “wow my whole life I’ve never seen a championship, yeah, I’ve seen a lot of heartbreaks, but they are always in it every year.” And after that, I said “yeah they’re going to regroup next year” and they got Antonio McDyess and he busts his knee up in a meaningless preseason game, and then they get Stephon Marbury and I said “maybe that could put the Knicks over the top” and they sign Crawford, and you get Q-Rich, Eddy Curry, and Larry Brown and this and that, and none of it’s worked. We haven’t really watched an important in nine years and that’s absurd considering New York is supposed to be the mecca of basketball.

What do you think Amar’e impact will be on the court?

I think on the court it’s going to be very good. Especially, if guys like Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Anthony Randolph, and Raymond Felton steps up, it’s going to make Amar’e Stoudemire’s game easier. If guys like that don’t play great, it’s going to be a little tougher for Amar’e Stoudemire. Is there a chance Amar’e Stoudemire can hear some boos? Yeah it is. But I think all those guys will step up and get better. I think Raymond Felton is going to be really good which is going to make it easier on Amar’e Stoudemire. Now the thing is about Amar’e that he can ignite the crowd. Let’s say, you’re down by six points, fourth quarter, five and a half minutes left, you run a pick and roll, Amar’e catches the ball and throws a thunderous tomahawk dunk down in someone’s mug, gets fouled, and the crowd just erupts. Those are the type of things that Amar’e Stoudemire brings to the team.

[On Patrick Ewing Jr. being on the Knicks Blog Radio tonight at 10PM]

I really hopes he makes the team, I mean he’s not going to play much, I don’t even see him making an impact, but just to get him into the game in the fourth quarter. I remember being at the preseason game in 2008 against the Nets, Ewing gets in the game and throws down a dunk on a breakaway. I’ve never seen the Garden get that pumped, in a preseason game no less against the Nets. He’s a great kid with a great attitude and that’s something that goes a long way.

**

Big ups to Anthony for taking time out to do this interview. Follow him on Twitter!