Atlantic

Seconds out! Round three of New York’s Battle of the Boroughs takes place tonight at Madison Square Garden (7pm ET, ESPN) and, with the season series tied at one win apiece, tickets prices for the game are historically high.

The other day as I was listening to sports radio in New York, the topic of conversation came up about how the Mike D’Antoni New York Knicks era was considered a massive failure. While Michael Kay, one of the hosts disagreed, citing that originally D’Antoni was never put in a position to succeed; fans were calling into the show to lambast the former Knicks, and current Lakers coach. While D’Antoni never won a playoff game with the Knicks, and in the end ended up quitting on the team, the Mike D’Antoni era in New York was far from a failure, in fact, it accomplished everything it set out to.

                On the radio, Michael Kay argued that for the first two years of his tenure as Knicks Head Coach, D’Antoni was never even given a chance to succeed. Team president Donnie Walsh was brought in to New York with one job, to clear cap space so the Knicks could make a run at Lebron James during the summer of 2010. As Kay said, every time the Knicks found a player that was becoming productive under the D’Antoni system, they would trade him to clear cap space, therefore D’Antoni never had a good team at his disposal.

  There are few things funnier than this late July story about Knicks GM Glen Grunwald refusing to open his Las Vegas hotel door because a Houston official was waiting on the other side with the Jeremy Lin offer sheet. In Grunwald's defense, this incident apparently happened only a few hours after the Knicks GM completed a trade with the Rockets to get back former Knick, Marcus Camby. Listen, I'd go into hiding too if I traded away Toney Douglas to a person who not only knew where I lived, but would also soon realize, "I started the off-season with Goran Dragic and Kyle Lowry as my two point guards. Now, my backcourt belongs to this guy."

If history repeats itself then Boston Celtics guard Jason Terry will be celebrating his second championship this upcoming season meaning Banner 18 will be coming to Boston. A picture tweeted from Terry showed his latest tattoo of the Celtic leprechaun spinning the NBA trophy on its finger.

Prior to the 2011 season, Terry got a tattoo of the Larry O'Brien trophy helping the Dallas Mavericks capture their first NBA championship defeating the Miami Heat in 6 games. Terry averaged 18.0 PPG shooting 49% from the field. The 2009 Sixth Man Award winner should play an integral role during the 2012-2013 season becoming Boston's top bench player providing scoring, defense and toughness to a team that came within one game of reaching the NBA Finals a season ago.

In 87 career playoff games, Terry is averaging 16.9 PPG, shooting 44% from the field, 39% from the three-point line and 82% from the free-throw strike. It's a perfect marriage for both parties as the Celtics look to recapture the title and overcome their rivals from Miami.

In grade 8 I remember getting a Andrea Bargnani jersey for my birthday and wearing it on the first day of school. People thought I was absurd for wanting this guys jersey. Ever since the Raptors drafted him first overall in 2005, he has been bashed and called a NBA Draft bust. Having Bargnani compared to Dirk Nowitizki was one of the only things that kept Raptors fans from losing their minds. He was horrible on the defensive end and for a seven-footer who hardly got any rebounds.

In his rookie season he averaged 11.6 points a game and 3.6 rebounds a game.

At the beginning of last season, through eight games,  Bargnani was averaging 22.8 points a game and 6.4 rebounds a game.

A thing to note about Bargnani is that every year in the NBA, he has slowly but surely improved his game.  New Raptors coach, defensive specialist, Dwayne Casey has challenged him to at least pick up two rebounds a quarter. 

With the new coaching system in place, it will help him significantly improve his game on a daily basis.