Blight Alights in the Big City

Round up some more usual suspects.

Where there’s life, there’s hope, and the lower the life, the higher the hopes, until you get to the bottom of the food chain -- the New York Knicks -- where they call their wishes hopes and their hopes plans.

Yet there’s a reason that they say you don’t often get a chance at a great player: Of all the stars who have dominated recent speculation -- LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Chris Bosh -- none seems likely to go anywhere soon.

Teams have been drooling over James since he was a rookie, and Knick President Isiah Thomas began wooing his agent, Aaron Goodwin. James was sure to want out of Cleveland, Nike would want him in a big market and, of course, everybody wants to play in New York.

By Year 3, the reality had been turned upside down: James loved Cleveland, fired Goodwin and said he’d re-sign as soon as an extension can be tendered this summer.

When the Lakers were an elite team, that scenario was like a parallel universe or Comedy Central. Now they get their hearts broken regularly too, their pining having no more substance than an Internet courtship.

For years, Yao Ming’s people confided he might come because of the large Chinese American population. Naturally Nike wanted him here, and, of course, everybody really wants to be a Laker.

Instead, Yao signed an extension to stay in Houston. His people worked for him, not the other way around. As for Nike, it’s a stars’ world and the sneaker companies work for them too, not the other way around.

Of course, by then there was a new game on the horizon with Garnett, Pierce and Bosh in bad places. It seemed a matter of time before they wanted out and were traded for several young players.

The reality is that trading a star is a last option, even when a team thinks it has no choice, as when the Lakers had to pick between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in 2004. So everyone can just take a number on Garnett and Pierce.

Once, young stars popped up on the market as unrestricted free agents at the end of the three-year rookie scale, but that changed in 1999 when it became five seasons.

Young players may regard early entry in the draft as proof of their elite status, but once in the league, they opt for security by signing extensions after three seasons or offer sheets that can be matched after four rather than wait for freedom of choice after five.

Players such as Lamar Odom left when their teams chose not to match. Pierce, Yao, Amare Stoudemire, Vince Carter, Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Zach Randolph, who could have gone anywhere, re-upped as soon as they could.

One way or another, the moves that were supposed to be imminent don’t seem so imminent:

* Garnett -- One thing is that he makes a great case for however he feels at the moment. Sort of like a sportswriter.

After insisting in November, “I’m Minnesota. The Target Center, that’s the Garnett Center,” he went off last week, announcing, “I don’t think I can take another one of these rebuilding stages.... I think I’m more deserving of a better team.”

With two seasons left on Garnett’s contract, owner Glen Taylor and General Manager Kevin McHale have a say. Taylor says he’d even prefer to bring back avowed Minnesota-hater and free-floating disaster Stephon Marbury.

This so tripped out ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, he passed it along, denying his own rumor before airing it: “Even though I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe there’s any truth to what I’m about to say, I’m even hearing Kevin McHale might entertain Stephon Marbury coming back.”

Just because a lot of sportswriters speculate about it and Marbury would rather stick needles in his eyes doesn’t mean it can’t happen. In New York, they’re still pushing a scenario with Garnett going there. However, the Knicks aren’t as committed to keeping Marbury -- or committed at all, since it’s him or Larry Brown, who still has more credibility than Marbury, who has none.

By the way, wherever it would be, Garnett and Marbury would be dynamite.

* Pierce -- You could have thought Tommy Heinsohn had seen too many Celtic games when he said Pierce “could end up being the best offensive player this team ever had, and I’ve seen them all.”

Pierce could actually be as good as any of them, including Larry Bird -- if you leave out Bird’s passing, which is like leaving out Magic Johnson’s passing.

Nevertheless, it seemed to signal the team’s resolve to keep Pierce after offering him to Portland for last spring’s No. 1 pick. Not that anyone ever believed their subsequent pledges.

After a battle of wills with Coach Doc Rivers, Pierce rehabilitated himself from last spring’s playoff embarrassment and years of no-conscience, Antoine Walker-style launching of shots. After expressing his interest in leaving if this season didn’t go well, Pierce was an exemplary leader when it didn’t.

Of course, he’s a star, which means we might get another policy statement at any time, but color him green for now.

* Bosh -- A season after taking Rafael Araujo in the lottery, with Eric Williams’ 3.0 average all that remains from their Vince Carter trade, the Raptors started 4-20 amid speculation Bosh would spurn an extension this summer.

However, Bosh allied himself with Coach Sam Mitchell, clearing the path for the firing of GM Rob Babcock. Babcock’s last controversial pick, Charlie Villanueva, stunned everyone, scoring 48 points in a game last week. Since their woeful start, they’re 22-26.

Of course, there’s always Dwight Howard before the big one: Greg Oden in 2012!

Faces and Figures

Reconfiguring the West for the second time in two weeks, Stoudemire, whose return made the Suns an elite team, left again, looking as if this time it’s for the season. “We all wanted him to play so bad, to be honest, it would have been better if he waited,” said Coach Mike D’Antoni. “He didn’t hurt himself, but he wasn’t quite ready, so now we’ll try something else.” ... If you make it there, you can make it anywhere, or put another way, if the league survives this, it can survive anything: The Knicks went 0-6, losing by an average of 22. “They have a collection of names,” Rivers said after the Celtics led by 38 and won by 28 in Madison Square Garden. “Like Raef [LaFrentz] said, they might be the best worst team ever.”

Winners and losers in the NCAA tournament: Going up like a rocket: Florida’s 6-11 sophomore Joakim Noah, now considered a top-five pick in the biggest single-season move in memory. “When I wrote him up at the beginning of the year, I said he’s probably never going to be a player,” said a scout. “I never dreamed he’d block shots like this.”

Tyson Chandler of Chicago and Compton Dominguez High after blocking three shots by Pierce of Boston and Inglewood High: “That’s my man. I’ve known him since high school. He’s always been great to me.... I want to work out with him this summer. He goes hard. He works out twice a day every day. I definitely want to get some pickup games with him to give me some experience with a guy like him and a scorer like him to get that mentality.”