The Knicks Are Willing To Try Anything

When we interviewed Sam Walker, author of Fantasyland and columnist for The Wall Street Journal a while back, he spoke at length about the prevalence of fantasy baseball and the changing face of the game. We let the guy expound for a while, and expound he did. And at the end of the interview, when asked about what he's working on next, he said, "First, I gotta fix the Knicks." We thought he was joking. He probably did too.

But. Get this. Sources inside Viking — Fantasyland's publisher — say that the New York Knicks publicity department has requested two copies of the book specifically for Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown. No, seriously. Both men personally asked for copies of the book, perhaps as "a team-building exercise."

Thomas, who has built his own disastrous fantasy team since joining the Knicks, is perhaps taking a page from the Phil Jackson playbook, hoping that a book can bring his team together. We imagine Isiah flipping through recent book catalogs, stopping on Fantasyland and saying, "Hey! That's got a baseball player on it! They'll love that!"

Larry Brown probably just wants it because of the title, which he incorrectly assumed meant the book was about a magical place in the clouds, where little puppies and suicidal head coaches go to frolic and forget all their worldly woes.

Authors With Pure Hearts: Sam Walker [Deadspin]