Here is a little stock recommendation. Go long this small Canadian company named New Flyer Industries (NFI). It is a $12 stock that is already trading near its 52-week highs but if I am right about something, those highs should be pierced and NFI will be a big winner in 2012.
That is because NFI builds buses. And one of their biggest customers is the New York Transit authority. Ordinarily, that isn’t all that sexy a story. But word is, New York is preparing a HUGE order. It is an order so big that NFI will be swimming in new business. And why is the New York MTA ramping up? Simple. The city knows it will need a shitload of new buses to accommodate all these phony new Knicks fans who are lined up to re-join the NBA.
Just to set the facts straight, the NBA has been dead in New York for a decade. Not comatose, but flat out dead as the Knicks were dragged under by a bloated payroll, retarded management and an owner who I rank as the fourth worst in all of North American Sports.
The numbers really speak for themselves but here are the key points. Since beating the Raptors on April 28, 2001, the Knicks haven’t won a playoff game. They have had seven coaches. Up until 2011, they had no all-stars. They were two losses away from having six straight fifty-loss seasons. Their best player over the period was a guy who called himself Starbury. The club’s glossary of roster moves reads like this book. And the architect of it all, whose failings led to a 2008 suicide attempt, is still heavily involved in running the club even though HE COACHES A COLLEGE TEAM 1200 MILES AWAY!
For all intents and purposes, the Knicks were murdered and forgotten. Forget buzz. This organization didn’t have even a feint pulse. That means no volume in the bars. No “positive” front page stories in the papers. ZERO mention on talk radio. And a whole lot of this at the water cooler ….. “I used to be a fan but the Knicks suck and I now hate the NBA.”
Sure, there were still some fans holding out in the hills like those Japanese soldiers who were never told the war was over. But other than my friend Mike, and maybe a couple of guys I used to work with, I don’t know ANYONE who watched the Knicks anymore. And this is coming from a guy who spends hours and hours in a sports bar watching sports.
But lo and behold, the Knicks went out last Summer and bought some wins. They then emptied their cupboard last week to pick up Carmelo Anthony. Throw in a win over a vastly overrated Miami team on Sunday night and the city is now buzzing over the Knicks.
The buzz is what boggles my mind. I can’t stress this enough. The Knicks might as well have played in Scranton for all the attention they got in this city. And now, all of a sudden, blowhards Michael Kay and Mike Francesa lead off their radio shows each day with discussions of individual games? Worse yet, guys are actually calling in and claiming they are “diehard” fans. Sorry Lou from Bayone … nobody other than my friend Mike watched this team for ten years so let’s lay off the hyberbolic references to “diehard.”
While the buzz is slightly irritating, what really bothers me is this claim that New York is some sort of “basketball town” and deserves to have a good NBA team. That the NBA is somehow better when New York has a good team. What a bunch of bullshit. People, basketball – particularly NBA basketball – was dead in this town and that doesn’t happen in cities where there is unconditional interest. Take for instance Toronto and hockey. The Leafs may stink and they have stunk for a very long time but they are still relevant.
That is not the case with New York where the Knicks became an after-thought. And that fact alone confirms this is not some sort of basketball mecca. Not even close. Instead, it is what most cities are … a place where fans come out to support winners and turn the other way when things get bad. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it is a common thing.
So forget what you hear about this huge undercurrent of “loyal” Knicks fans who have stuck with this team through thick and thin. Sorry, but that narrative is tortured history. And it dishonors the 50K brave souls who did stick it out. Those are the fans that can walk proudly today. The rest? Well, there is still some room on those NFI buses but be warned ….. nobody is quite sure where those buses are headed.
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