NEW YORK KNICKS
Now that Larry Brown is gone, everything is just going to be hunky dory. Right? Wrong. The typical toxic waste dump takes years to clean up. In this case, it’s a rare and volatile mix of ownership, management and players that figures to produce a mushroom cloud. Isiah Thomas is the new head coach, and he was given one year by chairman James Dolan to get the team back on track. Sure, the Knicks will be better than last year, when they won only 23 games and finished in the Eastern Conference cellar. But they’re still saddled with a bizarre collection of players that includes Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Quentin Richardson, Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford. Any one of those guys could suddenly start complaining or have a run-in on or off the floor and get the tabloids buzzing again. At the very least, the Knicks will hit the skids in the standings again, which will bring about constant rumors of firings and trades. The Knicks will again lead the league in distractions.

MARK CUBAN
The new NBA anti-whining rule applies to players, but don’t forget, Cuban thinks he’s a player. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks sits about as close to the court as his players. And generally speaking, he complains to the referees more than they do. A lot more. Don’t be surprised if the Mavericks obey the new rule but then let Cuban do all their complaining for them. The NBA Board of Governors also passed another similar rule recently that covers chatty owners. Cuban claims he’s been “reborn,” but we’ll see. He’s been fined over $1.5 million by the league for his antics. He may double that total this season because he feels the Mavericks are close to winning a championship and all that is standing in their way is the fact that everybody in the world is against them.

DANNY FORTSON
Earlier this year he complained about being misunderstood and unappreciated after some around the SuperSonics privately grumbled about Fortson’s desire and speculated that he was committing fouls on purpose in order to take himself out of games. He also referred to Stu Jackson, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, as a “gangster” after becoming frustrated over a series of fines and suspensions. And this season Fortson picked up where he left off, drawing a one-game suspension after committing a flagrant foul on Ron Artest during an exhibition game. Fortson is one of the most physical players in the game, and also one of its largest head cases. When you mix muscles and madness, the results can be frightening. Think of Fortson as Dennis Rodman without the wedding dress.

DAMON STOUDAMIRE
Although he has been relatively quiet lately, Stoudamire has a long history of off-the-court shenanigans, most of them inspired by hippie lettuce. When he was a teammate of Rasheed Wallace with the Trail Blazers, they were the Cheech and Chong of Portland. Let loose by the Blazers, he signed with Memphis in the summer of 2005 as a backup point guard. He has kept out of the spotlight the last several months, but much of that had to do with a knee injury, which caused him to miss the last 54 games of the 2005-06 regular season. Now he’s back and this may mark his first full season with the Grizzlies. He may indeed be reformed and looking forward to contributing any way he can. Or he may again fall into the grip of reefer madness, taking down another franchise with him and causing his career makeover to go up in smoke.

KENYON MARTIN
In April, Martin was suspended indefinitely because of “conduct detrimental to the team.” Basically, he wigged out. He and his Denver Nuggets head coach, George Karl, got into a spitting match and the result was an apparent permanent rupture in their relationship. However, they seem to have patched things up for now and Martin is still on the team. But don’t be fooled. That won’t last. Martin hasn’t been his old self because of sore knees. He recently told the Denver Post: “I’m a great teammate. I’m easygoing. When you rub me the wrong way, then you have a problem.” But Martin figures to get rubbed the wrong way a lot this season, especially by Karl, by hecklers, by teammates, by opponents, by the media and by the league office. Storm clouds are forming over the Rockies. It’s not bad weather on the way. It’s Kenyon.

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