When Obama got elected in the midst of a recession/depression of indeterminate depth, a credit crisis, two wars, environmental problems, a broken health care system and an automotive industry on death's door, he essentially got the New York Knicks job.

The one-time marquee franchise, home to the biggest market in the league had fallen on hard times since the Pat Riley/Jeff Van Gundy era. Scott Layden was the team's first term GM and beginning with the Allan Houston deal in 2001, everything went south. The team's second-term GM, Isiah Thomas, was even worse, digging a bigger fiscal hole and locking the team into bad contracts for years to come.

Enter D'Antoni, who brought an up-tempo style of play to the Garden - in place of the in-your-face, every-possession's-a-war philosophy the team lived by over the last 15 years.

There was concern that D'Antoni would have trouble getting along with and incorporating into his system some of the selfish holdovers from past administrations, but he got excellent production out of Zach Randolph - so much so that he was able to move his contract and free up space for a major initiative in the summer of 2009 (Known as the LeBron James energy and fiscal policy).

While the Knicks are far from being a healthy franchise, there's finally hope for the team after eight bleak years.