Digging Up the Garden.

In a flurry of moves at the deadline, the Knickerbockers acquire Tracy McGrady in a three-team trade (for Jared Jeffries, Jordan Hill, Larry Hughes, and two draft picks), dump Nate Robinson on Boston (for Eddie House, basically), and end the Darko experiment (trading him to Minnesota for Brian Cardinal, who will likely be waived.)

The upshot here? We get Tracy McGrady for 31 probably meaningless games, and should have lots of money to play with in this summer’s LeBron sweepstakes — enough to sign two marquee free agents next year. All in all, well-played, New York. Here’s hoping the post-Ewing decade of losing is at last coming to an end.

The Court of King James.

Senators Obama and Clinton aren’t the only people sending reinforcements to Ohio. At the trade deadline, Lebron James gets some much-needed help in Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, and Delonte West, giving up Drew Gooden and the underperforming Larry Hughes to Chicago and Donyell Marshall to Seattle. Elsewhere in the league, Bonzi Wells and Mike James went to N’Orleans, and former Knick Kurt Thomas ended up in San Antonio (which will help take the sting out of the Spurs winning another championship, if that’s in the cards, around these parts.)

Speaking of the 16-38 Knicks, they…stood pat. I must say, it’s been a tough season to be a Knicks fan. My TiVo conscientiously tapes all of their losses for me, so I caught the second half of Wednesday’s 40-point stinker against the lowly Sixers, 124-84. Look away! It is hideous.