by Marc Berman

July 8, 2007 -- Somehow we all knew it would come to this. From Charles Dolan to Isiah Thomas to Spike Lee, all the way on down to the lowliest beer man on the MSG totem poll, everyone had a sneaking suspicion that the tenure of nearly departed New York Knicks head coach Larry Brown would end badly.

But could we have imagined anything as bizzare as this?

But with only a few weeks gone since the Knicks' second consecutive playoff exit in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, it's Long Beach native Brown who finds himself on the road again, while the much improved Knicks franchise he leaves behind seems as directionless as it has ever been in its storied history.

Sure, if Brown were to have waltzed into a well deserved retirement, we still would have cursed our foolishness, but to see him hop a subway train under the river and into the arms of Bruce Ratner and the Brooklyn Nets is just too much to take.

But we drank the Kool-Aid, every last one of us, all in the hopes that before he left town, Brown might leave behind at least one NBA title.