For all the boys who grow up dreaming of playing for the New York Knicks, there’s a smaller, dorkier contingent of basketball fans who dream of covering the Knicks. And like so many fantasies, this one is better left unrealized.

According to The Observer, the Knicks beat is one of the worst jobs in journalism. (We would have gone with Iraq, but what we do know?) And it’s not just that the Knicks are bad, which they are, it’s that the Knicks organization and the Madison Square Garden are neurotic, micomanagers.

Reporters get no direct access to players or management and P.R. handlers oversee every story:

The stories from the reporters are endless: layers of institutional paranoia; public relations officials who openly eavesdrop on private conversations with executives and players; the threat—and implementation—of cutting off reporters who are perceived to be critical of the team.

Equally infuriating, dinner options are usually “a small plastic cup of coke and a sandwich with ham, processed turkey, Swiss cheese and hard white bread, all for $8.”

Maybe everyone would be better off without Knicks coverage at all. Fans and reporters alike would be less depressed, and Isiah Thomas could maintain his Zone Defense of Evil without being disturbed by the press.