Hoops Playground

I was at the Knicks game on Friday night when they played the Oklahoma City Thunder. My friend Quan was able to get some club-level seats and they were awesome.  So thanks again Quan for the tickets.  We were a little held up so we got there towards the end of the first quarter and the Knicks were already up by 17.  And I was pretty impressed by this because the Knicks?????  Up by 17?????  It is just incomprehensible.  (Or at least it was.  Mike D’Antoni really is doing some amazing things with this team.  He’s the leading Coach of the Year candidate in my book and I really don’t see how it could be anyone else.)  The Knicks are clearly a superior team to the Thunder but I thought it would be a classic case of the better team playing down to the competition, but that wasn’t the case…at least for a half.  After the crowd (and both teams) were treated to an amazing performance by a young girl singing a song from Dream Girls (Nate Robinson was going crazy…waving his towel throughout the whole song and I can’t blame him…the girl’s life is pretty set), the Knicks reverted to the team they’ve been for the last seven years.  They almost blew a 30-point lead as the Thunder cut the lead to seven points.  The MSG crowd was starting to boo but they turned into cheers (or sighs of relief actually) as they eventually won by 10.

Thanks for putting away the Thunder, Eddie.

Even though the Knicks almost blew a 30-point lead, I was still impressed and now I’m certain things are different in New York.  First off, they HAD a 30-point lead.  Sure it was only the Thunder but it’s a team they’re SUPPOSED to blow out and they did for a little while.  Additionally, the Knicks were bending but did not break.  As Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were chipping away at the lead, it seemed as if the Knicks were destined for a loss of epic proportions, even for them.  And if that happened, there would’ve been a riot in the Garden.  I legitimately would’ve been scared for my life.  Fortunately, Jamal Crawford and Eddie Winslow…I mean Zach Randolph made sure I lived to see another day (thanks, guys) and led New York to victory.  They’re beginning to learn how to close out games and Friday night’s experience will be worth something to them as the season goes on.  And on top of all of this, the Knicks are winning at home, their only loss being a bad one to the Bucks.

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

Finally, though everyone makes fun of the Knicks and how bad they’ve been the last few years and what a dramatic change it’s been in New York, when you put that all aside and just remember that Isiah Thomas has no role with the team anymore, I don’t think you can be too surprised with the change.  Without even getting into his personnel moves (which any casual fan could tell you were atrocious), it’s no secret the former Pistons Bad Boy is a terrible head coach who should never get another coaching gig at any level.  The Knicks always had talent but Thomas negated all of that while he was coaching.  Now they have a legitimate coach running the team, and look what he’s doing with all the talent.  I always thought coaching was a bit overrated in the NBA, but I guess when you have the worst coach in professional sports, it can uhh…have a big impact.  But Knicks fans, you can forget all of that now as Mike D’Antoni looks to take this team to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.  As I was leaving the game, my boy Jeff (who I pleasantly bumped into as he was sitting in the row behind me) gave me this prediction: in a repeat of the 1998-1999 season, the New York Knicks will get to the playoffs as the #8 seed and stun the basketball world, taking down team by team, eventually reaching………and WINNING the Finals. I kind of laughed it off when he was telling me this, but with the way things are going in New York, maybe it’s not as farfetched as we all think.  The NBA, after all, is where amazing happens.