76ers at NY Knicks

Sixers 79 – Knicks 7

I’ve been a Knicks fan since the 90’s with Ewing, Oakley, Starks, and Mason. I’m sure if it wasn’t for Michael Jordan they would have at least one chip from those years. Frustrating as those losses were, the team was so much fun to watch. However, once that team all retired the Knicks proceeded to trot out terrible teams for over 20 years (other than the brief Linsanity period of time which was fun) so I stopped watching them especially when we cut cable and it was difficult to watch them on TV.

So it as surprising to me when they started to get good the last few years. Hiring Thibs as a coach turned out to be inspired and then assembling an all Villanova team was fun (while it lasted) and Brunson turning into a superstar was really great to see. They were exciting again and the team of Brunson, Hart, DiVencenzo, OG, and Hartestein showed amazing chemistry. I started watching games again (When they were streamed on TBS / Max) and when they tore off 10 wins in a row I decided I needed to see them – this could be the year they go to the finals! So I  bought good seats for what should have been a premiere game – the 76’ers coming into MSG and a battle for the East.

What I got was the most godawful game of basketball I’ve ever seen. I’ve see better play at my old man’s pickup league. The score was the lowest total score in the NBA in 15 years. There were more bricks than the third little pig’s house. Airballs all over the place, turnovers, bad fouls and overall poor play dominated the floor like MJ dominated the Knicks in the 90s.  The people next to me in the seats started making bets on who would manage to actually sink a basket. I’m sure Fanduel probably had a prop bet open you could wager on.

Some would say “What a defensive game!”. They would be wrong – there was no defense shots were going up uncontested and they were still clanging off the rims with disturbing frequency. I stayed to the bitter end because the score, as low as it was, was pretty close.

So not only did I witness the bad kind of basketball history – the Knicks lost on top of it. That’s OK though because come playoff time they bested the sixers and this sequence will live on in my memory forever (also damn you for trading the Italian GOAT)