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Kwazimodal
Posts: 20896
Alba Posts: 5
Joined: 8/3/2004
Member: #728
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A San Antonio reporter's take on the Knicks and the Garden and the Knicks
http://www.woai.com/spurs/story.aspx?content_id=97DBF20F-ABD8-4317-8D20-B8C820F0690C
Coast to Coast: Part I -- Unexpected Twist
LAST UPDATE: 4/19/2005 2:29:42 PM
Posted By: Kori Ellis
By Rasheeb Shrestha
FullSportPress.com
“Sometimes things can go right only by first going very wrong.” -- Edward Tenner
This story starts six months ago when I first looked at the San Antonio Spurs’ 2004-05 schedule. After circling the two dates the Spurs would come to play here in Phoenix, I circled just one more. I wasn’t sure how cold it would be in New York City in mid-March, but I didn’t care. Come March 21, I would finally get to experience Madison Square Garden.
The weather turned out to be better than expected, but it was the travel that was a nuisance. It took me nearly nine hours to get from the Phoenix airport to my friend’s apartment in Manhattan (don’t ask). It was there where I watched the Spurs-Pistons game on March 20, and it was there where I ripped the Spurs beanie off my head and flung it at the television every single time ABC showed that damn replay of Tim Duncan landing on Rasheed Wallace’s foot.
Needless to say, the mood was quite somber when we jumped on the subway the next day to head to MSG. It didn’t take long for the mood to change.
As we neared the Garden, the famous marquee was a sight to behold, but it was the banners that were lined up high above the entrance walkway that caught my attention. Each one signified a historic event that took place at “The World’s Most Famous Arena,” including Wayne Gretzky’s final game, Wrestle Mania I, Steffi Graf’s retirement, and of course, the biggest event of the 20th Century -- Ali-Frazier I on March 8, 1971.
The nostalgic theme continued inside the Garden. Whereas most NBA franchises are concerned about putting on an entertainment show for the fans, the Knicks only care about promoting one thing -- the game itself.
There are very few sideshows during timeouts, almost no visible advertising inside the Garden, and the annoyingly loud hip-hop music, blasted in every other arena, is replaced by tunes played by an on-site organist.
But it’s the few extra quirks that truly make the Garden unique. The P.A. announcer keeps the fans into the game by announcing the score after almost every made basket. The player entrance/exit is in the middle of the court instead of on the ends -- a sweet reminder of Willis Reed’s famous entrance prior to Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals.
Because the Garden hasn’t been re-furbished in a while, the one row of luxury boxes remains at the very top of the stadium instead of in the middle, which means that every seat in the upper levels is closer to the court than in any other NBA arena. Compare that to the Staples Center in LA, where there are THREE rows of luxury suites preceding the upper deck. Seeing this, I wondered why more arenas don’t follow the Garden’s lead. After all, who would you rather have sitting closer to the court -- ultra passionate fans who can barely afford the $20 upper-level tickets, or rich, corporate folks who care more about entertaining their clients than cheering on the home team?
Finally, the pure feel of the game is enhanced ten-fold by the lighting in the arena. When the game starts, the lighting is dimmed everywhere, except on the court itself. This touch gives the Garden a theatrical feel, and, once again, focuses the attention on the game itself.
It was quite refreshing, to say the least, to see an arena more in tune with the game than anything else. It is the one stadium I’ve been to that reminds me of baseball’s Wrigley Field. If you asked me to describe MSG in one word, I would say, “Authentic.” Michael Jordan would always refer to MSG as the “Mecca of basketball,” and I would always wonder why. I wonder no more.
As for the game itself, well, that was a completely different story. The Spurs seemed on their way to one of their patented grind-it-out victories, but the Knicks erupted in the second half for a 25-1 run to put the game away. Duncan’s absence was really magnified on the defensive end, as Stephon Marbury drove time and again right down the lane for two.
You would figure that on a night like this, with the Knicks exploding the way they did in the third quarter, with their victory over the team with the best record in the league, and with their playoff hopes still alive, the Garden would have been rocking.
But it wasn’t. To put it simply, something was missing. That “something” was a thing I figured Knicks fans would never be lacking -- passion. Then again, the apathetic nature of the crowd was surprising yet hardly shocking. After all, the horrible moves in recent years that have put the team in salary cap hell with no end in sight would take its toll on any set of fans. And, this was only a few weeks removed from the trading deadline, when Knicks GM Isiah Thomas added two more undersized power forwards with multi-year contracts: Mo Taylor and former Spur Malik Rose.
The day after the trading deadline, my friend Michael e-mailed me with the perfect explanation:
“There is an episode of the Simpsons where a bunch of townspeople are digging a giant hole in the ground looking for a treasure. Somewhere along the line they realize that not only is there not any treasure, but the hole is now so deep that they are unable to climb out. In a moment of inspiration, someone suggests they dig their way out, and everyone starts shoveling.
Have you seen this episode? Evidently, Isiah Thomas has.”
Spurs fans probably didn’t feel much better than Knicks fans at that point in time. In a span of 30 hours, they went from having a great chance of winning another NBA title to wondering if they would even win another game without their fallen superstar. It was clear the Spurs were going to struggle mightily until Duncan came back, but the greater concern was whether TD would come back at all this season.
And so I left New York City with an empty feeling. I had come expecting to see basketball bliss at MSG and to see the Spurs take another step towards the Championship, and now all I had were questions. I wondered, if I couldn’t get the full basketball experience at a place like the Garden, would I ever be able to find it? And, of course, I wondered how the Spurs would survive the rest of the season -- with or without # 21.
Little did I know I would find the answers to both of those questions three weeks later in the unlikeliest of places.
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