(Jason Kidd points out Joumana to Garden security)
Other than the late highlights, I missed most of Friday’s slate of NBA activity while attending the Knicks’ 101-100 loss to the Nets on an Uncle Cliffy tip-in of a Vince Carter miss. While this battle for Lincoln Tunnel bragging rights was exciting enough, the night represented a slight regression for Eddy Curry (16 points, 11 rebounds) who not only was outfought for the penultimate possession by 300 year old Robinson, but shot a miserable 6 of 13 from the foul line.
Though another strong performance by Quentin Richardson (24 points, 9 rebounds) would ordinarily have been the Knicks’ bright spot, said honors must go to Jerome James, whose nuanced reading of the Renee Zellweger “you had me at ‘hello'” line from “Jerry McGuire” stunned the near capacity MSG throng. It seems Double J has finally turned the corner with New York fans, and as long as he never sets foot on the court ever again, I see no reason why he can’t become one of the organization’s most beloved figures.
The celebs-on-the-jumbotron breakdown :
Willie Randolph – wild cheers
Ed Burns – scattered boos
Jed Ortmeyer – near silence (don’t feel bad, Jed, Henrik Lundqvist was at the Sixers game last week and didn’t receive much applause, either)
(Addendum : The Feed’s Josh Alper watched the above contest and although he’s not too polite to come right out and call the Nets as a brutally fugly bunch of dudes. There are far too few blogs that namedrop Arkan and Beyonce’ in the same post.)
Anyhow, I didn’t catch the Pistons’ 104-98 double OT defeat of the T-Wolves, and as such, missed out on Kevin Garnett squaring off with Antonio McDyess, followed by a display of petulance from Ricky Davis. While Need4Sheed has video of the former incident, Minnesota’s resident crap dancer, Mark Madsen, delivers his side of the story.
Sometimes emotions can flare in close games and that’s what happened in tonights game against the Detroit Pistons at home. Right now I am in pain because Kevin Garnett got ejected and there is some speculation that the league might come forward with a disciplinary action for those of us involved. I still have not seen a replay of the incident and I didn’t see the first part of the tussle because I had my back turned while I was getting up.
When you get a group of 6’10” 260 pound grown men competing hard in games emotions and testosterone can run high with all of us. We were all out there competing and it got a little bit physical and then it was over. It doesn’t make any of it right, but that is the reality of the situation. I am hoping that the NBA chooses to issue fines as a form of discipline for those of us involved instead of any sort of suspensions for the players. KG is the spoon that stirs the pot for our team and Antonio McDyess is an important piece for the Pistons and has been ever since he arrived. I don’t think tonight’s incident was a fight and in my mind, being ejected is punishment enough in terms of lost minutes. Both KG and Antonio McDyess are class guys and in my mind this incident is over.
Lastly, after the game the media was asking us all about Ricky Davis. Let me put this issue to rest. There are no issues with Ricky Davis or any sort of incident that is being speculated upon. Rick is a great teammate and a great player and even though he didn’t have his best shooting night, he did a lot of the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. He was out there cheering everyone on and giving us feedback when the game was on the line.
Yikes. Even David Wright thinks Madsen’s blog is kind of dull.