I took a break from the masochistic experience that is watching the New York Knicks for one fucking night and it seems like I really missed something. Not the game, per se, a clinical display from Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks, who led Houston to a 103-91 win over the visiting Knicks, but the following incident, as described by the New York Post’s Marc Berman :

The Rockets’ entertainment staff mocked the Knicks, specifically Stephon Marbury, in a stunt during a second-quarter timeout. A Rockets staffer posed as a Knicks fan wearing a blue Marbury jersey and Statue of Liberty crown. The fake Marbury fan was given a torch to hold up with the basketball in its cradle, so the Rockets’ mascot “Clutch The Bear” could take the ball and dunk it.

After the fake Marbury fan kept dropping the ball, “Clutch” ripped the torch away, blindfolded him and replaced the torch with an “Idiot” sign. The fake Marbury fan stood for 30 seconds holding the “Idiot” sign aloft even as the real Marbury came on to the court, standing a few feet from him, waiting for play to resume as the fans erupted in laughter at the scene. Marbury brushed it off, wearing a smirk.

I’m just wondering if Calvin Murphy ever gets sweaty in the bear suit. Along with dreaming of a time the Rockets have to sit through some a video presentation in another city that shows how much Tracy McGrady is paid every game to do something other than play basketball.