Knicks Win, Knicks Win, The Knicks Win!!

The New York Knicks were crushed the other night by the Nuggets in beautiful downtown Denver. The game was tied after the first quarter, but four straight possessions on which they turned the ball over right before halftime resulted in 12 points for the Nuggets and the rout was on.  Oh sure they cut the lead to 20 at one point in the third quarter, which made my wife take her head off my shoulder for a minute, yawn and ask for more popcorn, but a couple three's from the Nugg's and it was over.   But did I mention that the Knicks won that night?

If you are a faithful follower of E Pluribus Marvus you know that we are life long fans of the New York Basketball Franchise "Keep the Nets in New Jersey".  If you're new to this space do yourself a favor and pick a different team to suffer with!  My team is on pace for its worst season in franchise history but you see, last nights boat racing in our fair city was a win because it means they are on pace for the worst record in the league this season. A loss is a win because it means the Knicks chance for the most ping pong balls in the upcoming draft lottery grows every day as the season drags on. It's weird to go sit in the stands at a game and root for your team to lose.  I tried but I still found myself yelling at Andrea Bargnani  for shooting brick after brick, and cursing the ref for bogus foul calls.  My heart wants them to win, but my brain wants them to get hammered.  They need to suck the rest of the season, but it's hard for those of us who love them to have the intervention.

Prior to the game we met up with a guy I have written about here in past.  Dennis Doyle quit his job and decided to spend about twenty grand of his own money going to every Knicks game this season. He had no idea when he signed up that it would be such a labor of love.  We talked for a few minutes before the game about his travels with the team as they lose night after night.  He told me it feels like half comedy and half tragedy.  I wrote earlier in the season that I was jealous of his adventure, but after last nights 28 point drubbing I went home feeling blue.  I can only imagine what he feels like after 50 nights like that. Salt Lake in March is next for Doyle; good luck with that!  But they need this losing right?  And won't his book be better if they suck?

At one point during the game the in house broadcast kept showing a guy across the arena from us in an empty section of the upper deck holding a sign that read " Knicks rule, Nuggets drule".  Every time it flashed on the jumbo-tron the crowd would boo.  I couldn't help laughing because I hadn't seen a sign like that since junior high.  Eventually, thankfully Rocky, the Nuggets mascot saw the sign and had enough (oh yeah check this out).  As the crowd roared he valiantly climbed up toward the guy with the sign, forsaking the stairs and instead scaling the walls between the sections.  The crowed was in a frenzy by the time he  tore the sign from the poor fans hands and ripped it into pieces.  Moments later the guy was gone and the pieces of the neon sign spent the rest of the night innocently crumpled in a seat.  That poor Knicks fan was abused by a dude dressed as some sort of cat character while the crowed delighted.  It was fake folks!  The whole thing was a ruse by the Nuggets arena team to entertain the masses.   By the way, not unlike the parading of a soldier on to the court during a break so fans could punch their patriotism card for that day ( nytimes.com-please-don't-thank-me-for-my-service ). The only thing that gets a bigger cheer are the t-shirts and bags of popcorn that satiate us.

That stunt was really a metaphor for the the whole game that night.  The Nuggets won, the crowd cheered and the players passed around fist bumps.  But it was fake folks: my team won by losing that night.  Winning is losing? Losing is winning? It's all so hard to figure out.  Trust me. If your team is ever a dumpster fire, you'll get it.  You can't really change unless you've hit rock bottom.