It was the perfect night to skip out on the Knick game. The calls for Isiah Thomas' head had gotten vicious and precipitated into a full-on protest. The Cavs were in town, and LeBron was sure to bring his meanest game to snuff out the lowly Knicks. I was home for the first night, and ready to get out and see some old friends. Conditions were perfect.
Then I checked the score at halftime, you know, to assess the damage. It wasn't that bad. They were only down by thir----WAIT A SECOND...THEY WERE UP! The Knicks were up by thirteen! They'd dropped 63 points in a half! David Lee was already approaching a double-double!
Lo and behold, the Knicks went on to thoroughly smoke the Cavs, 108-90. Lee went for 22 and 11, Q got hot from downtown, Crawford and Randolph were efficient from the field, and Nate dunked. Meanwhile, LeBron and Mike Brown were beefing.
I should have known. On a night when Derrick Rose played the best game of his young career, when the Garden was finally ready to bring the axe down on Isiah, when people like me had given up watching, the Knicks pulled out their best performance of the year. Figures. This team is incapable of making progress. We can't even be a laughingstock properly.
Now to a crazy, impossible idea: What if Isiah stays and the Knicks turn things around from here and win 10 straight? What if they finish above .500? What if they make the playoffs? How are we going to reconcile the amount of grief we've given the team with newfound success? That'd be a pretty awkward relationship between the fans, Isiah, and the team. I do think that last night's win was a product of the players' feeling disrespected by Zeke and by the fans. But what if that lasts? Can a team make a turnaround by playing in spite of their coach? My head hurts!
So, you've been given a couple paragraphs of terribly-used past tense and one paragraph entirely composed of questions. Now give me your thoughts. I know it's just one win, but it's a pretty damn bedeviling one. Leave it in the comments.