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Merry Christmas, P&T. I hope you and yours are enjoying the holiday, despite the big, fat lump of coal that has been left in our collective stocking this year.
That's right, folks, there will be no Knicks game today. Somebody will have to tell Mike Plugh's lovely children that Santa Claus didn't bring them a real-life Kristaps Porzingis:
Merry Kristaps Porzingis!!! @kporzee #NBAVote #NBAXmas pic.twitter.com/4p4ycL1m3S
— Mike Plugh (@mikeplugh) December 25, 2015
I researched Latvian religious practices with the hope that maybe Kristaps follows one of those Eastern Orthodox churches which celebrate Christmas at a later date. Nope, turns out the vast majority of ethnic Latvians are either Lutheran of Catholic ... which means the league has denied him the chance to play on the day his people celebrate the birth of Jesus. There's no room at the inn!
And Kristaps isn't the only one bummed at being left out of the Christmas fun; check out these sad words from Carmelo Anthony:
"Of course we want to play on Christmas. I love that. That's showtime, especially in New York. But we'll get our shot at it. They'll come back to us. I don't know what they were looking at. The past is the past. But New York is one of those teams that should always be on Christmas.''
Damn right! The Knicks always deliver on Christmas. Remember last year when Quincy Acy punched John Wall and started freaking out while his own teammates turned away in disgust?
That was pretty much the highlight of the league's 2014 Christmas schedule. The Knicks always deliver!
So what matchups were so damned important that they had to leave New York out in the cold? Let's check 'em out:
- 12:00 p.m. EST: Pelicans vs. Heat -- Lame
- 2:30 p.m. EST: Bulls vs. Thunder -- Lame
- 5:00 p.m. EST: Cavaliers vs. Warriors -- We just saw like six of these things in June
- 8:00 p.m. EST: Spurs vs. Rockets -- Everything's lamer in Texas
- 10:30 p.m. EST: Clippers vs.Lakers -- Kobe's last chance to be lame on Christmas
By all means, do your best to make this Christmas a happy one, and try to ignore the grave injustice that has been done here. We only have like 34 more hours until the Knicks play again.