Farewell to Michael Beasley, who gave the Knicks the best moment of the 2017-18 season

On Friday the Lakers shocked the hep basketball world by signing Michael Beasley.

Apparently Beasley turned down an offer from the Thunder to play with LeBron James in sunny Southern California. Good for him. Unlike some of the other wacky Lakers free agent signings (especially Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson), the Walking Bucket will play exactly as advertised, delivering buckets and...maybe some rebounds, I guess.

It had been apparent for some time—particularly with the signing of Mario Hezonja and drafting of Kevin Knox—that the Knicks weren’t terribly interested in bringing back Beasley for the 2018-19 season. And that’s fine. But let us not say farewell to Beas without looking back upon his greatest accomplishment in the orange and blue. Let us honor the man by replaying highlights from his 32-point masterpiece in a December 21 win over the dreaded Boston Celtics.

For those who may have forgotten, the Knicks were actually a pretty decent team for the first two months of the 2017-18 season. They entered a Thursday night, national TV game against the Celtics with a 16-14 record, good enough for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. But their unquestioned star, forward Kristaps Porzingis, turned in unquestionably his worst performance of the season: 1 measly point on 0-11 shooting.

Enter Beas. Unleashed from the bench, he played most of the second half in place of Porzingis, sparking a run through the late third and early fourth quarter that would give the Knicks the victory.

Beasley’s monstrous fourth quarter was perhaps the high point of the Knicks’ season. They would lose their next four in a row, and wouldn’t see north of .500 for the rest of the campaign. But we’ll always have that Thursday night against Boston.

So thank you, Michael Beasley. And godspeed.