a night with the knickerbockers

Went to the Knicks game last night. They lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in a pretty horrible performance, not that I have any other games to compare it to. They don't really play defense, or rebound defensively at all, they throw a lot of sloppy passes, and they could not hit a shot to save their lives last night. I think they put a microphone on the basket so you can hear an extra loud SWISH if a Knick scores, but most of the time we just kept hearing big THWAPS as the ball bricked off the rim. I think they turned the mic off after the 3rd quarter.

It was a fun time though. They do a lot to try to keep the fans engaged at Knicks games. First of all, we got a great deal on our tickets that included getting a hot dog, soda and bag of chips for free with our tickets. That was awesome! Also there were professional crowd pumper-uppers who just go around with drums and enthusiasm and yell and make you clap a lot. Thirdly, There were the Knicks dance squad, who would dance during every time out. This would prompt the rotund foreign man in a Canadian tuxedo sitting next to me to take out his camera and videotape. It made me feel uneasy. Something that didn't make me feel uneasy, however, was the dancing Grandpa! Another person hired by the Knicks to keep me interested in being there even though the Knicks aren't good. Basically when they are doing the "dance cam" and showing fans dancing around the arena, they cut to the Dancing Grandpa, who gives us a hilarious dance and then takes his shirt off. Hottie.

One other nice thing about last night was that it was Legends Night. The entire World Championship 1969-1970 team was present (or family members representing those who've passed away). At halftime they did a little ceremony for them, and it was pretty cool to see all those guys up there, especially since I'm currently knee deep reading "The Book of Basketball" by Bill Simmons.

It was quite a night at the Knicks game. I recommend catching a game sometime if you're in the area. Because even if they won't win, you'll still get quite a show.