Robbed

This isn't what sports should be about.

I got nothin.

Game 54: Knicks 103, Rockets 105

In a New York minute…

After a strong start out of the gate, the shorthanded Knicks began succumbing to the pressure of a young and hungry Rockets team that forced seven first half steals. They stymied Jalen Brunson and his teammates, as New York scored just 43 first half points to Houston’s 57. The Knicks came out with a renewed energy after halftime, playing suffocating defense and hitting several big shots to eventually tie the game late in the third, but 14 quick Houston points pushed the lead back to nine and eventually 11 midway through the fourth. And yet, New York never went away, pushing back once more to give themselves a chance to tie with under 30 seconds remaining. After Jalen’s tough two went through the net, the comeback was nearly complete.

It was all set up to be a magical night.

What we got instead was a travesty.

One Thing

1. “The worst call of all time”. When you decide to root for a team (or more likely, that choice is made for you by someone else), there is an implied contract you sign with the Gods of Sport that your life will now be filled with pain that would not otherwise be present.

At least 30 teams compete in the four major sports, and plenty more in college. The odds that your team will end the season holding the trophy are very slim. For every team that wins, there must be a team that loses. Rarely does the sum total of pleasure vs pain work out in our favor at the end of the day.

And yet we do it, because there is nothing better than a great sporting event coming down to the wire, propelled by great players making great plays. It is the stuff that legends are made of - stuff like what we saw from Jalen Brunson 12 days ago.

That is where we were headed last night, after a thrilling fourth quarter defined by big plays from both teams on both ends of the floor, all culminating in a Jalen Brunson 14-footer that tied the game with 8.1 seconds remaining and seemed like it would send the game to overtime if the Knicks could come up with a defensive stop.

At that point, we’d all have signed for whatever the outcome might have been. Why? Because it’s part of the contract. Win or lose, rejoice or recoil…the result would have been earned. If it doesn’t go your way, you live with it, because sometimes the other team just makes more plays than your team. If that happens, so be it. You gave your best and it wasn’t enough.

Except that’s not what happened here. The Knicks and their fans never got a chance to experience the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat because that chance was unfairly, egregiously, and quite preposterously stolen from them. Street thugs snatching an old lady’s purse are less audacious than crew chief Ed Malloy and refs Jacyn Goble and Andy Nagy were at the end of regulation.

They broke the sacred contract, not because Knicks fans everywhere experienced an unthinkable pain, but because that pain should never, ever be inflicted in that manner.

And now, this is all any of us will think about when it comes to a game that was developing much in the same way that Sunday’s Super Bowl did: a borderline unwatchable slog for one half that gradually rose in quality until a final crescendo. We won’t think about any of the big shots from Josh Hart or Bojan Bogdanovic, or any of the massive defensive plays from Precious Achiuwa, or the equalizer from Brunson that should have given us five more minutes of basketball.

Instead, all we’ll think about it this bullshit:

After an exceptional defensive play by Precious Achiuwa following the inbounds, blocking Jalen Green’s driving layup attempt at the rim, the ball ricocheted to the perimeter as the final moments ticked off the clock.

It landed in the hands of Aaron Holiday with less than a second left. He immediately went into the best shooting motion he could with so little time remaining, which more closely resembled a shot put than a field goal attempt.

As he did, Brunson rose for the contest and made contact with both Holiday’s left arm and right leg, both of which sprayed out in anything but a natural shooting motion.

Most notably, the contact came after the ball was released.

h/t Talkin Knicks

The whistle blew, and disbelief immediately filled the court. Holiday made the first two free throws, missed the third intentionally, and after the Knicks tried to call a timeout on the rebound with just 0.3 seconds remaining, the game was ruled over.

The reaction to the call was swift and universal.

Tim Bontemps, the national reporter for ESPN who has been coving the sport for well over a decade, said it “might be the worst call of all time.” Every Knicks beat reporter chimed in as well, with Steve Popper noting that the call was merely a capper to an abhorrent night of officiating all around, with the Rockets taking 33 free throws to New York’s 12.

The chorus of criticism continued from there.

As it should have.

In that moment, after both teams had laid it all out on the line for the better part of 48 minutes, these teams deserved to settle things on the hardwood. Neither got the chance, all because of a call that should never, ever, ever be made in that spot. When in doubt, swallow your whistle.

Worst of all, Thibodeau couldn’t challenge that call, having used his and losing it in the first half.

Finally, in the ultimate insult to injury conclusion to this evening, Ed Malloy himself confirmed what everyone knew in the moment: the whistle never should have blown in the first place:

After the game, neither Thibs nor Brunson took the bait when prodded, deciding against publicly calling out the refs, perhaps knowing that everyone else watching had done that for them. Brunson would only answer “Great call, next question” each time he was asked about it. Following Malloy’s statement however, Josh Hart - who was electric for the entire second half - weighed in as only he can.

There really was nothing more to say. There was no debate or dispute about what had taken place. If this were a legal matter, the lawyers would have settled well before picking a jury. No use wasting everyone’s time with the inevitable.

And yet, the sting will last for anyone who watched this game, probably more so than for any of the people who played in it. Athletes move on to the next game far easier than us fans. They don’t really have a choice. By the time they begin the home stretch in Philly after the break, this will already be a distant memory.

But not now, not so soon after. Not for anyone who signs that contract, at least.

You accept the good with the bad, always, but you shouldn’t have to deal with the ugly on top of it.

And never has there been an uglier moment - one that deprived all of us of why we watch sports to begin with.