{"id":2438,"date":"2016-11-14T08:55:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T08:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/createsly\/?p=2438"},"modified":"2016-11-14T08:55:20","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T08:55:20","slug":"knicks-fans-will-have-to-hold-their-noses-to-cheer-for-this-bunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/2016\/11\/14\/knicks-fans-will-have-to-hold-their-noses-to-cheer-for-this-bunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks fans will have to hold their noses to cheer for this bunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless there was still some discounted Domino\u2019s Pizza intrigue to be settled, Wednesday\u2019s Nets-Knicks was over. With 30 seconds left, the Knicks led, 110-91.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Brooklyn\u2019s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson tried to score on a layup, but was knocked hard to the floor by Mindaugas Kuzminskas. Knicks teammate Willy Hernangomez then reached to help Hollis-Jefferson up, to demonstrate his concern for an unintentionally hard, potentially dangerous foul and to show some humanity.<\/p>\n

But then new Knicks \u201cfirebrand\u201d Brandon Jennings yanked Hernangomez away from Hollis-Jefferson. Didn\u2019t matter if the fallen was hurt, that it was garbage time or that Hernangomez was compelled to let an opponent know he doesn\u2019t take either\u2019s professional status lightly.<\/p>\n

Jennings, ejected from the Knicks\u2019 next game \u2014 his sixth career ejection \u2014 wanted Hernangomez and the rest of us to know that there will be none of that, not in his house, not on his watch!<\/p>\n

Afterward, Hernangomez, who should\u2019ve told Jennings to mind his own basketball business, was confused but newly schooled in the ways of NBA and American sports culture: You demand respect in exchange for none.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to help anyone again in the game,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Spain, we know every player there. Someone fouls him hard, you try to help him. Not here. Not anymore. Maybe a Spanish guy from my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping an opponent to his feet \u2014 similar to trying to break one\u2019s fall as he tries to save a loose ball while steaming toward an opponent\u2019s bench (wouldn\u2019t Jennings expect such benevolence?) \u2014 is not a sign of weakness.<\/p>\n

This is another Knicks team even minimally discerning basketball fans will have to swallow extra hard to root for.<\/p>\n

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Knicks rookie Willy HernangomezPhoto: Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even MSG\u2019s Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier had a hard time keeping their sunny sides up on Friday, as the Knicks were hit with six T\u2019s against the Celtics. After Carmelo Anthony was tossed in the second quarter for two technicals after one whistle, they took Anthony\u2019s side \u2014 he may have been unfairly whistled for a foul. But then, they asked, after his first T, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t he just walk away?\u201d from referee Tony Brothers.<\/p>\n

The next day it was reported and unilaterally \u201cconfirmed\u201d by Anthony that he and Brothers have a \u201chistory.\u201d Don\u2019t know about that, but what about Anthony\u2019s history? That was his seventh NBA ejection!
\nThen there\u2019s new Knick Joakim Noah, the easy-to-anger anti-militarist who refused to attend a team meal with cadets at West Point.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, in a Veterans Day salute, he was the one Knick who didn\u2019t wear game-issued, NBA \u201cHoops for Troops\u201d socks.<\/p>\n

Is there no one in Noah\u2019s milieu \u2014 Phil Jackson, perhaps \u2014 to explain to him some indisputable facts of life, specifically his?<\/p>\n

Noah\u2019s a first-generation American of a black French father. Is he unable to consider what would be if not for the combined Allied Forces\u2019 Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944, the start of the liberation of France from the master race, genocidal Nazis?<\/p>\n

Or would Noah have condemned such a military operation? Would he, and his father before him, have even been born \u2014 or born free \u2014 had it not been for the U.S. military, thousands of men, including West Pointers, buried in France, many in graves marked, \u201cKnown Only To God?\u201d<\/p>\n

And so the one Knick who should get it far more than the rest is the one who doesn\u2019t get it at all. It\u2019s nauseating.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s another new Knick, Derrick Rose, who, at 28 and a college man \u2014 Memphis \u2014 exhibits the discretion of a slug. At his welcome-to-the-Knicks news conference, shown on MSG, a vulgarity so casually flowed from his mouth he provided evidence of zero social awareness.<\/p>\n

Then his preseason was abridged by a court case in which he and pals admitted to have practiced the Triangle Offense \u2014 during three-on-one sex.<\/p>\n

Again, these Knicks, unless we only consider that they\u2019re Knicks \u2014 and nothing else, better or worse \u2014 are tough to root for. To borrow from post-election protestors, \u201cNot my team!\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps we\u2019ll take the too-late advice Breen and Frazier gave Anthony, Friday, and \u201cjust walk away.\u201d And, having helped push us out, we won\u2019t need Brandon Jennings to help us up.<\/p>\n

When broadcasts become vocabulary tests \u2026<\/h3>\n

\u201cWhich way to the attic?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUpstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as if someone pulled a switch that removed plain talk, replacing it with long-form silliness, as if unintentionally funny is the new funny.<\/p>\n

Saturday during Nets-Suns, YES play-by-player Ryan Ruocco first told us that Nets\u2019 coach Kenny Atkinson is impressed with Justin Hamilton\u2019s \u201cverticality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton has the ability, said Rucco, \u201cto go up, vertically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, when the Nets\u2019 6-foot-9 forward Luis Scola blocked a shot, Ruocco said he was able to do so by \u201cgoing up, vertically.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Nets\u2019 Justin Hamilton, \u201cgoing up, vertically\u201dPhoto: AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unless one can \u201cgo up\u201d horizontally, I think he meant by jumping.<\/p>\n

Saturday, ESPN\u2019s Steve Levy, deep into a long \u2014 four minutes \u2014 replay review stoppage in Pitt-Clemson, said, \u201cWe are right next to the instant-replay booth.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith, posing as an expert, Friday, discussed NFL strategy and stats with Mark Schlereth. Smith once told ESPN\u2019s audience that teams looking to tie or take the lead late in games should try field goals on third down because, if they miss, \u201cthey can try again on fourth down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the King of Colossally Wrong Comedy, Mike Francesa, who Friday told CBS\u2019s Gary Danielson the top college teams are \u201chome free.\u201d The next day, Nos. 2, 3 and 4 \u2014 Michigan, Clemson and Washington \u2014 lost.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ll be right back after this commercial break!\u2019<\/h3>\n

What\u2019s killing NFL ratings? Here\u2019s one: Rams-Jets, replay stoppage to determine\/guess the spot after a third-down play, so off to commercials. Back from commercials, it\u2019s ruled a fourth down. Punt. Back to commercials.<\/p>\n

\n

FOX sideline reporter Peter Schrager, during Rams-Jets, wasn\u2019t called on a lot, but made his observations \u2014 delivered concisely so not to intrude \u2014 count. He saw, knew, reported what was worth knowing.<\/p>\n

\n

So 9-0 Washington, Saturday on FOX, forsakes its school colors to come out dressed in Nike Bad-Boy Black, and the eight-point home favorite loses by 13 to USC. Kismet.<\/p>\n

\n

ESPN sideline college football apologist Jerry Punch, during Baylor-Oklahoma, reported that massively and perhaps criminally scandalized Baylor \u2014 he didn\u2019t report that \u2014 is at a disadvantage as per assistant coach Phil Bennett\u2019s plaint that, \u201cWe have 63 scholarship players left, that\u2019s all!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unless there was still some discounted Domino\u2019s Pizza intrigue to be settled, Wednesday\u2019s Nets-Knicks was over. With 30 seconds left, the Knicks led, 110-91. That\u2019s when Brooklyn\u2019s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson tried …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,1],"tags":[64,66,67,69],"class_list":["post-2438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-uncategorized","tag-fun","tag-love","tag-players","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/uvrpmz1atvg-markus-spiske-e1483353645337.jpg?fit=1300%2C867&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themes.divulgetechnologies.com\/flicknclick\/demo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}