Knicks are in town

Basketball first hit me in the 1980s but it was until some years later that UK basketball fans were able to watch the game played at its highest level. In the 1990s the NBA was dominated by Michael Jordan and his team the Chicago Bulls. It was impossible not to appreciate Jordan's skill and his ability to win. However at that time I was drawn to a different player and his underdog team. Reggie Miller was not your typical player, his frame was bean pole thin, but he could shhot the ball. He was "Mr Clutch", if there was a player who'd you want to shoot the final shot it would be Reggie. The three pointer was his speciality. Now Reggie played for the unfashionable Indiana Pacers, the Pacers were perennial brides maids, often losing to the Bulls in the Eastern conference.

Reggie Miller and the Pacers did reach the finals one year but we pushed aside by the next player to dominate the league, Shaq O'Neill who by then was playing for the LA Lakers. However Reggie Miller is perhaps best remembered for his games against the Knicks and his altercations with film director Spike Lee. Now Lee is known as the New York Knicks #1 fan, sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden.

While Indiana is at best somewhere where most tourists simply drive through on a journey through the mid west, New York City is a magnet . Over the years I've returned to NYC a number of times, and on each occasion have ensured that I've been to the Garden to see the Knicks. The Knicks are the proverbial "sleeping giant" of the NBA, there have been many false dawns and false messiahs. In fact the Knicks last tasted success in the 1970s, although they came close in the 1990s losing in the final in 1994 to the Houston Rockets.

I was fortunate enough to see Carmelo Anthony's Knicks debut in 2011 and last year to mark my retirement we returned to New York and were there to witness Linsanity. This year the NBA, keen to market the game worldwide, announced that a regular season game between the Knicks and the Detroit Pistons would be held at the O2 arena in London.

The O2 arena, that had hosted the 2012 Olympic basketball finals, sold out in record time. What was billed as a Pistons home game in fact a chance for Knicks fans to turn the place orange and blue. Before the game Spike Lee who had flown into London for the game met fans at a bar. My wife described the scene as a bear pit, however I was able to get my copy of his basketball memoir "the best show in the house" autographed.

The game itself was a rather one sided affair. The Pistons led 2-0 but after that the Knicks dominated going on a 18-0 run with Melo delivering from behind the three point line. The knicks never looked back and although the pistons made an effort in the 3rd quarter reducing the deficit to just 4 points, the Knicks then simply put their foot on the accelerator and were comfortable winners 102-87

Postscript:
The NBA game brought out many well known London football players, none more so than Thierry Henry. Henry now playing for New York Red Bulls has been a basketball enthusiast for many years , and was pictured at the game with Spike Lee.