The Knicks played the third of four games of their season series against their crosstown rival, the Brooklyn Nets, on Sunday. Early in the day, I didn’t look forward to watching this because it felt inevitable that yet again the vets would play way too many minutes, and our young core would languish on the bench. A few hours before tip-off, my reasons for not looking forward to this game drastically changed.
The news of Kobe Bryant’s tragic passing along with his daughter, Gigi, cast a pall over the NBA world. Bitching about front office missteps, coaching errors, and players failing to execute all felt rather unimportant.