Grantland senior writer and New York magazine contributor Justin Charity breaks down the single-most demoralizing loss he’s ever attempted to rationalize. This Wednesday, the Houston Rockets coughed up a 25-point lead to the Oklahoma City Thunder and lost 105-101 in double overtime. The defeat was blissfully ugly: The Rockets were worse from the field (36.1 percent), the line (22-of-33), and 3-point range (12-of-38) than the World Champion San Antonio Spurs were in a game where they lost by 20 points. Charity searches for a salvageable takeaway or even a shred of hope in the flop, court-outs of whichever style you prefer.
For a team that relies on its offense, this was nothing short of a historic foul. In the last 15 seasons, the Rockets had lost four games in which they had led by at least 15 points in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN Stats & Information. They all had pretty similar cruel endings. The 2005 game was the lone exception.
1. “I’m so f–king tired, man.”
Kevin Martin, who scored zero second-half points before ending the night with four, meandered to the microphone after the game for the standard “just take it one game at a time” shtick. A few minutes later, he slowly slogged toward the locker room, his head hung low, staring at the ground. His demeanor was a textbook descriptor of Royce Young’s assessment: “exhausted and physically worn.”
[New York Knicks president of basketball operations] Phil Jackson began a series of dysfunctional memos and press conferences. The team began a slow and completely unnecessary purging, jettisoning fan favorites and valuable assets through unbridled and, at times, vindictive means. Everyone was nervous, and it played out on the court. The team was no longer good together.
1. “They were soft.”
In a frigid and barren Wells Fargo Center on March 9, the clock was close to expiring, but the outcome was already decided. Atlanta was dismantling the Knicks, 118-81, a game in which Iman Shumpert scored 12 points while taking 21 shots and Carmelo Anthony only converted on four of his first 23 attempts. Knicks coach Mike Woodson was so disgusted and out of options, he began trotting out players like Quincy Acy and Kenny Smith. E-mails from a bloodthirsty front office flew through the team’s connectivity, rage-manifesting as Phil Jackson began declaring war on his own roster.
How should Knicks fans respond?
I’m extremely conflicted on how to approach this, but my solution is that you ignore everything everybody else hears and believes to be true and listen for yourself. Knicks gauge has a new segment; Phil Jackson Pilot. If you’re unfamiliar to this amazing process, Benny Hailey is an amazing writer. He’s extremely talented, and he’s one of the few Podcasters whose voice absorbs your mind and helps you to focus while also breaking down complex information about how the Knicks should build around Phil Jackson.
1. “If LeBron had played with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s Dazi-15, it would have been a parade in Cleveland in 2002.”
But beyond the brilliance of his magic trick, and the summer that should have been, what Yao really signified as an organization is a bigger mystery. … Yao’s emotional well-being seemed to come at a cost. For the first time, unspecified issues related to Yao’s feet turned him decidedly sour on the basketball life. Yao’s vibe was the result of his extreme inexperience as a celebrity combined with his all-consuming Texas A&M background. The rigors and jitters of life in the springtime of NBA career incubate mental fragility in even the most burly athletes.
examined the madhouse at All-Star weekend in his own comic style, in a segment where Rosenhaus was steering Jay-Z around at random angles. Rosenhaus witnesses highlight reels that draw him immediately in, and then compels him like a vampire. He becomes enveloped and cannot leave. At one point, Rosenhaus spots Rasheed Wallace, who suggests to his fashion mogul friend that he talks to LeBron.
His disposition had yet to shift, but his body was bedraggled. The symbolism of said body was enough to demoralize the Sixer fans who attempted to play makeover long before Process. Long before this godforsaken juncture. People forgot about the Sixers because their degraded circumstance encouraged that sort of thinking.
1. “To think former Georgetown coach John Thompson III never made the NCAA tournament in his last six years.”
Following a season where he launched an additional 3.5 3-point attempts per 40 minutes, and hoisted a rocket 661 times, Knight has become an increasingly impotent shooter when attempting an extreme distance from the land of ice-cold bricks Joshua Harris has constructed within the heart of Philadelphia.
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