A Preview of the Nets-Knicks Game

Two trust fund kids failing out of Columbia, both ask the dean for one more chance. She says if either of them pass Thursday’s philosophy exam (35 multiple choice, two essays), she’ll let them stay. For now. Otherwise, they’re gone. Neither has showed up much for class this semester (or ever, really), but they do possess the mental capacity to pass one exam. But one of the dudes is in the middle of an ugly nine-day bender, and isn’t showing signs of shaking it off any time soon. The other just had a really weird break-up thing that he told everybody about on Facebook, but he claims it’s not really a break-up, just a change. But he also says that there wasn’t really anything to change since the relationship was never what people thought it was in the first place. Anyway, it’s messing up his school work that was already suffering.

And for some reason the exam is being broadcast on TNT. It's going to be awesome.

No Regard Previews: Xs and Os

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight: Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks

The last time these two basketball outfits met, the ball game ended in a chaotic mess. Carmelo Anthony alerted the NYPD and whoever else would listen that a citywide manhunt of Kevin Garnett must ensue. So tonight, one can only imagine that the majority of TNT's coverage will center around these two competitive gents. Will they shake hands? Will they fight? Will they kiss!?

But since we pride ourselves on ignoring all that silly stuff, instead focusing only on round ball tactics and nothing else here at No Regard I'll say this: Tonight's professional basketball bonanza presents a very serious contrast in basketball playing styles. 

The Knicks (a Manhattan-based, paid basketball squad) rely heavily on shots from far away that count for three points, three-pointers if you will, as well as chucked-up bombs from New Jersey native J.R. Smith. Smith may or may not close his eyes before he wings the orange sphere towards the cylinder. They also give opponents a heavy dose of Brooklyn-born Carmelo from Redhook, whose ability to score anywhere on the floor is the bee's knees. The Knickerbocker's are known to sprinkle in some high screen-and-rolls, too, arguably the most basic play in all of basketball plays.

Here's how it works: One player, usually a point-guard, (but in the modern NBA anything goes) bounces a ball into the floor while he waits for a bigger guy to get in the way of a guy wearing a different color tank top whose job it is to try and stop him from doing great stuff. Then, the player still pounding the leather thing into the court either drives hard to the rack, hoping to score, or passes the rock (slang for basketball) to the guy who was getting in the way a second ago. This guy is now headed to the hole himself. Complicated, but true.

The Celtics (a Boston-based, paid basketball group of men) put a strong emphasis on defensive stops, so that they can own the transition game. They also prefer mid-range jump shots preceded by penetration from their two best wing players, Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce. Sometimes, this works, but other times the Celtics lack of offensive diversity leads them to get smoked by talentless hacks like Larry Frank's Pistons (a Detroit-based basketball franchise).

Whatever happens tonight, this much we know for certain: Grown men will box each other out. Millions will watch while consuming alcohol. Lord knows I'll have a pinot noir or two. 

One Game We Won't Watch Tonight: Orlando Magic vs. Toronto Raptors

Not to brag, but Andrew and I went to the Raptors-Nets game the other day in Brooklyn at Barclays Center (don't say the "The," they don't like it when you say "The Barclays Center"). It was the best day of our lives. I learned that Landry Fields makes a living playing guard for the Raptors now. Complicated, but true.

Anyway, nobody loves Big Baby Davis more than me, but I'll be watching the All-Star reserve announcements instead of taking this one in. So sue me if I would rather listen to Charles breakdown who got snubbed or whatever. It's a free country. Obama told me two days ago. 

Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever

I left the first Barclays Nets-Knicks game at halftime.

Larry Frank's London Adventure

With the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons facing off in London, England today, we can only imagine the sort of trouble Pistons Head Coach Larry Frank must be have gotten himself into during his team's European field trip. To celebrate the historic trip for Frank, we do our best to hypothesize the zany adventures the Teaneck, NJ native has embarked on since arriving on foreign soil.

Riding the Tube - Having spent much of his life in the New York metro area, it's safe to assume that Coach Frank knows a thing or two about public transit. So you better believe that he was all about London's famous subway system. Frank obviously forced his players to ride just for the sake of riding during one of their afternoons off, vigorously pointing out the differences between the MTA and the Tube during the exhausting four-hour ordeal.

Visiting Big Ben - A coach must instill in his players the importance of punctuality. Frank absolutely gave a heartfelt speech about how "80 percent of life is showing up on time" on the team bus, timing it perfectly so they would roll up into view of the famous clock just as he hit the climax of his speech. He also threw in some points about time management and a Ben Wallace joke, just to make sure he hit all his bases.

Tea and Scones with the Royal Family - A leader is a leader is a leader—at least that's what Coach Frank probably thinks. And what better way to learn about being in charge of other people then by talking turkey over white flour and caffeine with one of the more ambiguous monarchies on the planet.

Meet and Greet With Tottenham Hotspur - The London-based football club sports two Americans on their roster, Clint Dempsey and Brad Friedel, so for Frank, the opportunity for his guys to mingle with the local footballers was a no brainer. Athletes are athletes are athletes, he probably hammered to his team before the small talk about how much it rains in London commenced.

Messing Around With the Bobbies - It can't be all work and no play during Frank and Detriot's glorious trip.  Players were undoubtedly encouraged to fool around with the statue-like policemen of London and the best picture was awarded a prize to be named later. "What good is a trip like this without a few chuckles, right men?"  The prize is likely to be a free-throw session with coach Frank after practice one afternoon.

Adam's Basketball Basement Tapes: Volume Two

My dad saves everything. For a long time, this tendency annoyed me. Recently, though, I realized that for every one of my worthless elementary school lunch menus sitting in a paper bag in his basement, right next to it is a hilarious, terrifying, and/or touching piece of my childhood. It just so happens that many, many of these tokens of nostalgia—papers, drawings, notes—are focused on basketball. I was as passionate in my fandom as a child as I am now. In this series, I'll share with you some of the artifacts uncovered while digging through the minutiae of my youth.

Haul number two took place around Christmas, and while there was a lot less Penny Hardaway memorabilia, there were still some real gems to be found. I'm not proud of all of them, but here they are, forever immortalized and ready to entertain you. These are a bit scattered through time, but I've marked what I know. Make sure to revisit Volume One, as there are some familiar faces. Bunny faces.

Artifact #1: Drawing of my favorite activity during my favorite time of day (May 1992, age 6)

I didn't give a shit about eating breakfast or reading with my dad. Afternoons were where it was at. I wasn't tired and I got to hoop it up with Martin and Garett on a 15-foot rim. What could be better than that?

Artifact #2: A really great drawing of the Charlotte Hornets mascot (circa 1995/1996, age 10-11)

This is just a really great drawing of the Charlotte Hornets mascot. Look out NBA rookies!

Artifact #3: A fake recap of a fake interview with Kevin Garnett (circa 1996/1997, age 11-12)

I, along with the NBA at large, have had a long, complicated history with Kevin Garnett. Around this time, when he and Stephon Marbury were leading the Timberwolves to their first playoff appearance, I thought they were the coolest thing that had ever happened to the world. This SLAM cover definitely hung on my wall. Of course, my honeymoon with KG would end after he would go on to prove that this was one of the dumbest sentences I've ever written: "He has had some severe criticism but never had an attitude." Whoops. Based on the nonsensical aspects of the second half of this piece, I'm guessing it was an assignment that involved using vocab words.

Artifact #4: A song lyric-referencing pledge of allegiance to my youthful Bulls fandom, and a tough pill to swallow today (circa 1992-1993, age 7-8)

Okay, guys. So I wasn't always a Knicks fan. In fact, during the height of my MJ-induced, Bulls-loving years as a frontrunning child, they were the enemy. There is shame here, but honesty. I wish I could say I've been a complete lifer, but I can't. Growing up during the early '90s made it tough to look past the red and black. Consider this my repentance. What can I say? People change, minds open, hearts find their proper paths. But, yes, I did use hip-hop lingo and reference Aretha Franklin and U2 (with misspellings) as a small child.

Artifact #5: A book report on a Penny Hardaway biography (April 1997, age 11)

You'll recall lots of love for Penny Hardaway from my last Basketball Basement Tape. I hope you didn't for a second think you had seen it all! This is a pretty straightforward book report of a biography by Bill Gutman, the same prolific author of the David Robinson bio I mentioned last time around. Even though I got an A+ on this, the dummy teacher didn't think "the reader" could recognize how good his high school stats were without some sort of comparative analogy. The dummy teacher got back on track on page two, though, where he recognized that this was a "great sentence": "[The fans in Orlando] would soon find out the 'Magic' that Penny possessed." See what I did there?

Artifact #6: A drawing of Bunny Penny's long-lost cousin, Tupac Shabunny (circa 1996-1997, age 11-12)

This isn't basketball-related, but it's obviously part of the continuing Bunny Period I began with Volume One's Bunny Penny. It's also obviously the most gangster shit you've ever seen in your life, so stop worrying about whether it's basketball-related and just enjoy it, geez!

Goodbye New York, Hello Brooklyn

This post is written by law student and former Knicks fan Matt Engel. We couldn't be happier to post this here.

Divorce. Despite the frequency with which it’s used, it is still a nasty business. The kids (if they exist) always get hurt. There’s endless acrimony about dividing money and property. Lucky to have been personally unaffected, from what I’ve heard from friends and seen in movies, divorce brings out the worst in people. Still, despite the pain, after it’s all over and done with, divorce can provide the promise for a new beginning, for something better.

For years in the United States, a divorce could only be accomplished if the party seeking dissolution found a legal fault with his/her incompatible counterpart. Now, though, with the advent of “no-fault” divorce, a marriage may be ended for such excellent vagaries as Irreconcilable Differences, Incompatibility, and my personal favorite, Irredeemable Breakdown of the Marriage. In 2010, New York became the last state to move from a legal scheme that allowed only fault divorces, to one that permits no-fault divorces as well.

Without wasting any more of my or your time, I’ll assert my privilege: Goodbye, New York Knicks.

No Regard Presidential Previews: New York Knicks (George W. Bush)

Oh the season. Oh the season! Election or NBA, both are upon us. We're getting into the spirit by bringing you our season previews (with a little help from the presidents). One per day for the next 30 days—which will bring us to the Day of Reckoning. So please join us on the campaign trail as we shake hands, kiss babies and sink jumpers.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - George W. Bush

When we first came up with the idea to link presidents to teams for our NBA season previews, it didn't take long for a sense of dread to come over me. I was very much looking forward to fleshing this whole thing out, of course, but I also knew that there'd have to be a discussion I very much wished to avoid: that of who to pair with my Knicks.

The idea of W. was not mine, and at first, I fought it hard. I had lots of reasons for why we just couldn't make that comparison. The Knicks are a decent team, and W. was a terrible president (objective journalism!). The Knicks are an historically flashy team in one of the country's most liberal cities; W. was a "good ol' boy" who gave shape to much of the conservative, anti-"urban elitist" rhetoric that has dominated the right over the past four-plus years. The Knicks are an endlessly frustrating, reactionary, often bumbling team owned by a megalomaniac who... shit, wait a second.

I soon realized that there was no escaping this. The emotions that race through my body when I think back to the week after November 2, 2004—sadness, anger, hopelessness—are very similar to the emotions I wake up with every day as a Knicks fan. James Dolan, the team's infamous owner, has a sadistic knack for spitting in the face of logic and evidence and making decisions that should be seen as illegal. To outsiders, Dolan's reign can appear as an exercise in comic incompetence; ha, another dumb decision, silly guy! We on the frontlines of the War Against Happiness know, however, that he is not just a dunce who knocks everything over as he stumbles across the floor. He is a dangerous man who puts politics above the well-being of his subjects and who has the ability to inflict damage that will outlast him. While you could say the same for just about any president, W. lived those principles to the extreme.

So now, here I am, on the wrong side of the second term, wondering how the hell I let this—my Knicks fandom—last this long, how I allowed my life to be dictated by this jerk for the foreseeable future. I made this bed, James Dolan shat in it, and now I have to lie in a bed with a bunch of James Dolan's shit.

What about this year, though? Does it hold promise that things will be easier to get through, that my disappointment will be tempered? It's possible, but I doubt it. The health of Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoudemire are both in question, to the extent that Rasheed Wallace has been told to report for duty. Letting Jeremy Lin fly the coop and bringing in Raymond "The Felch" Felton and backup Jason Kidd is not a terrible basketball move, but neither one of those guys will be an X-factor, even if Felton returns to his previous Knicks-era level of production. Our shoot-em-up bench players, Steve Novak and J.R. Smith, will not see as many open looks as last year, both because defenses know not to leave them alone and Felton and Kidd don't have the ability to draw in defenses as well as Lin did.

The two players who, for my money, will decide the fate of the Knicks this year are Iman Shumpert and Carmelo Anthony. When Sophomore Shump returns from injury around January, he will hopefully bring the kind of defensive guard intensity he showed during his freshman campaign, the kind that straight up wins ball games down the stretch. Along with Chandler, he makes the Knicks a team that can score off turnovers, which they'll need to do. (For now, he'll continue harassing Andray Blatche.)

Of course, Carmelo Anthony is the man with the real weight of the world on his shoulders. Melo, as the only completely healthy star on the Knicks November 1 roster, will be the undisputed center of the team's offense, a role he relishes. If he can use the opportunity to become a true leader at both ends of the court, the Knicks could flourish along with him. But he will be working without much help for at least a month, and even though some might say he likes it that way, there's no denying that the Knicks cannot rely on him alone for too extended a period of time. I wish I were more confident that the team would be able to get off to a hot enough start to keep them in the mix into the spring, but I've learned that optimism is toxic for Knicks fans.

Rushed Pull-Up Jumpers

Pokemon who the team should adopt as its new mascot: Voltorb

Headline we'll be most sick of reading: "[Knicks Suck Pun]!"- New York Post

Headline we're most looking forward to: "Video: Shumpert and Blatche Pushing Fight Caught on Subway!"- WorldStarHipHop

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you enter the pearly gates?: "Sorry James, you can't come in."

No Regard Mixtape: Jeremy Lin

On February whatever, against the Nets, Jeremy Lin took the red pill and escaped from the 2010 Summer League YouTube highlight reel that had imprisoned him for the past 18 months. In his first two weeks of running the Knicks squad, he played event basketball. He birthed cults, slayed dragons, sold organic radishes at farmer’s markets, won a bunch of games… and became a bit of a crush around the No Regard water-cooler.

We've had our eye on him for a minute now, but like you, we didn’t really know. We didn’t know that he had enough granite and grace in him to twerk his way to the hoop, almost at will, and take or avoid contact as he sees fit. We didn’t know that he could unpack defensive schemes and pry open passing lanes like a literature grad student dismantling Toni Morrison novels. We didn’t know he had a jump shot sturdy enough to keep defenses honest, preventing him from developing the type of agoraphobia that plagues Rondo. We didn’t know he had the bravado of Sam Cassell, tempered by a humble devotion to Christianity and D’Antoni’s system (RIP). Simply put, we’ve learned a lot about the guy.

And we keep learning. With D'Antoni's departure, Melo's return to whatever angry fans were clamoring him to return to, and gravity's insistence, Lin fell back down to walk among the other peasant point guards of the league. It's crystal clear that he was dropped into the perfect confluence of events and that this ready-to-cook goulash—Amar'e and Melo's absence, a string of easy opponents, D'Antoni's point guard-serenading system—was more responsible for his initial success than many are willing to admit. But hasn’t fate been dictating love for years? Haven’t the cosmos controlled how ardor manifests since day one?

Lin may be done for the season, but we’re far from losing our interest. Attraction is fueled in part by mystery, and there are still myriad unanswered questions about Lin. Primarily: Now that the original wave of hype and hashtags has crested, what kind of player is going to wash up on the beach? Who is Jeremy Lin? Is he Flip Murray? Is he Steve Nash? Is he Ramon Sessions? Is he Mitch Richmond? Is he Jimmy Ray?

At this moment, we have no idea. And that's why we're so enamored. And that's why we made this mixtape for the guy. We just want to get to know him better.

Here's To You, Coach D'Antoni

It has been a rough few days over here at No Regard. First, Rubio is ripped from our lives prematurely and now this: Mike D'Antoni is no longer the head coach of the New York Knicks. Boo! Hiss! Bring back D'Antoni!!

Sure, the team has "lost six straight games," "doesn't try hard," and has "chemistry issues." Whatever. And maybe "the coach is to blame for these type of problems." Whatever. And perhaps a "new voice will salvage the season." Yeah, yeah, whatever buddy. You've got all the answers, don't you?

Point is that Mike D'Antoni is a wonderful man and a brilliant basketball mind. He played ball in Italy, sports an attractive moustache, and created the most effective and ingenious offensive strategy in the history of basketball. Don't even bring up the triangle as a rebuttal. Whatever that is.

So, as a tribute, I've decided to express my thoughts on D'Antoni's time as a Knick, just how he'd like it, in seven words or less:

Five Games After Which George Karl Should Have Told J.R. Smith He Played A Good Game

Yesterday morning J.R. Smith tweeted this: "First time I heard good game in 6yrs from my head coach! This Man gives me confidence!" I love getting yet another bit of confirmation that Mike D'Antoni encourages his offensive weapons with regularity. But we're not here to talk about Mike D'Antoni.

We're here to talk about George Karl.

He never said, "Good game," to J.R. Smith once? Never? Six years goes back to Smith's New Orleans days, so his entire tenure with the Karl-coached Nuggets is encompassed here. And Karl never, not once, told the guy he played a good game? Are we making jokes here? Karl, who seems like a good dude, had literally hundreds of chances to utter these two syllables in Smith's general direction. Such a simple thing to do. And such an important thing to do, especially when we're talking about a player who made "mercurial" a household word.

Sorry if I'm taking the scenic route here. All I'm trying to say is this: George Karl should have told J.R. Smith that he played a good game at least a few times in his five seasons as head coach of J.R. Smith.

In fact, here are five games that would have worked.

No Regard Previews: A New Show On Broadway

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight:
New York Knicks vs. Milwaukee Bucks

The scene is going to be wild tonight during the first game of the Melo Era in Madison Sqaure Garden. After almost a decade of terrible decisions, and pathetic basketball teams, New York Knick nation has a right to be ridiculously excited. And who better to take over the Big Apple than one of its own, Carmelo Anthony? This evening's game marks the start of something special for both New York City and the NBA. Seriously.

Is that Shirt Felton? Unfortunately, Now It Is

Mike Kurylo over at Knickerblogger has been totally spot-on the entire season with his assertions that the Knicks team performance is highly dependent upon Raymond Felton's level of performance. This may seem like it could apply to any team and its point guard, but there is something particularly relevant when the point guard is playing under Mike D'Antoni.

In a post from today, Kurylo takes a depressing, chart-heavy, and insightful look at Felton's recent slump, one that has left a lot of fans feeling just as uneasy as they (read: we) did for the first couple weeks of the season.

I would specifically like to point you to the comment from Owen, who wisely notes:

I just wonder if there is a pattern here with point guards wearing down in the 7SOL offense. Both Duhon and Felton came in and shot the lights out and generally played the best ball of their lives for two months. Then something happened: defenses adjusted, they wore down, regression to the mean, and suddenly the magic was gone.

It’s not easy to play 38 minutes a game at the fastest pace in the league while trying to be a plus defender. There’s probably a reason Nash has never tried. While Felton played great for a pretty long stretch it’s pretty clear that Mike is on to something. And for all that people talk about systems and player interactions, the greatest predictor of what a player will do going forward is what he has done in the past. Playing next to Amare under the tutelage of D’Antoni isn’t alchemy…

This is a very good point, and one that does not bring me much comfort. Here's hoping Ray has a very relaxing and rejuvenating All-Star break.

No Regard Daily Previews: Born to Run

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight:
New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs

If you've been watching the Spurs so far this season and you didn't know who their coach was, you might hypothesize that it was Mike D'Antoni. Compare the two teams offensively and the evidence is clear.

San Antonio is 4th in the league in scoring, averaging an impressive 105.6 points per game. Ginobili and Parker have been instructed to to run and gun and they've been doing exactly that, even at the expense of significantly decreasing Tim Duncan's role in their offense. (Duncan is averaging by far a career low in points, just 13.6 per game so far this season.) To top it all off, they take about 22 3-pointers per contest.

The team Mike D'Antoni actually coaches, the Knicks, is first in the league in scoring, putting up a crazy 107.2 points per game. They too run-run-run and then run some more on the offensive end. As for 3-pointers, about 24 per game jacked up so far this season.

Perhaps Coach Pop woke up in a cold sweat one night this summer in the middle of a nightmare in which D'Antoni's 7-seconds-or-less Phoenix Suns were blowing the doors off of his Spurs. Or maybe he was hammered at a bar and made a drunken bet with his buddy that he'd 'completely change the way his team plays in order to get laid more often!' Or maybe, more likely, he realized that sometimes change is necessary in order to be successful in the NBA. Particularly on a team that boasts some of the fastest and most electric players in the league.

Should be a fun one tonight in the Garden.

One Game We Won't Be Watching Tonight But Will Be Thinking About: Sacramento Kings vs. Atlanta Hawks

Good luck against your old team tonight, Mike! We know how much this means to you! Do it!

No Regard Daily Previews: Bright Lights, Big Payback

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight:
Miami Heat vs. New York Knicks (aka LeBron James vs. New York City)


Lately, I've had to remind myself that this isn't a Knicks blog. It's been difficult, because for the first time in my adult life, my team is the talk of the League, in a good way. They are exciting, they are gellin' like Magellan, and they are looking like a playoff lock. With all that, it's hard for me not to think of the Knicks first and foremost when I currently think about the NBA (or when I think about anything, really). That said, I've told myself that, for this blog's purpose, I need to avoid the temptation of writing about the Knicks all the time.

Well, that's gonna have to wait, isn't it?

No Regard Daily Previews: Goin' Streaking!

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight:
New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics


Something's gotta give tonight. And no, I'm not going to be watching the 2003 movie starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, and Keanu Reeves in which, according to IMDB, "A swinger on the cusp of being a senior citizen with a taste for younger women falls in love with an accomplished woman closer to his age." I'm talking about streaks, baby, either Boston's (ten straight wins) or New York's (eight straight wins). Tonight's epic Eastern Conference clash is perhaps the first Knicks-Celtics game I've witnessed that's had any significance. Both teams are good, finally. As a huge fan of the New York/Boston rivalry, I couldn't be happier. The NBA's version of this northeastern rivalry is exciting! On that note...

No Regard Daily Previews: 11-30-10

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight: Civil War Part II: New Jersey Nets vs. New York Knicks

Finally, for the first time in a long time, things are looking up for the two NBA teams geographically located within a few miles of the Hudson River. And for a staff full of avid Knicks and Nets fans, we couldn't be happier. Personally, having no horse in this race (Let's Go Celtics!), I thought it would be interesting to point out some of the newly found similarities between the two ball clubs which suggest what may or may not be impacting each team's improvement.

First similarity: Russians. Prokhorov and Mozgov. Both newcomers to their respective franchises. Prokhorov has made an immediate impact on the Nets and declared that they must do whatever it takes to win a ring within five years. Conversely, Mozgov received a warm welcome to the league from Blake Griffin and the illest posterizing dunk of the year.

No Regard Recap: 11-16-10

One Game We Watched Last Night: New York Knicks vs. Denver Nuggets


Knicks: 118 Nuggets: 120

Mike D'Antoni is confusing. And maybe a religious zealot. I get it that he's got a style of play he believes in, but the way he refuses to bend to any suggestion of defense or more patient offensive sets is mind-boggling. It borders on religious mania, a blind worship of the three-pointer.

Surely, two people who won't be attending mass anytime soon are Knicks announcers Walt Frazier and Mike Breen.

David Lee Draws Blood

Since time immemorial David Lee has been a fan favorite. My personal admiration of Lee began in 2001, during the McDonald's High School All American All Star Weekend. What I learned then was that he was a prospect on his way to Billy Donovan's resurgent, once again relevant Florida Gators and that he was also the only white dude to enter the Dunk Contest. Going against future college stars, among them Julius Hodge and Jawad Williams, a goofy and wily Lee outshone them all.

He possessed a mixture of pure athleticism (see where he catches the ball mid-air for the now classic through the legs one handed jam), old school creativity (see his standing at the foul line, bounce passing it to himself off the board for a reverse jam) , and affecting, perhaps unintentional humor (see the dunk where he passes the ball to himself, briefly struggles to take off his jersey, revealing straight up boxers--not compression shorts, not even briefs--with his shorts sagging almost below his ass, as was the style at the time). Kid looked like the teenager that he was and celebrated like one, with unbridled enthusiasm. It was a sporting moment that probably only a handful of people saw, but I'm sure no one who did forgot it. Something made it memorable.

No Regard Daily Recaps 11-4-2010

One Game We Watched Last Night: New York Knicks vs. Chicago Bulls


Knicks: 120 Bulls: 112

Twelve things I learned tonight:

Bulls:

• The Bulls are on TV every night. Even when they don't have a game.
  
• Derrick Rose may not be able to palm a basketball, but he can fly. Like through the air. Literally. No more than five seconds after I commented on Toney Douglas's defensive prowess did Rose blow by him, jump from a few feet away from the basket, shift in the air to avoid Gallo, and throw down a vicious two handed slam.

No Regard Daily Preview: 11-4-10

One Game We Are Definitely Going to Watch Tonight: New York Knicks vs. Chicago Bulls

For years, New York and Chicago have fought over the right to the title of Best Pizza City in America. Both sides have their loyalists, and in many ways, it purely comes down to a matter of personal preference. Tonight’s matchup in Chicago is oddly similar to this age-old clash between New York and Chi City pies. Think about it: