You don’t need me to tell you a Miracle on 34th street (okay, West 33rd street) transpired Wednesday night inside Madison Square Garden and across television screens throughout the world.
I am not a New York Knicks fanatic. I am indifferent to basketball, probably because I was not a good, not even mediocre, player growing up. In elementary school I got into one league game, grabbed a defensive rebound and quickly threw a pass to someone who called for the ball. Too bad he was on the other team. He quickly converted my pass into an easy bucket. The coach quickly benched me before I could do more damage.
I never could master the art of dribbling. Of course, back in the late 1950s and 1960s dribbling like they do today would quickly have drawn a whistle for either palming the ball or traveling. If you cannot dribble it is almost impossible to drive to the basket for a layup.
Seeing my lack of dribbling proficiency my high school basketball coach quickly determined I was not worthy of a spot on the junior varsity, with no potential for improvement. He was not wrong.
While most of my friends consumed all of Wednesday night’s game in its entirety, sticking by the Knicks as they trailed by as much as 29 points, I waited until about seven minutes were left before tuning in. New York trailed the San Antonio Spurs by about 15 points, a not unassailable margin given both team’s recent histories in this championship series.
You know already the Knicks prevailed but they did so because of three pressure-induced mistakes by the Spurs.
First, the normally placid, reliable Victor Wembanyama missed two critical free throw shots near the game’s end.
Second, De’Aaron Fox secured a loose ball in mid-court. Instead of killing seconds by dribbling around, he chose to try a lay up. It was blocked by OG Anunoby with 11.7 seconds to go, Knicks trailing by one point. Anunoby then tipped in a rebound of a Jalen Brunson shot, giving New York its first lead of the game, 107-106.
Still, with 1.2 seconds left the Spurs could tie or win the game. But the inbound pass from Dylan Harper was tipped, making it impossible for Stephon Castle to control the ball and get a shot off.
The Knicks have a commanding 3-1 lead in games. They need just one more victory to be crowned league champions.
The Spurs have to be thinking “what-ifs.” If they had not blown massive leads in games two and four it is they who could have enjoyed the 3-1 lead. Now they must recoup and try to avoid handing the Knicks the NBA title on San Antonio’s hardwood floor.
