I was at the game sitting about 10 rows up from the court seats. First thing: Tracy McGrady always got off the bench during time outs and spoke to players as they came off the court. He looked pretty happy and very involved in the game. His focus was on the game the whole time. He wasn't chatting and was giving advice and talking to guys as they came back to the bench each time. No, he never got excited or cheered, but he was definitely involved. He gave a few high fives after the knicks called time out. The guys looked like they were having fun. There wasn't any stress when we lost the lead around half time and even down 5. Mutombo leads the cheering, joined by Novack and a few others. No sign of Francis, doesn't look like he traveled with the team. But no one looked like they were sulking and everyone seemed happy when the team did well. Right now our chemistry looks like it's A+ The crowd cheered loudest for a Giants football player then for the Knicks at any point. People were definitely pro-Yao and he got a lot of cheers and impressed the crowd at the garden from beginning to end. I don't think anyone there would consider Yao anything but the best center in the league, and he certainly dominated the game like that was his title. In fact, I think it's the most dominating performance I've seen from him in a while at all ends of the court. He got a lot of ohhs and ahhhss, and cheers when he made that reverse slam over curry (was it curry, i can't remember). One thing about Yao, he seems quiet an a bit removed from everyone else. He sat at the bench alone before the game and just bowed his head and didn't move for a long while. We thought he might be meditating. He also is very focused, there were a lot of asian fans there yelling his name trying to get him for a picture before the game. He didn't look tired despite the back to back. Could be his stamina is better or Rick's system really does take less toll, but they didn't guard him that physically today - he definitely owns Curry. Rafer also seemed to impressed and someone even commented - where did that guy come from. Anyway, we cheered pretty loudly, chanting D-Fense when the Knicks were on Offense and these asian folks near us joined in and we annoyed more than a few knicks fans. The great thing after a few Rocket scores it was so quiet that I'm sure we could be heard pretty far. Definitely Yao has the respect of NY fans and he put on a show from start to finish - you forget that he has pretty good quickness for a guy 7'6" and yeah, he chopped up the knicks and the Rockets really were in control the whole night and the arena sort of knew it. Not sure what was with the tech and all it was hard to tell. But good game overall.....Ron Howard didn't seem to care much for being recognized with the happy days music, and well, i have to admit i was a bit distracted from the game as well.
something I am thinking, yesterday Yao seems tired and didn't try to put his entire effort in. At that moment, I was thinking, ummm, maybe Yao was thinking about Today's game and save the energy for back to back game against Curry when Was team was easy to beat
Cool post. Thanks. SF was on the bench in street clothes. I saw it on the MSG channel. It did sound like there was more than just a little section cheering for Yao, but also the Rockets as a team. Maybe they just want to accelerate Isiah's departure. What's going on there is a mess!
That's something we take for granted now it seems. A dominating performance from Yao after playing the night before. A few years ago we would have laughed at that thought.
Ya know I couldn't find him, and it's hard to mistake him for someone else. Not many bald guys in suits. But I guess I missed him. There were a lot of Rocket Jerseys, Yao, T-mac of course. But a lot of Asians showed up as well and were cheering for the Rockets. Plus we were pretty loud too!
Nice post. The above is my favorite Isiah stepped inside the court and accidently had a body contact with the ref.
Francis was there and he was wearing a suit just like Tmac and Kirk also Francis did get off the bench few times in excitement and to high five players going to the bench
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on tonight's game. Is the Madison Square Garden experience as great as everyone says it is, or are the Knicks so crappy that a lot of the energy is gone? Brendan Haywood, the center for the Wizards is a bigger center who has pretty good skills. He played Yao tough. Curry can't do anything with Yao and sulks pretty easily. The Knicks are nearly tragic. They have a lot of talent, but they just don't fit together.
The fans know the knicks suck but going to the Garden is an experience. The fans are just into the game. Last year when Nate blocked Yao you'd have thought the Knicks just won a playoff game. The crowd is definitely lively. I think it's just the mystique of it being so intimate and closely packed, and that they have that organ playing and the announer the way he says "3-pointer" and all that. It's just the culture of watching a ball game at the garden. And I have to say, it's really racially mixed. You have a lot of blacks show up to the game and a lot of people who love basketball. I mean, why else would you pay a bunch of money to see a horrible team play?
The knicks are too crappy. They started the game like they just got up in the morning.. and I also noticed the rockets players came out much earlier to warm up before game and before half-time,, but maybe there is another place in the arena for the home team to warm up that I don't know about. I really think a big reason the knicks suck so bad is coaching. the team just don't look ready. They are not really running anything and I don't know what's their game plan is. Zach Randolph is garbage, David Lee should get all his min... Q rich is worse than garbage, I don't know why he is still starting. Crawford is talented, great scorer, perfect as a second banana or third scorer off the bench. Nate is pretty good, unfortunately he is too small and he can't really run an offense. Marbury is a slightly better version of Francis. I think he is just not smart enough to get it to become a leader of a team.
Thanks for the post. I wnat to know how long did Yao take to warm up before the game. He usually take more than an hour. It's not good for the giant fellas.
Thx for sharing. It's a very exciting experience and I desperately wanted to be there. BTW, You may be loudER next time
How so? Francis is injured. Actually, to me Stevie looked pretty energetic the one time I saw him on the TV. It was good to see him excited during a game.
Right before tip-off Yao sits by himself on the bench to meditate for a while, I saw that in Boston too.
Sweet Lou What you saw is not unusual for Yao, before every game he gets shown on Rockets Live (pre-pregame show on FSN) sitting in a chair courtside with his head in his hands. He looks to me like he is meditating or more probable he is getting "his game face on". I do similarly before I seriously compete, I take a few moments to calm myself and focus on what I need to do. You picked a helluva night to go, Yao was clearly in Dominate Mode. You could see it in his eyes from the first shot.
