Those Miniature People Down There Are Basketball Players

I needed the proper movie accompaniment to write this entry. You can’t write an entry about basketball without watching The Other Dream Team and/or Winning Time, the 30 for 30 about Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing and a diminutive New York filmmaker named Spike Lee.

Anyway, a long introduction to take us into the where and when of this entry and the photos that will follow. I went to my first Celtics game last night and they played against the New York Knicks. I didn’t even realize it was the Knicks basically until I got there.

I grew up in New York and actually did like the Knicks a lot, especially during the aforementioned Reggie Miller/Patrick Ewing era. I was in high school when that whole thing was playing out and the Garden and the Knicks were big news back then. The Knicks though in New York were always in the news anyway. I particularly remember when Bill Bradley was running for president and Robert Reich said “we knew each other from when we played on the Knicks together.”

Anyway, the Knicks I saw play last night were not the Knicks of yesteryear. Overall, I was expecting a really heavy, physical game and it wasn’t that at all. They played pretty well obviously. They are professional basketball players, so why wouldn’t they, but the play was just less heavy and physical than I expected. Too many years of watching all kinds of finals and big games and there was just a pre-season home opener.

Of course the game was in TD Garden, a venue I have a love-hate relationship with. Love because I’ve been down on the floor in that place and gotten to go on the great tour they give of them. Hate because going to events there makes me want to scream. No backpacks, an arena that is too big to watch anything and the ticket prices are ridiculous.

Either way, I love basketball either way. Let’s Go (miniature) Celtics: