You’ll find this hard to believe, I know. But somehow, they played professional basketball games before the evening of Tuesday, October 17, 2017.
Somehow, the NBA had become a truly global phenomenon in the 69 years preceding that night, when the NBA’s 70th season began with the defending champion Warriors losing 122- 121 against the Rockets in Oakland, and the reigning vice-champion The Cavaliers squeak in front of old Kyrie Irving and the Celtics, 102-99, in Cleveland.
Maybe you were busy that night and therefore missed the revolution. The Yankees were playing the Astros in Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS that night, after all, and it was a spirited celebration at Yankee Stadium, with the Yankees spotting the Astros up 4-0 and then storming back to win 6-4 thanks to some decisive doubles in the eighth inning by Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez. This was before we realized it was a civic duty to hate the Astros, but the 48,804 still filled the Bronx sky with thunder that night.
If you were a Knicks fan, perhaps you were fully occupied preparing for the following night’s season opener in Oklahoma City, where the Knicks would welcome back the recently departed Carmelo Anthony for the first time as than a former teammate (and that could have been the case). was the last day of this 29-53 tire fire of a season that you actually paid attention to).
Either way, the world has probably changed without you.
Because it was the night the NBA officially began playing its games under the watchful eye of the Last Two Minute Report, also known as L2M. Remember when Y2K kept people up at night for years wondering if the world would stop working at 12:01 a.m. on January 1, 2000…and then it just happened? L2M is in many ways the exact opposite of Y2K. It came slowly, almost invisibly. And it basically changed the sport forever.
And not for the better either.
“I don’t like it, and that’s how I felt when I was coaching, too,” TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy told The Post’s Stefan Bondy a few days ago. “It pissed me off as a coach. I don’t want to know that you think your guys made mistakes at the end of a game. This is of no use to me. I don’t know why they do this.
In fact, he does it – we all do it – because the NBA is very clear about why L2M.
“In the name of transparency,” Van Gundy said, “but I don’t think that reassures the fans. We publish all these things about the referees, but the officials make mistakes. Guess what? The players make mistakes. Coaches make mistakes.
L2M has become a weapon during these playoffs like never before. The Knicks were prepared for all of this by two separate instances during the regular season: the game they lost in Houston because an official called a foul at the buzzer on Jalen Brunson (the league later admitted that ‘it wasn’t a foul), and a game they won at the Garden against Detroit due to a chaotic finale in which the Pistons had about 31 legitimate beefs in the last second, which the league happily faced.
Of course, all this did – in Van Gundy’s words – pissed everyone off.
Because nothing comes out of these sessions in the public confessional. Games are not canceled. And look, they shouldn’t be. The refs, the officials, the refs, they make calls all the time, and some of them are egregious. Ask Armando Galarraga. Ask Seton Hall Pirates fans. Ask the fair-minded citizens of the city of St. Louis.
Bad calls happen. You are angry for a while. Then you either outgrow it or break out in night sweats when you see Angel Hernandez or Jacyn Goble working on the game you’re watching.
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“It leads to too many things,” Van Gundy said, “instead of celebrating the incredible finishes of games and the incredible plays that were made, we talk about how bad the officiating is.”
So Philadelphia gets the unnecessary consolation prize: The refs missed a few calls late in Game 2 of this series. The Knicks get the same thing at the end of Game 5. The Pacers get the same thing after hearing that there shouldn’t have been a punted ball at the end of Game 1.
“I understand, they made mistakes in both games (76ers-Knicks). It evened out at the end of the series,” Van Gundy said before the Knicks’ Game 2 victory in which Rick Carlisle expressed more of his frustrations to the referees. “We should talk about Brunson’s play, (Tyrese) Maxey’s shots, (Donte) DiVincenzo’s shots. These are incredible and iconic pieces. Instead, everyone wants to talk, they’re referees. It’s a shame.”
Amen.
New York Post
