NBA Off-Season

Stephen Jackson isn’t down with the fashion in today’s NBA.

This column isn’t about Amar’e Stoudemire, even though he just recorded his 8th straight game of at least 30 points, setting a New York Knickerbocker franchise record.

It’s not about Coach Mike D’Antoni’s high-octane offense, which is largely responsible for Amar’e’s last 292 points, not to mention Kevin Love’s historic 30-30 game, Blake’s Griffin’s breakout 44/15/7, Andrea Bargnani’s 41, Tayshaun Prince’s 31, and a 19 point game from Gary Forbes. Who? I’m not exactly sure. But I read he plays for the Nuggets.

This is about New York City.

The Knicks are 16-9, winning their last 8 straight, MSG (the greatest place to watch basketball anywhere in the world) is going crazy again, and courtside seats for this Friday’s home game against the Heat game are going for a cool $78,000.

And the biggest sign of New York’s pro-basketball awakening?

I walked by two kids playing one-on-one. A Caucasian boy, rocking a Raymond Felton jersey, versus an African-American kid, wearing a Danilo Gallinari jersey. They weren’t very good, but they were having a lot of fun. I would have watched longer, but an older Indian gentleman was yelling at his Asian friend about Boston coming to town saying, “We gotta beat those Celtics. I hate the goddamn Celtics.”

The Garden is the Mecca of Basketball, the City is the Birthplace of Basketball, and the Knicks have basketball fans hoping for a Renaissance. And it’s coming. You can feel it.

It all started this summer. Amar’e Stoudemire came to New York, opened his arms as wide as he possibly could, and said, “Gimme a hug, New York, you jerk bastards.” And we did. We hugged him.

Now he’s winning basketball games. While Lebron’s talents and public image head South, Stoudemire has, in one fell swoop, completely rewritten his own basketball history. Sports writers, basketball analysts and announcers alike have put Amar’e in serious contention for the league’s MVP award. Amar’e Stoudemire? MVP?

That is the power of New York City.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that Amar’e has only played in one Conference Final, has never led his own team, is an underachieving rebounder, and a rather poor defender (just look at all the aforementioned forwards who hung monster stats on the Knicks interior defense).

And you know what? New Yorkers don’t want to remember. We have forgotten, and we like it that way, thank you very much. We want basketball in New York City to matter, and we’re going jump the gun, to make it happen.

That is the power of New York City.

Go New York, Go New York, Go.