Monday night had all the ingredients of something truly unforgettable.
A sell-out Madison Square Garden. A raucous Knicks fanbase dreaming of a first championship in half a century. A rivalry that has gripped the country. And Donald Trump in the building.
Game 3 of the NBA Finals promised an occasion like no other. It delivered – just not with the ending this city had spent fifty years dreaming of.
From the moment you stepped off the subway and turned onto Seventh Avenue, it was obvious that something different was in the air.
Madison Square Garden looked less like a basketball arena and more like a government installation, as law enforcement descended on Midtown Manhattan.
Heavy barriers ringed the entire building, officers were stationed at every approach, and patrolling among them – with assault rifles rather than standard firearms – were police who made clear that tonight’s security was operating at the very highest level.
Victor Wembanyma and the San Antonio Spurs upset the apple cart in Game 3 on Monday
The New York Knicks, led by Jalen Brunson, slipped to a 115-111 loss at Madison Square Garden
President Donald Trump was in the building and watched as his beloved Knicks suffered defeat
Donald Trump was coming to the Garden. And New York, love him or loathe him, was going to know about it.
For those of us in the media, it was a thirty-minute journey through what amounted to a full TSA operation transplanted from JFK to the middle of Manhattan.
Bags searched. Metal detectors. Sniffer dogs sweeping methodically through the queue. Nothing theatrical about it – just a thorough security operation doing exactly what it was there to do.
By the time you cleared it and stepped inside, however, the contrast was dizzying.
Backstage, the madness was in full swing. Hundreds of media were swarming through the corridors with the full circus of a major Finals game in New York City.
Among the familiar faces: Pat McAfee, holding court as only he can, and Stephen A. Smith, who was surprisingly subdued despite his animated persona on camera.
And then there was Ben Stiller. The actor – and one of the most famous Knicks superfans on the planet – was roaming the backstage corridors with the enthusiasm of a man who had waited his entire life for a night like this.
Phone out, filming everything – the press conference, the corridors, the organised chaos of it all. Later he would take his place courtside, but for now he was just another New Yorker who couldn’t quite believe what he was witnessing.
Midtown Manhattan was on lockdown in the hours building up to tip-off in ‘The Big Apple’
Before taking his seat courtside, Ben Stiller was filming all the action backstage on his phone
Cardi B gave a surprise performance at half-time, which felt rather underwhelming in truth
When the arena filled and the national anthem rang out, the building was already at fever pitch – and then Donald Trump appeared on the big screen.
The reaction was instant and it was loud. Booed. Heavily, unmistakably, booed by a Madison Square Garden crowd that made its feelings known without any ambiguity.
Whatever the President had expected from his night out in his hometown, a warm reception was not on the menu.
Then came the basketball and with it, a reminder that sport has a cruel habit of ignoring the script entirely.
Victor Wembanyama was sensational, 32 points and seven rebounds from the young Frenchman dismantling New York’s defence with a maturity that belied his years.
Around him, Stephon Castle was equally composed with 23 points, and the Spurs – written off by many as a team on the brink of a sweep – produced a performance of genuine Finals calibre.
Half-time brought a different kind of spectacle as Cardi B took to the MSG floor for what had been billed as a marquee performance, though the reception was mixed.
For a building that had been shaking with noise all evening, the show felt a touch underwhelming – a sentiment not universally shared, however.
In the end, the Spurs produced a performance of genuine Finals calibre – which they so needed
Attention now turns to Game 4 which will take place at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday
Charles Barkley, never one to keep his opinions to himself, made his appreciation known on commentary in typically colorful fashion.
The Knicks fought. Of course they did. Jalen Brunson was magnificent in defeat, his 32-point display the kind of performance that deserves to end up on the winning side. Anunoby added 28.
At half-time the Garden was rocking, the Knicks leading and the crowd daring to believe. But San Antonio’s third quarter turned the game, and when the final buzzer sounded it was the visitors celebrating on the MSG floor. Spurs 115, Knicks 111.
It was that kind of night. The President got booed. The half-time show split the room. And the home team lost. Madison Square Garden has seen it all – but even by its own extraordinary standards, Monday night will take some forgetting.
