A quick glance at the standings shows that the New York Knicks are not having the most glorious of seasons. Their 14 wins have earned them a spot in the basement of the league, adding insult to the key injuries that have plagued the team this season.
The latest insult comes at the hands of the Washington Wizards, at least in the eyes of coach Derek Fisher. The Wizards had a commanding lead with a few seconds on the clock when Fisher used his keen coaching instincts to call timeout. Washington took that time to make a decision and chose to end the game with a dunk for punctuation.
Fisher just called timeout with 1.3 seconds left and the Knicks down 14. Coaching
— Al Iannazzone (@Al_Iannazzone) April 4, 2015
Fisher seemed ticked off the Wizards appeared to rub it in at the end with one last emphatic jam by Rasual Butler with 1.3 seconds left to cap a 101-87 rout at Verizon Center. Fisher called timeout, ostensibly to give his team a chance to learn from running a final last-second play, but more likely to force Washington to mill around an extra minute.
The Butler dunk was met with roars from the crowd because it earned the fans half-priced pizza for breaking 100 points. (via)
These promotions are all over the place, so I can’t really blame the team for pushing just a bit more to ensure the fans go home happy. They did just have to watch a game where Fisher described his team by saying they were “punched in the face” from the beginning. Pizza is a nice bonus for fans, unless you’re Derek Fisher:
“Some teams run it out; I’ve seen it go both ways,’’ Fisher said. “We’re in that position right now. But it won’t always be that way. We’ll have those nights we’ll have that choice.’’
“The pizza doesn’t taste that great,’’ Fisher added, perhaps alluding to the promotion. (via)
Fisher also noted that his team controls its own destiny, which is confusing since he’s blowing hard over two points. If the team was in contention and lost a hard fought game, I could see the outrage as something that’s reasonable. But these Knicks are in the draft hunt and they’re not playing the honor game on the court. If anything, they should be happy they scored 80 points.
Sportsmanship is well and good, but these are adults playing a game. If allegedly showing up an opponent, especially one who just called a timeout with one second on the clock, is wrong, I wouldn’t want to stick around. He’s spot on about Papa John’s pizza, though.
(Via New York Post / NBC Sports)
