Draymond Green Said The Knicks’ Lack Of In-Game Music Was ‘Pathetic’

In a somewhat misguided effort to try and shake things up at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, the Knicks organization opted to play the first half of their matinee against the Warriors without any in-game entertainment. Here’s the message they posted on the jumbotron prior to tip-off giving their rationale for the curious decision.

It was an interesting idea, especially given how just about every aspect of the in-arena experience has been commercialized. But the lack of music during player intros and timeouts gave it an unmistakably-strange ambiance.

It goes without saying that not everyone was a fan of it. Never one to bite his tongue, Draymond Green went straight to the Donald Trump glossary of hyperbole in order to adequately express his disgust.

“That was pathetic,” Green said. “It was ridiculous. It changed the flow of the game. It changed everything. You get so used to playing the game a certain way.”

On the one hand, Green has a point. It feels more like a step back than it does an innovation. But it also brings up all sorts of existential questions about how we experience sports and just how much of that experience has been manufactured for us.