So obviously Wembanyama played in MSG tonight. I made no special effort to look up info about the game, but I was bombarded by three negative stories out of nowhere. He said MSG “isn’t as big as I expected,” which was actually a cutoff quote, where he finished by saying the energy is still there. The Knicks fans chanted “overrated” at him. And even the House of Highlights video is titled "The MSG lights were too bright for Wemby "
When I saw that, I thought he must have had a terrible game. His stats?
14 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block. In 30 minutes.
In other words, perfectly fine. His jump shot was off (28%), but guess what… the game before that he shot 25%. And had 13 points and 10 rebounds. And no one savaged him. Because it wasn’t in toxic town.
The NY media and fans also treat Julius Randle like garbage too. I hate Kyrie Irving, for example (I called him Kevin Snake & Flake), but Kyrie is an outright Anti-Semite. Is Randle that bad of a human being? They weren’t much easier on Ewing.
We had a thread a couple years ago where we looked at the stats and found that Ben Simmons actually took a nosedive in his free throw rate and percentage in front of Philly fans, apparently due to their heckling. So treating your players like crap on their homecourt can have a negative effect. And a lot of guys won’t want to sign with your team and walk into that environment. Especially not kids who are just starting in the NBA and who are likely superstars of the future, and who seem to be decent people, who are getting a bad taste in their mouth from the moment they get near your team for the first time.
I get you being concerned about how fans treat their players, and in a vacuum I agree, I think sports fans can sometimes be too cruel towards even their favorite players and teams.
But the thing is NYC is special - Knicks fans have cultivated over decades a culture of wanting our players trying their hardest and playing well even in our lottery seasons. We wear our pride on our sleeves. So when Randle does something like shrug his shoulders and slowly walk in the last minute of a close game, of course we’re gonna be upset. Cause we wanna see them succeed. You call it negative and toxic, we call it unbridled passion.
Those who get it, get it. Of course you wouldn’t though, being soft as shit
You were making points and sounding reasonable up until the last few words, when you couldn’t resist your Knicks-fan-psychosis and lost your mind again.