NEW YORK -- For the past decade, Madison Square Garden and more specifically the NBA team that called it home -- the New York Knicks -- was the rotten core of Big Apple sports.
This season, things are different. Thanks to Amar'e Stoudemire, the Knicks' first All-Star starter since 1997, the apple is polished and shiny and red and juicy. On Thursday, everyone wanted to take a bite.
TNT, back for the first time at the Garden in five years, went all out. They brought "Inside the NBA" up from Atlanta and managed to sneak Marv Albert past the Dolans and into the building. They announced the All-Star starters and three of the five Eastern Conference starters happened to be in the building.
The glitterati such as "The Donald," "The King of All Media," Kanye West, Spike Lee, Woody Allen, Alicia Keys and Tracy Morgan and his very dirty mind more than likely would have shown up to see LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Heat even if the Knicks were playing willing patsies to marauding opponents as they had in the past.
The stars had come to see stars, and for a while, they got what they came for.
Then the contest took a trip back in time to the 1990s when the Heat-Knicks rivalry epitomized ugly, brutal, disjointed -- and did I mention, ugly -- basketball. They also got a glimpse of the NBA's best rookie this side of Blake Griffin, Landry Fields, helping the Knicks to a hard-fought 93-88 win.
Fields, who hit two huge 3-pointers in the final five minutes, finished with 19 points, 13 boards and six assists. Not bad for a second-round pick that was left out of the 2010 Draft media guide. Count Miami coach Erik Spoelstra as one of the gobsmacked.
"He's a guy in this league, in this day and age, that's easy to overlook," Spoelstra said. "He has a game that's a throwback, old-school game that's built on cuts, movement, energy and getting your hands dirty.
"All the little things most players grow up not wanting to be with ESPN and the highlights. You have to give him credit because he's made a niche for himself."
Giving Fields credit is easy because it's deserved. The 6-foot-6 rookie is a perfect complement to Amar'e the All-Star and better-than-advertised guard Raymond Felton. Fields has been a breath of fresh air to a franchise that needed to free itself from the stench of failure.
"Landry plays smart. He never lets the game get out of control. He always plays within the game, and it works out for him. He is one of those players where a lot of energy plays get him going."
-- Amare Stoudemire "Landry plays smart," Stoudemire said. "He never lets the game get out of control. He always plays within the game, and it works out for him.
"He is one of those players where a lot of energy plays get him going."
Energy is nice, but if a player doesn't have the talent to match, that energy goes to waste. Not with Fields. For such a young player, he's surprisingly unflappable.
"My whole theme of today was staying focused," Fields said. "I wanted to remain that way no matter how many we were up, how many we were down, fourth quarter, first quarter, second or third, I wanted to remain consistent."
He may have been the only one on an even keel because the game itself was far from it. With LeBron James in a funk (he would miss 17 of his 24 shots), Miami's original assassin, Wade, sporting new goggles to lessen the effects of migraines, went to work. At one point, Wade saw the basketball world through his Heat-tinted goggles by hitting 13 of his first 14 shots. Someone asked Fields if he was freaked out by Wade's eyewear.
"He looks like a superhero to me," Fields said.
Wade looked that way to everyone. But then the Knicks' defense finally wore down the Heat, holding them to 15 fourth-quarter points.
"The first two games we got caught by surprise at how fast they are defensively and the way they play," Stoudemire said. "They are very aggressive, very quick, very fast and very strong.
"The first game we played well in the first half. The second game we played well in the second half. Tonight, we put a total 48-minute game together and got the win."
This kind of gritty, grind-it-out effort is what the Knicks will need if they want to make -- and survive -- in the playoffs. Yes, playoffs, a subject the currently sixth-seeded Knicks, who have one postseason appearance in the last 10 seasons, bring up without provocation or irony.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Fields said. "We still have a lot of time left for playoff time."
He may be right. This Knicks team, for all its flaws -- streaky shooting, lack of depth and consistent defensive intensity -- looks as if it could be playing the postseason.
The Garden, and the stars that fill the seats as well as those on the court, better get ready.
Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/01/28/starry-night-at-msg-fields-unlikely-hero/
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