Third straight pre-season defeat for the Knicks, a hundred and four to a hundred and twenty-two against the Wolves. And Mike Brown, the coach, comes out with this: “For me, the important thing is the process more than the final result itself.” It’s in Basket USA.
The process. Can you picture me at the mic with that? Saturday, half past eight, the two school fête spotlights, the caretaker switching off half the strip lights. “Mesdames et messieurs, dames en heren…” Two-second blank. “…the process!” [jingle]
And then, nothing. Nobody stands up for a process. I tried to find a jingle for that word. I cut three tracks. None of them lands, because a process has no end, and a jingle does.
Still, there were moments in that game. At half-time, the staff and the players watched the last three minutes of the first half on defence: a 16-7, four three-pointers conceded. Watching three minutes together, that’s a moment. Me, I’d have done it in the dark, with music.
And the five starters, twenty-two minutes each. The same time for everybody. That I love: I introduce all five with exactly the same blank before each first name, and for once, the coach does too.
Two games against the Raptors, Wednesday and Friday, then the season starts again on 21 October against the Sixers. That one will have a result. I’m keeping the jingle for that night. Just saying.
It’s true, we checked: Basket USA.
