A banner rising under the rafters of the Garden, the rings, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, the season opening. That is a moment. And during that moment, one Knicks player was in the locker room, on purpose: Andre Drummond, who arrived this summer to replace Mitchell Robinson. After the defeat against Philadelphia he explained that he didn’t want to live through something he hadn’t been there for, according to BasketNews.
Me, I saw it as an announcer. Can you picture the intro sheet? Every name to shout, a pause, and one name that isn’t in the hall. At our place, on Saturday at half past eight, if a guy isn’t in the corridor when I start the music, I hold the jingle and stretch out the “mesdames et messieurs”. The caretaker looks at me. The sound system has an opinion.
But he decided it himself. He let his teammates have their moment. Respect. So I’m redoing his introduction, his own, for the day he has won something with them.
Dark. Well, half the lights. [jingle] Mesdames et messieurs, dames en heren, arrived this summer, twelve points, fourteen rebounds and four assists on his debut, at centre, the number of your choice… two seconds of nothing… Andre… Drummond! Make some noise.
That night, for real, while the banner went up, he had picked the locker room. A banner he felt he hadn’t won yet, and twenty-four minutes to play afterwards.
The moment is the same. He just left it to the others. Just saying.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.





