While the season ended for the New York Knicks on Sunday night in a series-deciding Game 7 against the Indiana Pacers, the basketball world has taken notice of what has occurred with the team over the last several years. Led by the play of superstar guard Jalen Brunson, the Knicks defied the odds and secured the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, going on to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers in a six-game series. Although the team’s championship aspirations were not realized this year, the team is widely regarded as a success story with a bright future ahead. A problem, however, that viewers had with coverage of the game on ESPN was in its discussion about the New York Knicks, specifically the quantity of that thereof. The matter led to a debate on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, beginning with discourse about purported East Coast bias.
Before the contest, NBA Countdown took the air featuring analyst Stephen A. Smith broadcasting live from Madison Square Garden. The rest of the studio team was in Los Angeles, Calif. in the studio while Smith was courtside at the game with players taking warmups in the background. Smith has an affinity for the Knicks that he has divulged publicly and discusses across programming on the network, and he tried to encourage the team while appearing on the show. Spike Lee also took the air and showcased his enthusiasm ahead of the pivotal contest with Smith. Although Le Batard does not have a vested rooting interest in either team, he can understand how basketball fans feel after watching the coverage.
“It was very celebrating all things New York the same way that the big networks celebrate the Cowboys and the things that get ratings,” Le Batard said. “But to me if I’m a Pacers fan, the part that pisses me off is the last four minutes of that game – a historic game for the Pacers – only [Mike] Breen every once in a while would bring it back to the Pacers. It was the Knicks that they were talking about the whole time, and if I were a Pacers fan, I’d be mad at how slanted that coverage was.”
Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, who is from the New York area, expressed that the Knicks represented the story to discuss on the air yesterday and believes that ESPN did the right thing. At the same time, he thinks that Pacers fans have ultimately received the last laugh in advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. Moreover, he does not think people genuinely care about ESPN covering the Pacers in the game and articulated that the storyline changed once the game began.
“Stugotz, when you say, ‘Who cares?,’ sports fans care about perceived disrespect, and this was disrespectful,” Le Batard replied. “I’m not a fan of either of the teams I’m watching. I see one winning, the other losing, and the one that’s being talked about is the losers as if they’re the winners when they sh** the bed at home, although there were valid reasons.”
One example that was presented on the show was NBA Countdown analyst Bob Myers being asked about the Pacers and bringing his answer to talk about Knicks forward OG Anunoby. Le Batard is cognizant of how Pacers fans may feel when it is the third different roster that has made the Eastern Conference Finals for the team. The Knicks have not made the NBA Conference Finals since the 1999-00 season, a 24-year run that ranks as the third-longest drought in the NBA.
“One thing that definitely rates for the NBA is the New York Knicks, and ESPN now is a propaganda machine for the broadcast they own the rights to,” producer Mike Ryan said. “What is getting people in – they see the metrics. I guarantee you they’re going to talk Dallas Cowboys today on First Take because they have the metrics to support they need to be talking Dallas Cowboys every day.”
Ahead of the Eastern Conference Finals, Weiner asserted that the storyline is going to be about the Boston Celtics regardless of the result. The Celtics finished the NBA regular season with the best record in the league and play in the eighth-largest designated market area in the United States, according to Nielsen Media Research.
“Nobody cares what those people think about the coverage,” Weiner said, referring to fans living in Indiana. “They are moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals. That’s it – that’s enough for them. ESPN did the right thing. They covered the right team, the right city because that was the story headed into the game.”
The Pacers ended the game shooting 67.1% from the field, which is the highest field goal percentage in any playoff game in the history of the NBA. Le Batard did not comprehend the Knicks to have played poorly; rather, the team was the subject of a historic performance from a young, dynamic Pacers team. Yet he felt that triumph was being ignored because of the conversation surrounding the injuries of the Knicks, including star guard Jalen Brunson fracturing his left hand during the game.
At the same time though, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz had New York-centric segments and rebranded itself as WFAT several times over the last few weeks. Le Batard wanted to make sure that the audience knew that engaging in that tactic was to make sure that the program could reach the day where the Knicks were officially eliminated.
“I knew I was going to get there somehow; I was going to get this day,” Le Batard said. “There was no chance all the other teams could be as injured as the Knicks, and the Knicks were not going to have a day where I was going to eat it at the end. That’s not what was going to happen. The whole of that was strategic. We turned into WFAT – we got bloated.”
“Fire Tom Thibodeau – trade OG [Anunoby], get rid of him, don’t re-sign him. Isaiah [Hartenstein] as well,” Weiner added. “Just light up the phone lines today boys and enjoy your 20 share.”
