Family Feud

Chicago hates New York in a way that ought to worry the Big Apple, if only it could be bothered.  And, when it comes to baseball, why would it?  The Cubs and White Sox are the lapdogs of choice for the Mets and Yankees, respectively.

Ah, but basketball, that’s where we hit the five boroughs where it really hurts.  New York is never so full of itself as on the subject of basketball.  Woody Allen, Spike Lee and company act as if the game were invented there and brought to perfection by Red Holzman.  Alas, Michael Jordan and his Bulls belie that notion. 

And, now, so do the kiddie Bulls of Fred Hoiberg.  His team beat the host Knicks 122-119 in double overtime at Madison Square Garden, which Hoiberg called “the world’s most famous arena.”  I think that was the Iowa State Cyclone in Hoiberg talking.

Just for fun, I went online to see what the New York Post—all invective, all the time—had to say.  Oh, the Post was not happy, heading its story “Knicks drop double-overtime crusher to nemesis Bulls.”  Lauri Markkanen scored 33 for the visitors, which led the Knicks’ beat writer to declare the 7-foot rookie from Finland looked “like the best European big man on the floor.”  In case you were wondering, that was a dig at 7’3” Kristaps Porzingis, normally the pride of the Garden by way of Latvia.  A Post columnist called Markkanen “the Bulls’ unicorn.”  High praise, indeed.

The Bulls are 3-0 against New York, with one more game to go in the regular season.  If things keep going the way they have, the nemesis will have itself a patsy.