Draymond Green did not enjoy playing in Madison Square Garden with no background music, videos or in-game entertainment. The New York Knicks experimented with the idea in the first half of Sunday’s game vs. the Golden State Warriors, claiming that they wanted fans to “experience the game in its purest form.” Green had some harsh words about this “pure” basketball experience. From Kenny Ducey of Sports Illustrated:
“It was pathetic. It was ridiculous. It changed the flow of the game, it changed everything,” said Green. “You get so used to playing the game a certain way, to completely change that, to me I think it was disrespectful to everyone from [senior VP of entertainment] Michael Levine to [Warriors executive] Rick Welts and all these people who have done these things to change the game from an entertainment perspective and give the game a great vibe. That’s complete disrespect. You advance things in the world to make it better, you don’t go back to what was bad. It’s like, computers can do anything for us. It’s like going back to paper.
“They need to trash that, because that’s exactly what it was.”
Kristaps Porzingis didn’t like it eithr, calling the expeience “weird.”
Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony sounded fairly ambivalent, calling the experiment “interesting” but refusing to take a stance one way or the other.
LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers forward and good friend of Anthony, was asked by reporters how he would feel if playing in that atmosphere:
“I don’t know, I’ve never been a part of one,” James said of a game with no background noise. “It’s been a long time, probably since high school… They said they [were] doing it just to get the authentication of the game itself. I thought that’s a pretty cool idea. Did it work? I don’t know. But listen, the Knicks can do whatever they want… they tried something, so I’m not against that. You give fans an opportunity just to hear the sneakers, the ball, the shot, the moan, the grunts and the players calling out plays and things of that nature. I’m all about [authenticity].”
“But also,” James continued, “we know that music is also a part of basketball… I’ve never been a part of it, so I don’t know.”
