Atlanta Hawks at New York Knicks (25-12-2021)

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 The day I had been waiting for at least forty years, since the first NBA games were broadcast in Italy, has come. Maybe even before, since I heard about it for boxing. For the first time, I will enter Madison Square Garden.

I arrive on foot, before 11 (the game is at 12). The building is covered by a construction site: I wonder where the entrance is, but I follow the flow. Passed under the scaffolding, you see the entrance to the building and the words "Madison Square Garden": the emotion in seeing it is great, comparable only to what I felt in front of the words "Porte des Mosquietiers" at Roland Garros and "Letzigrund Stadion "(in 2014, I have yet to write about it). Just before the entrance there is the first checkpoint: I get ready to show the tickets, instead they want to see vaccination certificatse and personal IDs. After the entrance there is a metal detector control, with a fast lane for those without bags: we have a bag in four, but we prefer to stay together.

After checking, you enter a foyer that reminds me more of a theater than a sports venue. On the right there is the store: they also sell vintage shirts from the 1969-70 champion team. I think I buy Bill Bradley's one, but the price seems a bit excessive ($ 160). There are indications for the stands on both sides and both are for "all sectors": we choose the one that, looking at the map in the atrium, seems the closest to ours (and it will be).

You get to the ticket check, which worried me a bit, having four tickets on a single mobile phone (to transfer them you need the app, which can only be downloaded on American mobile phones). Instead, once you understand, with the help of the assistant, where to scan them, everything goes smoothly. You go up with the escalators, another thing that is still science fiction for us: as I go up I think of how it must have been at the time of Carnera's or La Motta's matches (in any case, it was another building: the current one was built in 1968). We are on the second deck: going towards the entrance, on one side you see a continuous line of restrooms, on the other food stands, including one of "arancini" (I would not like to call them such, given my Palermo ancestry, I would say "arancine" but so it was written).

Entering the arena is another emotion that takes my breath away for a while. It is 11.15 am and there are few people, that will remain few until a few minutes from the start: 20 minutes before there are still at least 20 free seats on my right, so much so that I think they have done as in Italy, overshooting prices (my tickets were almost $ 200 each, and they were among the cheapest ones left!) to find themselves with an empty stadium. Instead, it will later fill up, although there will be several gaps left, especially in the first deck. Towards the end they will announce that they are sold out: apparently the absentees were all season ticket holders.

The official warm-up begins around 11.40, the Knicks enter first, who could already be seen in the locker room, then the Hawks, greeted by boos. I must say that I expected a little more sportsmanship from the New York public: they will even boo a grounded opposing player. At 12 we start with Christmas greetings (in US basketball start time still indicates the beginning of the ceremony, not of the game), then the anthem: the text flows on the sides, so I can learn it too. Almost no one sings it, also because it is difficult to follow the singer, who has a tempo of his own.

Here we go: terrific start of the Knicks, who take a 16-3 lead and miss the first field goal after more than 4'30". Randle is particularly outstanding, but with Gallinari's absence, due to Covid, all the players were unknown to me until a few days ago, when I started studying. Then percentages fall and the Hawks get closer: 5 points behind, which will return to 10 at halftime (61-51). At the end of the first quarter there 'is a game that was officially a quiz in which you earned clues by scoring free throws, but actually it was an excuse to make a marriage proposal. In the second quarter in a timeout, there is a basketball quiz: the last question is “who holds the NBA record for points scored in a Christmas game?” The answer is Bernard King (with 60, in 1984), who shows up on the field. I remember that game well, then basketball was the sport I followed closest (at the time I would have known all the players). 

At halftime I stay in my seat to follow the show: there are "Slamming 'Santas". As the name implies, they are players who dunk (with a trampoline) dressed as Santa Claus: fun. Midway through the third quarter, after the Hawks had moved up to 6 points behind (65-59). the Knicks take off, up to a 20 point lead, and the game has no history anymore. At the end of the third quarter I go away to take off a knee pad which was hurting me (the position was not very comfortable) and I miss the first two minutes of  4th quarter, but I could do without them. The only event of the fourth quarter will be the achievement of the "triple double" by Kemba Walker. Despite the huge gap, they will wait for the last 2 minutes to play the last reserves. It ends 101-87.

At the exit there is only a little crowd at the beginning, then you go down (on foot) in an orderly way .. I walk away: this time I don't have the problem of crowds on transportation 

McDonald's Basketball Open (1989)

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NBA is heading to the All Star Game. Now it has even a dedicated TV channel: if it had been there when I was a boy I would have watched it from morning to night, now I will use very little. I have seen live two matches between NBA teams: Phoenix Suns-New Jersey Nets in Milan in the 80s and Brooklyn Nets-Toronto Raptors in New York in 2015. This time I do not mean to talk about these, but about a tournament between an NBA team and three European ones, in 1989.

The tournament was co-organized by NBA and FIBA ​​and sponsored by McDonald's. It was a quadrangle between Denver Nuggets, Jugoplastika Split and two other teams, which I verified were Barcelona and Olimpia Milan (I admit, this time I broke the rule I gave myself when I started writing, to base stories on my memory without checking) . It took place in Rome, the city I was visiting for the first time, not imagining in the least that eight years later I would live there. On that occasion I also saw the Pope, for my first and only time.

Arrived at Palaeur (today Palalottomatica) I immediately noticed the difference with the San Siro Palasport, which I remembered well: even though it was bigger, you could see much better, since there was no cycling track. My place was, it seems to me, in the second of three decks, near a basket. A few lines before I saw Julius Erving, the legendary Doctor J, in evening suit, as a guest of honor (he had retired two years before).

The Denver Nuggets entered the field: we saw some good plays, but it was a bit disappointing, because the starters (the stars were English and Davis) stayed little on the field and for the most part time we saw players we had never heard of, who anyway worked hard, fighting for a place in the team. But then it started the second game, that of Jugoplastika, and there I was enchanted, especially by Radja and Kukoc, but also by the rest of the team. The audience also incited them more than the Americans. Then for us they were all Yugoslav players, later we had to learn painfully, that Radja and Kukoc were Croats, the center Savic Bosnian (and ethnically Serbian), other Serbian.

Two days later there was the final: it was supposed to be a game without history, then it was unthinkable that a European team, een without Americans, could beat an NBA team. A few years earlier I had seen a mixed team of mid-level NBA players (apart from the star Moses Malone) giving 19 points to Olimpia Milano, then sponsored by Billy. Instead Jugoplastika challenghed until 2-3 minutes to the end, sometimes even went ahead. There was the deafening cry "Ju-go-pla-sti-ka, Ju-go-pla-sti-ka". I never thought I would hear an Italian audience heat up so much for a foreign team: something similar would be seen the following year at the soccer World Cup, for Cameroon. The Dalmatians also paid a shorter bench than the Nuggets: on 40 minutes, instead of 48, being able to keep Radja and Kukoc always on the field, maybe they would have won.

That fantastic team dominated in Europe again for a couple of years. And then, as Italian singer Edoardo Bennato sang, the war came, that takes away all dreams….

The San Siro Palasport and me (1976-1985)

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I'm back. A few days ago, while I was wondering from where to begin to tell about my memories, I read of the commemorations of the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Milan. So I decided to tell about my childhood and boyhood experiences at the sports arena (Palasport) of San Siro in Milan.


The San Siro sports arena was opened in 1976 and was greeted with amazement, even by those who were a little older than 8, as I was then. Only a few mountaineer pointed out that it could have some problems in case of snow (Aldo Giordani, the great basketball journalist, told it). One of the first events that took place there was "It's a knock out." I would have liked to see it live, but at home they thought I was crazy, my mother told me, "we would not go even if we lived in front of the sports arena." They said it was an event  made for TV, which was undoubtedly true, but there was a live attendance, so they must have obtained tickets somehow.


I do not remember which was at first occasion when I actually went there. The sports  I went to see there were three: athletics, cycling and basketball. Every year a tennis tournament was also played there, but that I had never gone to see him: I'd go later, in the '90s, when it was played at the Assago Forum. For athletics I remember the two editions of the European Championships: I've recently learned they were in 1978 and 1982. Of the first I remember especially the women's high jump, with the duel between Simeoni and Holzapfel of West Germany (Ackermann of East Germany was not there). At the time, they jumped in silence, there was no rhythmic clapping, but we made a poor show: the speaker had to call not to disturb the German. I also remember Mennea, I thought it was in the 200, instead I read that he was in the 400, 200 at that time were not even run. Then the pole vault(obviously men's, at that time it was the only one) with 4 at 5,45 and 12 failed attempts at 5.50, with victory for  Olympic champion Sluzarski. I also remember the victory ceremony of men's high jump, held the day before, with the then nineteen Yashenko,  like the sports hall, destined to a bad end (yes, of the Champions I have mentioned only Simeoni is still alive).


In 1982, I remember especially the two races of the high jump, both with 3 athletes to try the world record. Among men a Swiss won with 2.34 (the world record was 2.35), among women I don't remember.For cycling I went to see every year the Six Days of Milan, sometimes even twice in a season. Once I even gave up the match at the San Siro stadium(where my father went regularly) for it. I saw both Moser and Saronni (my father was a fan of the former, I of the latter), but not in the same year.


For basketball I watched mainly the Milan-Cantù matches, as my father was a fan of the former and I of the latter. I have remained in mind 4 matches: the first two are those of playoff 1981 both won by Cantù, the first by 2, the second by 1 after double overtime. It was a best of 3 playoff: in between there was the Milan victory at Cantù. So Squibb Cantù (Squibb was the sponsor) got to the final against Bologna and won: I tried to go to watch it, but found no tickets.


About the third I actually do not remember anything, but I remember what happened just before. The matches were disputed immediately after the football ones (the venue was opposite the stadium) that day at San Siro there was Inter-Napoli. To get there in time we left the football match at about the 40th of the second half, with Inter 2-0. On the stairs we heard of the 2-1, arrived at the indoor stadium we learned that Napoli had equalized. That game was also famous because it was also the last covered by Beppe Viola, then my favorite sportswriter: after asking if the MVP had been San Gennaro, he suffered a stroke and died.


 The last match was also the last time I went to the arena: it was in November 1984. I remember Riva making 10-of-17 in 3-pointers (today it would be no big deal, but then, the first year of the 3-point shot, it was), Cantù was long in the lead but eventually lost.I thought I'd be back for the Six Days of 1985 and I was also looking forward to the athletics meeting scheduled for March, but nothing of all this: happened in January 1985 the snow brought down the roof. Immediately they spoke to repair it in years, then there were bureaucratic obstacles and at the end the venue was torn down. I saw the hole for long from the football stadium, I believe there are some office towers now  .