3 For All

by Russ Bengtson
There are many ways I could start these notes. For example, I could ask a not-so-rhetorical question: “If Team A loses a game against Team B because Player C celebrates a would-be dagger dunk a bit too exuberantly, what chance is there that same player gives the refs the chance to make the same exact call in the same exact situation the very next time the teams meet?”

by Russ Bengtson
On some level, Rafer Alston must dread coming back to New York.
It’s not the pressures of playing in front of friends and family—Skip has been doing that for a long time now, both at the Garden and before that on blacktop from Queens to Harlem. No, it’s the hours before the game. More specifically, the media time. Even more specifically than that, the same local reporters who pepper him with the same questions every freaking time. It has to be infuriating.