And on the Seventh Day, They Practiced

Images From the Knicks Open Practice
(More Words/Pictures To Come Later Today/Tonight)
It was bright and early. It was too early and far too bright. But here I was in the car cruising north on the Saw Mill Parkway headed for Pace University in Pleasantville, NY. The occasion was the annual open practice held by the Knickerbockers. The early wake-up call, though, was well worth the hour that I got to watch the team practice.

It wasn't anything extraordinary. They stretched. Ran a few drills. And then went through the motions in a bit of 5 on 5. But the 150-200 folks in that gym were right up close for all of it. We heard Jared Jeffries cracking wise about Patrick Ewing, Jr. We felt the awkwardness when Chris Duhon and not Stephon Marbury took the floor with what sure looked like the first team. We cringed with the same embarrassment that everyone on the team did each time Jerome James took a shot. And, we knew the simultaneous awe and pity inspired by Allan Houston as he did what he could when he could.