A walk through the Garden

And there it is ... right down the street from my hotel.

I'm not a big "bucket list" type of guy. Sure, there are things I'd like to do, but I don't look at doing them as another item checked off.

But of the few things I'd like to do but haven't yet, going to an event at Madison Square Garden is near the top of that list. Not only is it in New York City with that famed, distinct architecture sitting right atop Penn Station, it has an aura that I struggled to define as I was thinking about it. 

What I came up with is that no matter the event -- Knicks, Rangers, the real Big East men's basketball tournament, concerts, wrestling (even the way wrestlers would walk to the ring looked different, entering from the side and with a shorter walk, seemingly into a mass of humanity) -- the Garden seems to fit the event, like there was never a more natural place for it. Nothing ever seems out of place.

As he so often does, Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant got it just right before the Rangers and Flyers played in the seventh game of their playoff series Wednesday night.

Wow. Place looks different from the last time I was here for Michigan State-UConn.#game7 pic.twitter.com/7ZzEfZVSMD
— Jeff Jacobs (@jacobscourant) April 30, 2014

I had actually momentarily forgotten that this year's East Regional was at MSG, and not just because the NCAA, in its finite wisdom, continues to insist on generic floors. For on Wednesday, the Garden was a hockey arena hosting a massive game that had the whole city buzzing.

Mrs. Last Honest and I spent a few days in New York this week, staying at the New Yorker hotel right down the street from the arena. While we didn't go to the Rangers-Flyers game (we were supposed to see the Yankees and Mariners that night, a game washed away by the all-day and all-night rain, and I wasn't up to spending the hundreds of dollars it would have taken to go to the hockey game), we did take a tour the previous day.

Wow ... just wow.

The tour wasn't perfect. I understand the guide (who was actually delightful, plus she was working off a format, anyway) was trying to inform us about the renovations at MSG, but I really don't care about tile patterns or the high-class offerings in the food court. Also, if there is going to be a stop for people to have their photos taken with hockey sticks or basketballs, it should be before or after the tour and not in the middle, and people shouldn't have to get their picture taken if they don't want to.

All these did was take time away from what people wanted ... which was to be in the arena.

It's always exciting to walk into a stadium or an arena, but there are some that are more meaningful than others. As I was sitting there, listening to our guide talk about how the rink is put together and the changeover from hockey to basketball, there was only one thing I could think of.

I'm in Madison Square Garden. I'm in Madison. Square. Garden.

Now I just have to get to a game there someday.

Wishing Carmelo wasn't the bad guy

I wouldn't say they're cursed, but over the years, things just have a way of not working out for the Syracuse men's basketball team.

There was Richmond in 1991 and Vermont in 2005. (Apparently, Taylor Coppenrath, whose name I spelled wrong on Twitter earlier today ... sorry, oops ... is spending his time in Spain these days.) And you'll never convince me that the selection committee didn't just forget them one year. There have been others.

Oh yeah, and Keith Smart.



This year, the Orange departed from their usual routine by getting screwed up before the NCAA tournament, when it's their guy who washes out for eligibility reasons a few days prior to the first game.

Big Orange is not happy that Fab Melo is out of the tournament.

But 2003 was different. There were no upsets, no slip-ups, as a freshman named Carmelo Anthony led my team to the title. Oh happy day!

(Side note No. 1. My wife and I were in Atlanta for the women's Final Four, and when Roy Williams dropped the s-bomb heard around New Orleans, she said, "He's going to North Carolina." Of course, he did.)



(Side note No. 2. My wife slept through the semifinal, but made it to the end of the final. I'd like to think it was because she wanted to celebrate with her husband, but I know it was because she wanted to see "One Shining Moment," of which she considers herself an connoisseur. But it never came on. I believe what happened is that the local CBS affiliate had the window for the game ending at midnight, and when the clock struck 12, they were gone. As I recall, there were many complaints.)



Even thought I don't follow the Knicks -- I started watching the NBA again after I moved to the Boston area, so I picked up the Celtics -- I'll always have love for Carmelo because of that championship. But he has made it hard for me lately.

First of all, there was his passive-aggressive treatment of Denver, where he spent the whole season saying he wanted out, but that he "would never go about it the way LeBron did it." I'm still not sure why talking your way out of town isn't as bad as finishing your contract and finding a new employer, but anyway ...

Now, he has apparently screwed up the Knicks to the point where Mike D'Antoni is no longer the coach.

I don't want Carmelo to be that guy ... the selfish coach-killer. I want him to be that college freshman who I got to see lead Syracuse to the top.