NEW YORK CITY—When I got on the Metro North train from Peekskill the morning of March 15, I was headed to New York City for a fantasy baseball draft.
What I didn’t realize was that night would be one of the two best nights of my sports fandom.
As the draft wound down, I told my brother Rob that this is great, that the draft is ending earlier than we thought. That’s because St. John’s was playing in the Big East men’s basketball championship game vs. Creighton at Madison Square Garden, the first time in 25 years that the Johnnies were in the game, and that I was really looking forward to going home and watching it.
Then Rob asks me, “Do you want to go to the game?” and I immediately said, “Yeah.”
So then he tells one of our friends, Kevin, “If you order the tickets and can get us to the Garden, I’ll pay for your ticket too.”
Being a big-time college basketball fan, Kevin of course says yes.
One ticket to the Big East Tournament championship game is expensive, but three? I truly have the most generous brother there is!
Why I am sharing this:
I’m not only a St. John’s fan going back to the days of Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca, who sadly passed away last Nov. 30, roughly five weeks from his 100th birthday, and Hall of Fame player Chris Mullin, but I was also a student-manager for the team.
Back in the summer of 1989, after I graduated from Peekskill High School, I went with my mom and dad to St. John’s to check out the listing of available places to live, since the school at that time didn’t have dorms.
Surprise, surprise, I see Carnesecca himself with his long-time assistants Brian Mahoney and Ron Rutledge. I didn’t know what to say to my favorite college basketball coach of all time.
My mom tells me, “You should ask him if he needs any help.” I told her, “He needs my help like he needs a hole in the head.”
Thankfully, I listened to my mom and talked to Coach Carnesecca. I told him how big a fan I was of his.
I then told him that I did the scorebook for my high school team and asked if I could do anything for the basketball team at St. John’s.
He told me to come to the basketball office the first day of school and ask for Martin, the head manager. I did just that and the rest is history.
I was a student-manager for the last three years of Carnesecca’s storied career, including the final one that saw St. John’s win a share of the Big East regular-season title, and Mahoney’s first year as head coach.
I’m also a long-time fan of St. John’s current Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, as he coached the Knicks to the first division title of my Knicks’ fandom in 1989, so this night was truly my life coming full circle.
A quick subway ride and walk, and we are at the Garden. It’s just so magical when you see the words “Madison Square Garden” and “The World’s Most Famous Arena” as you enter the building.
My brother was more generous than I thought. I would have been happy sitting up high on the Chase Bridge, but our seats were a whole lot better than that.
We were 18 rows behind the hoop, just four rows behind the media, adjacent to the St. John’s bench. The view of the court was jaw-dropping, especially in the second half when St. John’s shot at that hoop.
You could see Kadary Richmond coming down the court, with the speed of a locomotive train, the sweet jump shot of RJ Luis Jr., that found nothing but net, and truly feel the Garden shake when Zuby Ejiofor slammed the ball ferociously into the hoop, blowing the roof off of MSG.
And the crowd: Wow, I couldn’t believe it, seeing all those fellow St. John’s fans in an electric, raucous, sold-out Garden, after years when, when it did get filled, it was because all the other schools’ fans filled it.
Even Knick superfan Spike Lee was there, cheering on the Johnnies from courtside!
St. John’s trailed at the half 28-25 but turned it on in the second half for an 82-66 victory and its first Big East Tournament title since 2000.
What followed was a celebration that was the perfect culmination to a classic New York sports night. Between the presentation of the championship trophy, the cutting down of the nets, and the confetti falling, it truly gave you the feels.
It was a night that I didn’t think was possible after all the years of disappointment, which made this that much sweeter. It was truly a dream come true, a night in my sports fandom topped only by being in the right-field bleachers in Yankee Stadium at Game 6 with my dad when the Yankees beat the Braves 3-2 to win the 1996 World Series.
And yet, it even got better, walking to Grand Central, knowing my school owned the Garden, owned the city, and had the lights of the Empire State Building lit in its colors, was truly the best feeling in the world.
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