The Opening Tip

• Dejounte Murray almost ruined James Harden's historic night.
• What if the Knicks are good? 
• Today’s the anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game.

Tonight's best matchups

1. Grip special report: The last remaining Charlotte Bobcats

The Charlotte Bobcats existed as an NBA team for nine seasons, from 2004 to 2014. They made the postseason twice (they were swept both times), produced one All-Star, never won more than 44 games, and once went 7-59 during the strike-shortened 2011-12 season.

They would be cursed if they weren’t so irrelevant, which is why no one batted an eye when they became the Charlotte Hornets for the 2014-15 season, dropping the orange color scheme and big cat mascot forever.

Here’s how the Bobcats came to be, and went: 

• In 1988, the OG Charlotte Hornets joined the league as an expansion team. 
• After the ‘01-02 season, though, they darted for New Orleans, keeping the same mascot and color scheme. 
• As a consolation, the NBA gave Charlotte another expansion team for the ‘03-04 season: the Bobcats, who kept the same franchise record books as the old Charlotte Hornets -- à la the old Browns and new Browns -- but couldn’t keep the name because it was still being used in New Orleans. 
• It continued this way until the end of the ‘12-13 season, when New Orleans announced it would rebrand as the Pelicans, which included Pierre, the terrifying cajun’d out bird. 
• Sensing a chance to ditch the Bobcats brand and drum up some nostalgia, Charlotte jumped on the Hornets name like a newly-opened COVID-19 vaccine appointment, moving on from Bobcats starting in ‘14-15.

This means the ‘13-14 Cats were the last of their kind, which has prompted us to compile a list of the remaining Bobcats still in the NBA, which, we suppose, makes this newsletter the charter member of the newly-formed Charlotte Bobcats Preservation Society. If anyone wants to join, it’s free. We can meet every second Tuesday of each month and remember the good times, like when Charlotte only lost by four points against the Heat in Game 2 of its 2014 first round series.

ANYWAYS, here’s our list of players still in the NBA who once proudly donned the ‘Cats uniform: 

• D.J. Augustin, Bobcat from 2008-12, now on the Bucks. 
• Kemba Walker, Bobcat from 2011-14, now on the Celtics. 
• Bismack Biyombo, Bobcat from 2011-14, now back on the Hornets, I.E. the former Bobcats. 
• Cody Zeller, Bobcat during the 2013-14, who has played his whole career in Charlotte. 
• Garrett Temple, Bobcat for 12 games in 2010-11, now on the Bulls.
• Jared Dudley, Bobcat from 2007-09, now on the Lakers.

At some point soon, there will be no more Bobcat alums in the NBA, at which point the CBPS will meet up and do something. Not sure what yet. But stay tuned. Maybe we can all wear our Gerald Wallace Bobcats jerseys and go to a Hornets game in Uptown Charlotte.

2. Daily GIF: Look what Dejounte Murray found

GIF’d above: Dejounte Murray’s frantic game-tying shot as time expired in last night’s Brooklyn-San Antonio game.

Unfortunately for the Spurs, the Nets outscored them in overtime, 16-5, for a 124-113 win. It was the first win for the Nets in San Antonio since 2002.

Also: James Harden finished with 30 points, 14 rebounds, 15 assists and zero turnovers. It was the first 30-10-15-0 game in NBA history.

3. Trivia time

How many NBA teams did Wilt Chamberlain play for?

Hint: Played for two different teams in Philadelphia. 

Answers at the bottom. 

4. What the hell do we do if the Knicks are actually good? 

Everything we’ve ever written about the Knicks has been dismissive and snarky. We’ve covered the time they signed “Big Snacks,” the Porzingis trade, the time their “brand consultant” accidentally admitted on First Take that interim coach Mike Miller had no chance of being the full-time coach, and so on, all with the overarching tone that this team will never be good and will always be a punchline.

Here’s what we wrote before the 2019-20 season about them:
 

We were right, but … the reckoning might be coming.

• The Knicks are 18-17 and above .500 through 35 games for the first time since the 2012-13 season. (They’re also 3-0 since Bobby Shmurda got out of jail.) They have a competent head coach, a legit All-Star, good young players in RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley (the Frank Ntilikina awakening is coming), all of their draft picks going forward, and a team president in Leon Rose who has made some good moves while making zero headlines. Plus, their doofus owner hasn’t said anything publicly embarrassing in a while.

If New York has turned the corner, we’re going to have a lot less to write about, and one big apology to make. Here’s to hoping this is all fool’s gold.

[READ: The Leon Rose approach: Way too quiet, but effective for the Knicks (so far)]
[READ: Do not normalize the Eastern Conference]

5. 03/02/1962: Wilt scores 100 points

On this day 59 years ago, Wilt Chamberlain scored an even 100 points against the Knicks, the crown jewel of a season in which he averaged 50 points per game.

A few things you might not have known about the game:  

1. It was played at Hershey Sports Arena in Hershey, Pa. in front of 4,124 people. In the early days, the NBA would play games in small towns to try to attract a wider fan base. 
2. The game wasn’t televised, and none of the major New York or Philadelphia papers sent a reporter to cover it. 
3. It lives on through a scratchy radio broadcast. Here’s the call of his 100th point. 
4. It was pretty gimmicky: The Philadelphia Warriors (Wilt’s team) won by 22 points, 169-147. Still, Wilt played all 48 minutes, and scored his 100th point with less than a minute to play. (Counterpoint: 100 points is 100 points).

If you want to know everything there is to know about the game, Gary Pomerantz’s “Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era” is the place to start.

6.  Quick hits

• Yesterday was the 21-year anniversary of Rick Pitino’s “Larry Bird’s not walking through that door” speech. 
• The Hawks fired head coach Lloyd Pierce yesterday. Nate McMillan will take over in the interim. 
• We need more of this type of energy from the Charlotte home broadcast crew. 
• Carmelo (who scored 30 last night in a win), on letting LaMelo Ball use his three-fingers-to-the-head celebration: “I blessed him. He can do it.” 
• LaMelo (43.8 from deep over his last 15) and Lonzo (45.9 from deep over his last 18) are both shooting lights out right now. 
• Speaking of the Balls, did you catch Lavar on Saturday Night Live this weekend?
• Joel Embiid, on playing Myles Turner: “I say this respectfully, that’s a matchup I’ve dominated since I got to the league.”

7.  Off the press

• A short, lucrative, and depressing journey into NBA Top Shot [Defector]
• How to read a room service menu like an NBA veteran [The Ringer]
• The Bucks have found their missing link in Jrue Holiday [Sports Illustrated]
• What’s wrong with the Celtics? [ESPN]

Trivia answer: Three: The Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers.