Draymond Green rips MSG over silent first half in rant: 'It changed everything'
NEW YORK — Draymond Green has never been silent, and he prefers his basketball venues that way too.
Hours after the Knicks began Sunday’s game with an experimental half of silence at Madison Square Garden, the outspoken Warriors forward laid waste to idea in a long rant, calling it “pathetic,” “disrespectful,” and “trash.”
“It was pathetic. It was ridiculous. It changed the flow of the game, it changed everything,” said Green. “You get so used to playing the game a certain way, to completely change that, to me I think it was disrespectful to everyone from [senior VP of entertainment] Michael Levine to [Warriors executive] Rick Welts and all these people who have done these things to change the game from an entertainment perspective and give the game a great vibe. That’s complete disrespect. You advance things in the world to make it better, you don’t go back to what was bad. It’s like, computers can do anything for us. It’s like going back to paper.
“They need to trash that, because that’s exactly what it was.”
The Knicks declined to comment on whose idea the music was, and why the decision was made, standing my a message that was shown on the scoreboard: “The first half of today’s game will be presented without music, video or in-game entertainment so you can experience the game in its purest form. Enjoy the sounds of the game.”
An NBA spokesman told The New York Times that the decision was made by the Knicks.
Members of the home team wouldn’t go as far as calling the decision “disrespectful” after the game, but they wouldn’t praise it, either.
“It was different. It was different than what we’re used to,” Carmelo Anthony said. He was then asked whether or not “different” meant the silence was bad and responded, “It was different.”
The move game the game a retro feel, at least for one half. Complete silence replaced paid advertising during stoppages in play, and players were introduced solely to the voice of public address announcer Mike Walczewski. Sounds returned as soon as the first half buzzer sounded.
