If the New York Knicks were the Men in Black, they’d probably want to wipe this whole week from memory.
There’s been plenty of drama in the Big Apple lately, mostly surrounding point guard Derrick Rose, who went off the grid before Monday’s game without telling the team. What followed were reports of failed communication and rumblings that Rose even was contemplating retirement, mixed between a blowout loss to the lowly New Orleans Pelicans and an embarrassing buzzer-beating defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers.
But at least the Knicks have their Twitter account to put a positive spin on things, right? Well, not so much. New York took some heat on social media Tuesday for running an unfortunately timed Amtrak ad featuring Rose boarding a train, and on Wednesday, they upped the ante for embarrassment.
Here’s what the team tweeted in the second quarter of its game against Philly:
Under normal circumstances, this is a perfectly fine tweet — but not when your star point guard, who’s featured in the photo, caused a major controversy two days earlier by literally failing to communicate with his team.
The Knicks quickly deleted the tweet and tried again with a more standard caption.
.@carmeloanthony & @drose chat in the huddle.
NYK 49 PHI 41 | 2:39 2Q#NYKvsPHI pic.twitter.com/U0xEWsil6r
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 12, 2017
Unfortunately, New York’s problems extend far beyond this week — the Knicks have lost 9 of their last 10 games dating to Christmas Day and now sit 11th in the Eastern Conference at 17-22 after ranking as high as fourth in December.
That’s a pretty ugly stretch, but it also set up this gem of a cover from the New York Daily News on Thursday morning.
Here's our @nydnsports back page. @apse_sportmedia @nyknicks @sixers #derrickrose #tjmcconnell https://t.co/0dPyQ2HIUT pic.twitter.com/lxxZ4dkFXl
— Back Page Guy NYDN (@BackPageGuyNYDN) January 12, 2017
Thumbnail photo via Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports Images
