Ray Stubblebine/Reuters
The height of Linsanity: Jeremy Lin's 38 points against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in February.
Every day until Dec. 31, reporters and editors from The New York Times will recall the people, teams and moments that made the last year memorable, and in some cases look ahead to 2013.
* * *
A Star Out Of Nowhere, Then Gone
By Harvey Araton
Players both boisterous and bewildered left the court. Excited fans rushed the exits. Workers began the chore of cleaning up the aisles. All that remained at courtside of a night that straddled the line between highly improbable and unbelievable were the evidence on the scoreboard and an old man leaning precariously on a cane.
"I've been coming here since high school in 1955," he said, standing in the runway where the visiting Los Angeles Lakers had fled the unheralded phenomenon known as Linsanity. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."
The man, Cal Ramsey, had seen and experienced so much across the decades at Madison Square Garden. He was a collegiate star at New York University, but the Knicks cut him after seven games in 1959 because to keep him, a fourth black player, would have been taboo. But he hung around the building in whatever capacity would keep him there, becoming a broadcaster, a community relations representative, a friend to the stars, Knick or not.
A forever fan of the game, he watched the great players of the 20th century come and go, and stuck with the home team through a miserable opening decade of the 21st. And now — "just out of nowhere," Ramsey marveled — here was this Asian-American, Jeremy Lin of Harvard and N.B.A. waiver lists, making Midtown Manhattan again feel like the center of the basketball universe.
A season-saving sensation at the snap of Coach Mike D'Antoni's fingers, Lin had just dropped 38 points on the glamorous Lakers of Kobe Bryant in a 92-85 victory; scored and assisted every which way and carried a team that was missing its brand one-name players, Melo and Amar'e.
"I didn't think it would last, to tell you the truth," Ramsey said, as if he had seen enough after a fifth consecutive victory with Lin at point guard to convince him that Lin, 23, would continue to galvanize a team that for too long had been plagued by what Pat Riley once called "the disease of me."
There was no way for Ramsey, or anyone else, to foresee the plot twists to come, including Lin's unceremonious departure from the Knicks in July and his December return as a Houston Rocket. But that night, Feb. 10, there was magic and amazement at the Garden. There was, with Lin of the Knicks, the power and beauty of sports on display, spreading surprise and joy from the East Coast to the Far East, all of it reflected in the eyes of an old man who had long believed he had already seen it all. What remains to be seen is how much, if at all, Knicks fans will rue Lin's story continuing elsewhere.
* * *
What Next, a Lockout of Roary and Sir Purr?
By Sam Borden
Given the disaster that was the N.F.L.'s use of replacement officials and the numbing sideshow that is the N.H.L.'s lockout, one can only imagine how tired sports fans are of labor disputes. Unfortunately, 2013 will bring little respite.
Barton Silverman/The New York Times
In mascot collective bargaining, Mr. Met's perpetual smile might be expected to eventually grate on the owners.
The next business-side battleground is furry, plush and anthropomorphic, as the collective bargaining agreement between the four major sports leagues and the Mascots and Oversized-animals Organization, known in professional circles as M.O.O., is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 21, a date chosen by the mascots as a tribute to the longtime mascot supporter George Orwell, who died on that day in 1950.
Negotiations between the sides have not gone well. One early session was derailed when the Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner stormed out because he was enraged over what he described as Mr. Met's "perpetually snide" smile. Another blew up after the Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was overheard asking a colleague, "Why is Chewbacca here today?" with Gorilla, the Phoenix Suns' fuzzy cheerleader, in earshot. Gorilla then jumped onto the table, did a double-flip dismount and dunked his copy of the agenda in the trash as he stalked away.
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