Royalty w/o 2/21 in review‏

Upon returning from Western Canada Monday night, I was able to catch up on rest.

Tuesday I went back to work and home for more rest and clean up since there were no games to attend in the local area.

Wednesday night after work I went to Legends Night at Madison Square Garden.

In addition, the Knicks finally made a splash as they acquired Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups from the Denver Nuggets late Tuesday night.

As a result, the Garden was an electric atmosphere for the first time in a long time for the Knicks.

It reminded me of the 90's when the Garden rocked on a nightly basis.

The Melo effect has taken the City by storm. It looked like Halloween as many people changed their wardrobe overnight as they dressed up in t-shirts and jerseys with the number seven on them in support of him.

This night set the tone for many years to come at the World's Most Famous Arena as it continues to undergo its transformation into World's Most State of the Art Arena.

The Garden is known as the mecca of basketball. Now the City's game is back and so are the fans. On this night, it was packed with people wearing orange and blue.

During halftime, the Knicks honored their Legends of years past.

They did it by decade. In the 60's, they recognized Dick Barnett who was known for his fall back jumper.

In the 70's, they acknowledged the "Pearl" Earl Monroe who they acquired from the Baltimore Bullets and he arrived in time to be part of the 1973 World Championship team.

In the 80's, a local product from Queens and St. John's, playmaker Mark Jackson was honored.

In the 90's, fan favorite John Starks was introduced to the crowd to a rousing ovation. He was best known for his slam dunk over Michael Jordan in the playoffs back in the day.

In the 2000's, sharp shooter Allan Houston whose runner in the lane enabled the Knicks to beat the Heat as they went to the Finals back in 1999.

Now the Melo effect has ignited the city for many years to come.

As for his debut, he led the Knicks to victory as they beat the Bucks, 114-108!

Melo had 27 points and he grabbed 10 rebounds to help his team get the win.

Newcomer Chauncey Billups played well too.

For one night, it looked like a good move. Time will tell for sure.

The Knicks did have to part with a lot of good young talent to make this deal finally happen.

Business wise it was a no brainer. The question is will they eventually win another championship. As for an answer, we'll have to wait and see.

Thursday and Friday I went home again after work due to the lack of events in the area.

Over the weekend, I got to see a double dip on Saturday as I took a short drive to Hofstra University where the King and I saw the Pride take on the Blue Hens of Delaware on Senior Day.

As part of the festivities, the Pride retired uniform number 22 for Senior guard Charles Jenkins who's from Queens.

In his last regular game Jenkins finished scoring 21 points to lead the Pride to an easy 79-60 victory.

With less than a minute to go, Jenkins checked out for the final time and he received a standing ovation from the crowd.

The King and I were joined by our new found friend Eddie who loves attending college basketball games. In matter of fact, he went all the way to Alaska to see a game on a wild trip he made in late January as he flew out to Detroit then to Edmonton then to the Bay Area in California before he decided to brave the freezing cold weather as he went up to the last frontier. On his way back he stopped off in Minneapolis and he drove to Green Bay to see a college basketball game before he finally came back to NYC.

We were able to relate well with him since we just came back from Western Canada. We enjoyed each other's company throughout the game.

We were impressed with his excursion. He still thinks what we've done over the years is amazing.

We asked him if he wanted to join us for the Islanders/ Washington Capitals game we were attending across the street. He said he couldn't since he had other plans that he was committed to already. He did appreciate the offer though.

The King and I went to grab some dinner between games.

Afterwards we went to the Nassau Coliseum to see the second game of our convenient doubleheader.

This was my 1,500th NHL game I've seen in person. Ironically my first one was also at the Coliseum back on January 17, 1980 when the Islanders hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs.

As for this one, we saw a good one as the Islanders before a rare sellout crowd took an early 2-0 lead during the first half of the game. As the game wore on, the Islanders got worn out. They wound up giving up a goal to get the Capitals back into it at 2-1 as they headed into the third period.

In the third period, the Capitals capitalized as they eventually got the equalizer and the game winner as they went on to win, 3-2!

It should be noted that there were a number of Capital fans who made the trip up from down South to see their team play.

Needless to say, they had a happy ride home.

Sunday the King and I went to the Garden to see the Rangers play the Tampa Bay Lightning in an afternoon game. It  was kid's day.

Unfortunately for the kids, the Rangers fell short in this one, 2-1.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman