We didn't watch basketball much at home when I was growing up. So I never became a Knicks fan. But my older brother loved watching Kareem on the Bucks; which led to the fist fight some time later, between my brother and my father.
We were doing a family vacation on the California coast, and were in a restaurant in San Francisco I think. My father and brother were discussing "best" athletes, with my dad contending that tennis player Björn Borg was the most skilled, most fit, and had the most stamina, which made him the best athlete. My brother contended that Kareem Abdul-Jabaar was the most skilled and most gifted, and for his size, had the most stamina. My dad thought that it was ridiculous to pick a person who basically stands there and gets passed the ball to do a sky-hook, so it got heated. And then it got to personal insults, and a couple of punches were thrown. Good times.
So, needless to say, when I moved to New England, I didn't carry any New York metro baggage when it came to basketball teams, and I latched right on to the Celtics. But I watched them more when I first got here in the 80s and 90s. Now we'll tune-in to the last 2 minutes of a game.
