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Delighted Knicks fans chant 'MVP!' for … Michael Beasley?


Michael Beasley and Knicks fans celebrate after he scores against the Celtics. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

As if taking on the Boston Celtics, the Eastern Conference’s top team, weren’t enough of a challenge Thursday, the New York Knicks got arguably the worst game of Kristaps Porzingis’s career, as New York’s star player scored just one point and missed all 11 of his shots from the field. Nevertheless, the Knicks emerged from Madison Square Garden with a 102-93 win.

How was that possible? Largely because of the efforts of Michael Beasley.

Sorry, make that “MVP” Michael Beasley.

That’s according to fans at the Garden, who helped created one of the NBA season’s more improbable scenes thus far, when they loudly chanted “M-V-P! M-V-P!” as Beasley was at the free throw line in the second half. Then again, for one night at least, the journeyman forward certainly looked the part, as he pumped in 28 of his 32 points after halftime, adding a game-high 12 rebounds, to lead New York while Porzingis was limited with a lingering knee injury.

Given that the game was nationally televised on a relatively light night of NBA action, plenty of folks took notice.

After hitting 13 of 20 shots, including 11 of 15 in the second half, Beasley cemented his MVP status (of Thursday night) when he was asked at what point he began feeling the hot hand. He replied, “January 9, 1989.”

“I’m just out here doing what I got to do,” Beasley said (via Newsday). ” … Whatever they need, whenever they need, scoring, rebounding, defense, trying my best.

“As humbly as I can say it, I just feel every shot I shoot is going in. Every shot I miss, I’m mad.”

When the “M-V-P” chants were mentioned to him, Beasley referred to Porzingis in saying, “It’s nice to hear, but I am pretty sure it’s for KP.”

Porzingis had missed the Knicks’ previous two games with his knee injury, and while replacing the Latvian in the starting lineup, Beasley had scored 53 points, including 30 in a win over the Thunder that spoiled the return to New York of Carmelo Anthony. With Porzingis’s return Thursday, Beasley went back to the reserve unit, but he was on the floor for most of the second half while Porzingis cheered from the bench.

“Michael got hot and kind of took over offensively out there, and we just rode him,” Knicks Coach Jeff Hornacek said. “He was the second pick in the draft years ago and he’s talented, and you saw it tonight.”

The No. 2 pick in the 2008 draft, following Derrick Rose, Beasley spent years bouncing around the NBA while earning a reputation as a gifted offensive player, but also as a bit of a knucklehead with an affinity for marijuana. The Maryland native, who earned first-team all-America honors in his one season at Kansas State, even had two stints in China, the second of which culminated in him being named foreign MVP of the Chinese league.

After spending the 2016-17 season with the Milwaukee Bucks, Beasley was signed by the Knicks over the summer, and he quickly provided some interesting quotes. In September, he told reporters (via ESPN) that he planned to play “at least until I’m 43,” adding, “I’m your favorite player’s favorite player. And it’s not enough for me for him to know that. I want the world to know that. So I’m still working hard as if I can be the best ever.”

Later that month, while wearing watches on both wrists and at least one ankle, Beasley offered these profound thoughts in an interview with SNY’s Taylor Rooks (via Deadspin):

  • “You can research the human brain and … it says that we are only capable of using 10 percent of our brain. You believe that? It’s the consensus scientifically. So who was the guy that used 11 that made it okay to say that everybody’s just using 10?”
  • “Because if you’re only using 10 percent of your brain, you don’t even know that you’re using 10 percent of your brain.”
  • “If you’re only using 10 percent of something, that means you don’t know the rest of the 90!”
  • “You can’t sit here and tell me that I can only use 10 when you can only use 10. Because in order to see the number 10, you have to pass it to 11 and look back. You know what I’m saying?”
  • “All I’m saying is the words that we use are concocted by someone who thought a hammerhead shark should be called a hammerhead shark just because it looked like a hammer we invented. We don’t know the actual term, the actual word, the actual definition behind the words that we use.”

Fortunately for the Knicks, now a somewhat surprising 17-14, Beasley has proven to be more than just an entertaining interview. With a more heralded offseason acquisition, Tim Hardaway Jr., out since late November with a lower leg injury, Beasley has helped pick up the scoring slack, notching double figures in points in eight of his past 10 games.

On Thursday, Beasley’s heroics included becoming (per Elias via the AP) the first NBA player since stats were recorded in 1970-71 to come off the bench and have at least 32 points and 12 rebounds while playing 25 minutes or fewer. He was the first Knicks player to have a 32-12 game despite not starting.

Asked what went wrong for Boston, which had a nine-point lead midway through the third quarter, Celtics Coach Brad Stevens replied, “Beasley made every shot.” It won’t be every night that the much-traveled forward hears “M-V-P!” chants, but they were justified Thursday, if only in terms of his contributions to that nationally televised win.

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