COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

With throngs of celebrities including President Donald Trump, Mayor Zorhan Mandami among others packing into Madison Square Garden for the first NBA Finals game in 27 years, the New York Knicks laid an egg, and now find themselves in a series after the San Antonio Spurts answered their 2-0 series lead with a 115-111 victory over New York on Monday night.  The game itself will best be remembered probably as the Flagrant Foul Game, as twice the Spurs could have been called for Flagrant One Fouls that left Knicks guard Jalen Brunson peeling himself off the court, but they were not called.  Then there was the moment when Spurs guard Julian Champagnie tripped over his own two feet, which just so happen to be under Brunson's stretched out legs. Champagnie sold it as Burnson stepping on his ankle and was rewarded as Brunson was called for a Flagrant foul.   Brunson would have to spend much of the fourth quarter on the bench with four fouls on the night as the Knicks went s...

 There are games, and then there are games that can redefine careers an era, and in this case an NBA Finals.  The New York Knicks were enjoying a 14-points with six minutes to go in Game 2 before Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs rallied off 14 consecutive points to tie the game at 97, and even briefly took a 104-102 lead with 57 seconds to go on Wembanyama's lay-up and free throw shot.  If the Knicks had lost this game, it would have gone down as an inexplicable and painful way to watch a 12-game winning streak come to a screeching halt.  The Knicks had been in foul trouble all night, and despite missing some big shots early in the game, had rallied themselves back from a 12-point deficit to take the lead at the half.  A dominant third quarter had New York giddy at the prospects. Blowing it all could have been devastating.  That is when things drastically changed.    First Jalen Brunson tied the game on a 13-foot jumper with 39 ticks to go, setting...

 The New York Yankees 2026 season is going to take a huge hit.  It's pretty inevitable after word came down that Aaron Judge would miss 4-6 weeks, and possibly as much as two months after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right rib.  Judge, who was hitting .248 with 17 homers and 38 RBI this season, says he doesn't want to put any timetable on the injury, and his return. "You never know what's going to happen," he said.  According to The Athletic, Judge had been playing with the injury since late April when he landed awkwardly while diving for a catch while trying to avoid a teammate in Houston on April 26. Writes Brandon Kuty of the Athletic: "Since the end of the series in Houston, Judge has hit .263 with seven home runs and a .888 OPS in 31 games. But his production fell off a cliff after May 10, and he batted .206 with a home run and a .613 OPS since then." How will this affect the Yankees season is anyone's guess at this point. Th...

 The Knicks trailed by 13 points, 63-50 with 8:02 to go in the third quarter after San Antonio's Stephen Castle connected on a tip shot. At that point the Spurs had a 90.6 percent chance to win Game 1 of these NBA Finals, while sending a huge message to the Knicks and the rest of the league that these Spurs have arrived.  Then, the Knicks woke up.  Maybe it was because the Spurs opted to give their big man Victor Wembanyama a few minutes off, but once the 7-foot-4 giant who tortured the Knicks on the boards, even if he wasn't shooting well on the night, was out of the way New York settled down.  Mikal Bridges 11-foot jumper got it started, cutting the deficit to 12. That bucket was the first of an 11-0 run by the Knicks as they sliced the deficit down to six points 67-61.  Then Landry Shamet, who struggled all night long, finally connected on a big three-pointer to cut the Spurs lead to five. Then Karl Anthony Towns did his thing over the next handful of possess...

 As if the NBA Finals didn't have enough juice going into it, this angel certainly helps.   Becky Hammon, a former WNBA star, and current head coach of the Las Vegas Aces once questioned the Knicks chances of winning an NBA title with Jalen Brunson as its main star because of his height.  " “If your best player is small, you're not winning" Hammon said on ESPN back in 2023. Adding New York doesn't have that gigantic 1A player to help out.  When pressed about those remarks recently, Hammon doubled-down .  "Allen Iverson got MVP, and he lost in the Finals. I think the two best teams are probably in the West, but I'm up for being proven wrong.  "That's the other thing, I think Jalen Brunson's a hell of a player, a hell of a player. I'm speaking historically on the NBA with what I said. I don't know why everybody's so stuck on that. I said it two years ago. I stand by it."   Of course the Knicks did add Karl Anthony Towns tw...

As the late Yogi Berra once said, "it's deja vu all over again."  That will be the case when the New York Knicks tussle with the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, a rematch of sorts via the 1999 Finals. Not only was that the last time the Knicks appeared in the Finals, it was the beginning of the Spurs dynasty as a young Tim Duncan won the MVP, and the Spurs thrashed the Knicks in five games.  That Spurs team was laden with veteran talent from Avery Johnson to Sean Elliot leading the front court. Former Bulls point guard Steve Kerr (who we all know would one day become a successful head coach in his own right), was a role player on that San Antonio team. But all the focus at the time was on David Robinson who was seeking his first NBA title after a storied decades long career.   Duncan, who at the time was in his second year in the NBA was the future star and face of the franchise back in '99.    Little did we know back then it was the first of five...