Memories Of A Live NBA Preseason Doubleheader

The sports doubleheader was created with folks like myself in mind. Before greed set in, with baseball eliminating scheduled doubleheaders and charging separate admissions for two games played on the same day, we’d save our allowance money, head out to Shea Stadium and spend the entire day watching the Mets get swept. We didn’t care, we went for the live baseball experience, the hot dogs, the smell of the ballpark.

The National Football League doesn’t have doubleheaders at the ballpark, but they sure hype up the televised ones. During the week we’d always check to see which network was carrying the doubleheader game, if any. Of course, nowadays you can wake up to watch football on Sunday morning and have a game put you to sleep at night.

For basketball enthusiasts, even at the high school and college levels you can find local “two for the price of one” events going on (and sometimes more), especially during the holidays and at tournament time. Those are always cool, especially if you’re in the company of someone who can also stand to watch more than a couple of hours of hoop action. While living in Atlanta, I was a regular at the Georgia High School State Tournament quadruple-headers held annually at Georgia Tech, and saw future NBA players like Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Matt Harpring and Darrin Hancock win state titles.

Fun times, but certainly not for everyone.

The Live NBA Preseason Doubleheader

Even the NBA used to have preseason doubleheaders. For about the price of one bottled water in 2017, I actually saw Michael Jordan play his first professional game at Madison Square Garden in 1984, and it was the second game of an NBA preseason doubleheader.

I went with some friends, and we’d heard about the splash Jordan was making during some of his earlier exhibition games, so at the last minute we decided to go. The Knicks weren’t selling out games back then – certainly not preseason games – and we were able to purchase tickets at the box office (remember those things?) on game night.

The Preliminaries

We had our polaroid cameras (remember THOSE things?) with the flash bulbs, hoping to get some good snapshots. As the Washington Bullets and Detroit Pistons were on the court doing their pregame stretches before the first game of the doubleheader, the Garden was so empty we were able to leave our seats on the third level and walk down to the baseline to get a closer look. My only vivid memory was watching former NBA enforcer Rick Mahorn, then a member of the Washington Bullets, doing some of the slowest wind sprints I’ve ever seen while we marveled at how large of a human being he was and wondering if was safe to take his picture.

I remember very little about the first game, but the building began to fill up and the crowd began buzzing in anticipation of the Knicks-Chicago Bulls game (the main event). The first game couldn’t end soon enough, and it didn’t.

The Main Event

Finally, the first game ended and the hometown Knicks took the floor to polite applause. This was a Bernard King-led squad with not much talent otherwise. A few minutes later, the Bulls emerged from their locker room and the crowd stood, anxious to catch a glimpse of Michael Jordan. The Bulls obviously knew they were in the vicinity of Broadway, because MJ was the last player to hit the court, wearing (I believe) some black high-top sneakers and doing his patented jog.

Suddenly there was a rush of fans from all corners of Madison Square Garden (including ours) towards the Bulls’ end of the court for a baseline view. We couldn’t get close enough from our starting point (we were actually seated behind the Bulls’ basket for the first half), but the flash bulbs from cameras were flashing everywhere. Jordan, seizing the moment, instantly turned the Bulls’ layup line into a dunk line while putting some of his best mid-air contortions on display as the crowd went wild.

The Chicago Bulls Against Who?

Meanwhile, the poor Knicks were suddenly much less than an afterthought in their own building and with all the attention focused on the league’s newest sensation, the home team could have gone home at that point and no one would have noticed. I did manage to peel my eyes away from the show for second to watch the Knicks warm up, but they had halted their own pregame routine and were watching Jordan’s antics every bit as attentively as the spectators were.

It wasn’t long before we found out what all the hype was about. We’d watched a restrained Michael Jordan play at the University of North Carolina, but this was the unleashed version. He basically embarrassed the Knicks all night long with a variety of acrobatic one-on-one moves as the Bulls who, like the Knicks, didn’t have a lot of talent at the time, led from start to finish. Even after watching that performance, we had no idea how huge Michael Jordan would become.

It was tough watching the Knicks reduced to punching bags that evening, but In terms of entertainment and value, I can’t remember a more satisfying evening of live basketball.