Imagine the scenario: Emmanuel Mudiay and Frank Ntilikina, sharing a hospital room, lying in their adjacent hospital beds, watching the Knicks play the Cavaliers on the TV while recovering from their grievous injuries. The screen, usually a flickering source of comfort and entertainment in the bland hospital becomes a purveyor of misery and anguish. On it, Kadeem Allen, a little-known and sparsely-played guard, makes shot after shot with apparent ease. With each ball that swishes through the net, Mudiay and Ntilikina share an uneasy glance, then turn their attention back to the television. No words are spoken between them because there is a silent understanding there between the hospital beds: the understanding that their own NBA careers are being made irrelevant right before their very eyes.
Yes, it is true. With this 25-point game by Kadeem “The Deem” Allen, he has made obsolete every other guard on the Knicks’ roster. Frank Ntilikina? BTFO. Emmanuel Mudiay? Eternally BTFO forever. Dennis Smith Jr? Butthurt and BTFO. Allonzo Trier? BTFO the frick out. Damyean Dotson? His booty burns from being BTFO so hard. Ron Baker? Suffering from second-hand BTFOness even though he’s not in the league anymore. All of those guys just got destroyed by Allen’s masterful display of shooting and passing.
Don’t tell me I’m overreacting here. I’m not overreacting. YOU’RE overreacting. This is a perfectly measured response to what is by far the best of Allen’s career.