Allow me to take you back in time. Far back in time. All the way back to March of 2017. I still had my original channel, and I was using it to upload videos of Lance Thomas, who was, even in those distant days, still playing for the Knicks. In one such highlight video, I brought up his contract, which was (and still is) way too generous a payout for such a marginal talent.
Imagine my surprise when a whole host of Knicks homers came out of the woodwork and started telling me that Thomas was not an overpaid scrub, but was, instead, deserving of every cent of his contract. The details of their indignance escape me, and the video was long ago deleted in the disastrous DTB purge of February 2018, but the message was clear: Knicks fans held Lance Thomas in very high esteem. For some reason.
That incident has stuck with me for a long time. For some reason, Knicks fans thought that seven million dollars a year for four years was a fair price to pay for the services of Lance Thomas, a guy who, on his best days, is merely an okay scorer. Now, the thirty year old is inactive for long stretches, and when he does play, he is even less effective at scoring the ball than ever before. I repeat: Knicks fans, or at least the subset of them that desired to watch Lance Thomas highlight videos, thought that this guy was worth his contract.
Thomas played well tonight. He’s been ice-cold from three all year but he unfroze himself for just long enough to hit a couple. Plus, his putback dunk was a solid 6/10 as far as putbacks go. If he played like this every night, yeah, I could see him deserving that payday he got so long ago. However, given that his previous season high in points was ten, and six after that, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he won’t continue to play like this. Knicks fans are welcome to come in here and change my mind, but I reserve the right to hold a grudge about it for years and then spitefully write about it in a future video description.