To an outsider, the scene would seem strange; a man dressed in a bird suit lying on concrete, surrounded by laughing behemoths in an empty warehouse in industrial New York.
“Get up, you pussy! Get up! Someone pick him up!” Lou Amundson laughed as Lance Thomas and Carmelo Anthony picked up the bird-costumed man, who swayed uneasily. The feathery bird mask on his head hid the tears.
“Hahaha, what a pussy!” Carmelo yelled as he kicked the hazee again. “Too chicken to fight back, you chicken? Bawk Bawk! BAAAAWWWWK!” Another vicious kick sent the victim to the ground again, where he lay still.
“Remember the rules, you stop flapping your wings, your punishment grows ever worse!” Quincy Acy told the motionless lump. The lump responded by weakly moving his arms in a crude imitation of a bird flapping its wings.
“Good work, pussy! Now, you get your reward, Jose, get this man something to eat! Enjoy!” Quincy motioned to Jose Calderon, who revealed a large bowl of gummi worms mixed with what seemed to be garbage. The bowl was placed in front of the costumed man, while the bird mask was lifted off his head.
Cleanthony Early instinctively shielded his face with his feathered arms, expecting more blows. His Knicks teammates laughed harder.
“Don’t you want your food? We made it especially for you!” As Quincy Acy said these words, he roughly forced Early’s head into the bowl. “Eat it, or else!”
Cleanthony took a tentative bite, and immediately started to gag. Looking up at the jeering faces surrounding him through nearly swollen shut eyes, he continued to eat, fearful of the pain that would result if he didn’t. The gallery laughed, and then began to chant.
“The Early bird gets the worm! The Early bird gets the worm!”