The Knicks entered a tense pregame atmosphere at the Garden and fell behind early, with the fourth quarter turning mostly negative. With under eight minutes left, the Knicks trailed by 22 points and some spectators began leaving. Analytics suggested Cleveland had a near-certain chance to win, while Berns reacted to crowd frustration toward a referee. The Knicks then mounted a major fourth-quarter comeback, forcing overtime and ultimately winning. Berns felt dazed by the result and celebrated with fans. The next morning he recorded a spoof hard-rock song about the win, working through the night and refining vocal harmonies.
"With less than eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Knicks were losing by twenty-two points. A few already heartbroken spectators began to leave. ESPN analytics had Cleveland's probability of winning at a grim 99.9 per cent. Berns got agitated when people in the stands started chiding a ref, chanting "Fuck Scott Foster!" He grimaced. "They're fouling," he said. "You gotta hold your team accountable.""
"Suddenly, the Knicks turned it around, beginning the second-largest fourth-quarter comeback in the past thirty years, and sent the game into overtime. The energy in the Garden felt seismic, trembly. When the Knicks won, Berns was dazed. "That's the greatest basketball game I've ever seen," he said. He took a victory strut down Eighth Avenue, stopping to pose for selfies with fans."
"Around six-thirty the next morning, he got to work on his song-a spoof of Chad Kroeger's "Hero," a bombastic hard-rocker from 2002-at his home studio in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. He'd been up until three, processing the win. "Jalen Brunson's the hero who saved us / Hell no, we're not losing this game," he bellowed. The urgency of the enterprise keeps Berns from getting precious about the particulars, although he did spend some time perfecting the harmonies on the outro."
Read at The New Yorker
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