Andrea Bargnani
There appears to be a horror show about to unfold in New York for the Knicks, the ending of which is only too familiar to basketball fans of the Toronto Raptors.
Andrea Bargnani, the former No. 1 pick who could not cut it in Hogtown, is about to find out how his infuriatingly laid back style plays out in the spotlight of Broadway.
With starting centre Tyson Chandler suffering a cracked fibula that will sideline him at least a month, it will mean more starting minutes down the middle for the gentle giant.
Already at 1-3 heading into Charlotte on Friday to play the Bobcats, the Knicks were counting on Chandler's steadying presence to carry the team to greatness this National Basketball Association season.
Now Chandler's gone for about the next 21 games and the Knicks will be forced to count on the likes of Bargnani, whose defence has been generously assessed even by his own team as a "work in progress."
Dave D'Alessandro, writing in the Star-Ledger, was a little bit more effusive in his condemnation of Bargnani, snarling that the 7-foot Italian "can't rebound, can't defend and, frankly, is a spongy Twinkie of a player."
Fans in Toronto who put up with Bargnani's underachieving ways for seven years before new general manager Masai Ujiri managed to foist Bargnani on the Knicks in a trade are now nodding their heads knowingly at the frustrations that are beginning to emerge in New York.
Through New York's first four games this season Bargnani has a total of eight rebounds with opposing offences averaging 116.3 points per 100 possessions when he is on the floor.
That number dips to 84.5 when Bargnani is looking on from the bench.
And Bargnani's offence, his supposed strength, has at times been laughingly off-kilter as evidenced by an air-ball dunk that Bargnani somehow pulled off this season against Minnesota.
The Raptors got things warmed up in Charlotte for the Knicks, heading in there on Wednesday night before falling flat late in the fourth quarter to allow the Bobcats to steal away with a 92-90 win.
Pardy lose his helmet to a fan
A visit to Chicago to play the Blackhawks is always adventurous, both on and off the ice.
It is easy to lose you head in the raucous atmosphere of the United Center or, as Adam Pardy of the Winnipeg Jets discovered, your helmet.
Pardy was driven into the corner boards by Chicago's Brandon Bollig that displaced a large pane of glass late in the third period
In the push and shove that ensued one fan, who had clearly been enjoying himself a bit too much, reached over and removed the helmet from Pardy's head and placed it on his own noggin.
"When you steal something, don't wear it," the TV broadcaster wisely counseled.
And if that wasn't bad enough, a woman who was sitting nearby to the helmet kleptomaniac leaned over and dumped a cup of beer over Pardy's unprotected head.
The final indignity was administed by the Hawks, who skated off to an easy 4-1 win over the Jets and have not outscored the Jets 9-2 in two meetings this season.
It was enough to set off Winnipeg coach Claude Noel bemoaning the fact that the Jets continue to hurt themselves with sloppy puck handling.
Husband wins bet, tasers wife
Speaking of wacky football fans, it is hard to beat this story involving a couple of Green Bay fans, a man and his wife, who had a bet involving the outcome of the Green Bay-Chicago football game on Monday night.
If the Bears won the man would be able to taser his wife, who would get to inflict the same punishment if the Packers won.
The Bears won and, well, the guy followed through on the bet -- three times -- which led to charges being laid.
As one police officer remarked, "you can't make this stuff up."
In another twist to the Richie Incognito affairin Miami comes a report that the Dolphins lineman was just following team orders to try to toughen up Jonathan Martin.
Incognito just took those orders a bit too far when he left a threatening and racially insensitive voicemail message to Martin, who left the team last week and has accused the Dolphins of having an unsafe working environment.
Incognito has been suspended indefinitely by the NFL team and an investigation has started.
As the story continues to develop several members of the Dolphins have expressed their support of Incognito and would welcome him back on the team.
The Globe's Robert MacLeod curates the best of sports on the web most weekday mornings