Madison Square Garden

Everything in its right place

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Ready to rumble

21,000 people sold out Madison Square Garden on Saturday to watch Miguel Cotto give Antonio Margarito his comeuppance, and there would be no other acceptable outcome.

A Margarito victory would have been catastrophic, as would have a run-of-the-mill boxing debacle akin to Bernard Hopkins’ aborted match against Chad Dawson a few weeks back. As such, with the exception of the first Mets game at Shea Stadium after 9/11, I’m not sure I’ve attended a sporting event where the outcome seemed quite so crucial.

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LeBron and the Knicks: Everything in its right place

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 Center of attention

As I sat in the MCI Center and watched LeBron James in the 2003 Jordan Capital Classic, his final game as a high schooler, I fantasized that the next time I’d watch him play live would be at Madison Square Garden.

And he’d be wearing Knicks blue and orange.

The Knicks, of course, did not win the 2003 Draft lottery — they only had a 1.5 percent shot at the No. 1 pick. I held out some hope for the magical Summer of 2010, but LeBron infamously decided that he’s not about saving franchises. 

So though it wasn’t quite the way I imagined it, after eight years, I decided it was finally time to go see LeBron at the Garden.

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The mouth that soars: Ever-loquacious Malignaggi living his dream

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Center of attention When you see Paulie Malignaggi heading towards a microphone, you don’t know whether to prepare to laugh or to cringe. In reality, usually it turns out to be a little of both.

“When he goes off,” his promoter, Lou DiBella, told me with a shrug, “I mean, I sometimes… like, I tremor! He goes off and I’m sitting there shaking my head…”

But it’s mostly endearing, right?

“Oh yeah! It’s definitely mostly endearing, but he says certain things, and then people hold me accountable for things that Paulie says. I can’t control Paulie’s month. I mean, I’ve given up a long time ago censoring Paulie Malignaggi.”

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