It’s January 2, 1991, and the Albany Patroons are hosting the Oklahoma City Cavalry at the Knickerbocker Arena (now known as the Times Union Center).
Being a referee in the Continental Basketball Association can be as dangerous as shouting “Go Seminoles” at the University of Miami. Besides putting up with such original verbal taunts as “Hey ref, look at the game instead of the cheerleaders,” “Hey ref, how much money you got on the game,” and “Hey ref, what was your last job, was Ric Flair in the ring?” After all that, the ref has to deal with hyperactive players and antagonistic coaches, every one of them ready to curse the guy out if he makes a close or questionable call, or his vantage point isn’t the same as everyone else’s.
And in the Continental Basketball Association, the minor league that for decades used to send players to the NBA rosters, the refs had to watch out for the fans – the players – and, in some instances, the coaches. Phil Jackson has thrown chairs at referees, Bill Musselman screamed at officials after games, Johnny Neumann and Charley Rosen cursed the officials almost every night. In 1982, Rochester Zeniths coach Mauro Panaggio chased down a ref after a game and started pounding on the ref’s car, smashing a rear view mirror (Panaggio was suspended by the league, of course).
Patroons coach George Karl may have topped them all.
The Patroons were in the middle of their dominant 1990-91 season, in which the team finished the regular season with a 50-6 record, including an unblemished 28-0 at home. But this January start would be the first without two of the Patroons’ top weapons. Vincent Askew was still in limbo over a contract he signed to play basketball in Italy, and he had to finish that contract out before he could resume his time with the Patroons. At the same time, Albany’s other top shooter, Mario Elie, was called up to the NBA on a 10-day contract with the 76ers.
And because Siena College had to play a game at the Knick on the same night, Albany’s game was moved up to a 5:00 p.m. start, hardly a businessman’s special. There was a growing animosity between both basketball teams, in that the Patroons felt they were the primary tenant at the Arena, while Siena was in the middle of a strong run of their own and wanted bigger crowds than the ones that packed the ARC.
So let’s get to the game at hand. The Cavalry came out strong and won the first quarter, and in doing so, it looked as if the visitors had found the Patroons’ Achilles heel – wait until Askew and Elie weren’t on the squad, and the wins would come fast and furious.
Except that Albany still had Clinton Smith (who picked up his second triple-double of the year) and Albert King (whose jam at the end of the first half put the Pats ahead to stay) and Jeff Fryer (the Loyola Marymount star who sank four three-pointers that night).
Now let’s go to the fourth quarter. There’s three minutes left in the game and Oklahoma City is trailing by twenty points. Patroons have the game in hand. But the Cavalry’s Alvin Heggs had the ball. With the speed of a charging bull, he moved the ball toward the basket. Albany’s Ben McDonald stood in the paint for defense. Both men collided. And referee Monty McCutcheon blew his whistle, calling McDonald on a blocking foul and awarding Heggs two shots.
Karl quickly called a time out, then exchanged words with the referee. “He told me to turn around and shut up, and I snapped,” Karl told the Schenectady Gazette’s Mike MacAdam. “Ben McDonald was playing perfect defense … It’s not fair to players who I’m demanding to play hard and they’re not getting just calls.”
Karl ran out to plead his case with the ref, earning himself a nice big technical. Not satisfied with that, Karl saw the ball on the ground. In an instant, while still arguing with the referee, Karl kicked the ball into the upper deck, 12 rows into the cheap seats.
That kick got a cheer from the crowd – and garnered Karl a second technical – and ejection from the game. Albany still went on to win the final quarter and the game, but Karl’s kick was the talk of the evening. “It was a 46-yard field goal, right down the middle,” said Oklahoma coach Charley Rosen to Tim Wilkin, who even back then was the Patroons’ beat reporter for the Times Union. “But it’s very easy to kick indoors … I want to see him do it with someone rushing him and a little wind.”
Surprisingly, Karl received no suspension from the CBA for his Garo Ypremian impersonation. The Patroons videotape all their games (tapes are made available to the visiting coaches and to the league office), but the cameras are turned off at time-outs. By the time the videographer began filming again, the Cavalry shot the technicals. No footage, no foul.
Or maybe Karl didn’t receive a suspension because he kicked a basketball rather than kicking an official.
After an Albany practice the next day, Karl received an unexpected guest at the Patroons’ front office – Rick Buffington, the coach of Albany’s Arena Football team. Buffington was no saint when it came to officials, and he jokingly offered Karl a job as placekicker with the Firebirds.
Some say it’s not too late to start a new career.
In the end, the Patroons finished their regular season with the unbeaten-at-home achievement, a feat never equaled by any other CBA team. Karl eventually moved to the NBA, where he became one of the NBA’s most well-respected coaches.
And here’s the boxscore:
CAVALRY (103)
Williams 9-15 1-4 20, Weems 4-8 5-5 13, Sanderlin 1-2 2-2 4, Jeffries 3-4 2-3 8, Frederick 9-20 6-8 25, Heggs 3-8 2-2 8, Young 2-10 2-2 6, Jones 0-4 2-4 2, Simmons 3-5 0-1 6, O. Graham 5-8 1-3 11. Totals: 39-84 23-34 103.
PATROONS (124)
Gondrezick 2-4 1-5 5, King 9-18 3-3 24, Springs 2-5 3-4 7, Fryer 7-10 2-2 20, Smith 6-14 6-8 18, Sanders 10-18 3-3 23, P. Graham 5-11 3-3 13, McDonald 2-7 4-4 8, McDuffie 3-4 0-0 6. Totals: 46-91 25-32 124.
OKLAHOMA CITY 36-17-22-28 103 1 ALBANY 24-39-32-29 124 6
Three-point goals – Fryer 4, King 3, Williams, Frederick. Rebounds – Oklahoma City 45 (O. Graham 11), Albany 49 (Smith 12, Sanders 10). Assists: Oklahoma City 16 (Williams 5), Albany 28 (Smith 12). Total fouls: Oklahoma City 29, Albany 27. Technical fouls: Albany Coach Karl (unsportsmanlike conduct 2). Ejections: Albany Coach Karl, 2:37 of 4th. A – 2,654.
Chuck The Writer 
I never warmed to the Knick. 3000 in the Armory was great; 400-0 in the Arena was not.
LikeLike
I actually remember being at the Coyne Dome that night. When Karl kicked the ball during the timeout, I nearly got hit but the ball from where I was sitting. It was fun to see a coach go berserk like that.
What I remember about that night more is the 2nd game of the doubleheader, when Marc Brown broke the all-time Siena scoring record with a 3-pointer early in the 1st half against Evansville as the Saints went on to win against the Purple Aces. Evansville at the time was wearing short-sleeved t-shirts as their uniform, as they were the last team in Division 1 to wear them instead of tank-tops.
During the Mike Deane era at Siena, the Saints scheduled 3 non-league games at the Coyne Dome, along with playing their post-season games there, but played their MAAC games at the ARC. Of course, the 1990-91 season was a long one, with the Saints starting the season in the Great Alaska Shootout, and almost beating #13 ranked Virginia in their opening game. The season ended March 18 at the Coyne Dome in the infamous “Bus Trip Game” against UMass in the NIT Quarterfinal, when PA Announcer Bob Lawson, during a UMass timeout with 2.9 seconds left, announced a bus trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Semifinals with Siena up 80-77. After another timeout by UMass with 2.3 seconds to go. UMass’s Anton Brown hit a 3 at the buzzer to put the game in overtime, and Robertson of UMass hit the only bucket of OT with a 17-footer from the deep left wing with 90 seconds left in OT to win 82-80.
LikeLike