Last night I watched the Westchester Knicks -- a D-League affiliate to my favorite NBA team -- face the Grand Rapids Drive. I saw Cleanthony Early take a spin as a D-Leaguer, I saw Jimmer Fredette make his debut and I saw ... wait, what?
Floyd Mayweather showed up at a D-League game and inspired a Jimmer Fredette scoring explosion
1. My first thought was that the Grand Rapids native had become a traveling groupie for his hometown team, but as the somewhat mystified broadcasters explained, the boxing champ and richest athlete on Earth flew out to a Monday night D-League game in White Plains, New York because Westchester’s Jordon Crawford is a friend of his. That’s Jordon with an “o” -- the 5’6 Bowling Green product, not the NBA guy.
Floyd Mayweather told me he flew out of Vegas on his jet earlier today to watch Westchester's Jordon Crawford pic.twitter.com/gXlf458jbe
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) December 1, 2015 2. Crawford had a quiet night in the Westchester win, but Fredette -- freshly cut by the Pelicans -- went OFF in his first-ever D-League game. He dropped 37 points on just 17 shots and dished out eight assists. If you ask him about those buckets, he’ll point to the man sitting courtside:
Jimmer Fredette said Floyd Mayweather "just kept telling me to shoot it ... so I did."
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) December 1, 2015 Dark horse theory here: Mayweather somehow found a way to bet a kajillion dollars on Fredette’s scoring total, and realized Westchester County Center was an intimate enough space that he could directly influence that performance.
Whatever the case may be: That was weird.
