Dutton Ranch’s Hart Denton Watched NBA Finals GM4 on Plane Full of Knicks Fans

Hart Denton thought he was going to miss the first quarter. Instead he caught the entire Knicks game at 35,000 feet, on a Delta flight out of Atlanta packed with Knicks fans.

The math nearly cost him. Denton had the time wrong, figuring he would land in time to miss only the first quarter, but the gap between Eastern and Pacific time meant he was in the air for the whole thing. His buddies, many of them NYU grads and devoted Knicks fans, were watching at a bar in Los Angeles without him.

Denton's own loyalties are split in an honest way. He lived in New York for two years, so he leans Knicks, but mostly he just loves ball. He's from Arkansas, a state with no professional teams in any category, which became relevant when the conversation turned to Corliss Williamson, the Arkansas basketball great who is now a Spurs assistant coach. Denton didn't know about the coaching gig, and it complicated things. "My loyalty is definitely to anyone from Arkansas," he admitted.

Then came the flight itself. "Thank God Delta had live TV," Denton said. He boarded, saw the game had already started, and braced for disappointment before realizing he could watch the whole thing. By the time he came back from the bathroom, nearly every screen on the plane was tuned in. The guys on either side of him, his entire row, the whole cabin, mostly in Knicks gear and hats, were screaming and clapping. He called it electric, insane.

The first half tested them. By halftime, he said, the Knicks crowd had their headphones around their necks, wondering what they were doing. Denton, a sucker for a Game 7, had actually been rooting for a 2-2 series. Then the comeback happened.

"Maybe the greatest game I've ever seen," he said. When OG put it in, the plane erupted. Denton imagined the pilot wondering what was going on back there, and the show ran with the idea that the pilot was watching too, maybe even DVRing it for later.

His only complaint was the intrusions. Every time the crew came on with an announcement, the audio cut out, and the whole cabin groaned. Nobody wanted the weather report. Everybody wanted Mike Breen on the call. Rich marveled at how good a Mike Breen "bang" is, and Denton agreed there's nothing better.

He never did make it to his friends in time, but he got to the bar after, and they celebrated anyway. The communal part, he said, was the whole point, even at altitude.