Madison Square Garden Gives Knicks Players, Fans the Silent Treatment in Bizarre Experiment

Derrick Rose #25 of the New York Knicks shoots the ballagainst the Golden State Warriors on March 5, 2017 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

When the New York Knicks hosted the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, Madison Square Garden gave basketball fans the silent treatment—as part of a strange marketing plan.

According to the Wall Street Journal, for the entire first half of Sunday’s matchup, the arena experimented by turning off the usual music and video—and canceling the Kiss-Cam, t-shirt cannon, and other in-game entertainment—in order for fans to “… experience the game in its purest form,” as the message read on the Jumbotron.

Madison Square Garden Treats Players, Fans to Silence

A message to fans before the game between the New York Knicks and the Golden State Warriors on March 5, 2017 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

There was plenty of loud griping about the movie aftewards. Golden State’s forward Draymond Green was quoted as saying:

“You advance things in the world to make it better. You don’t go back to what was bad. It’s like computers can do anything for us. It’s like going back to paper. Why would you do that?”

Everything went back to normal in the second half. Weird, right? Listen to the play-by-play announcers’ bewilderment in the clip below.