On Jan. 5, 2015, the New York Knicks lost to Memphis 105‑83, extending a 12‑game skid and prompting a trade of J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. Beat reporter Scott Cacciola described the performance as “futility” and then vanished from the beat. Within days the paper launched Not the Knicks, a series sending Cacciola to hunt quality basketball far from Madison Square Garden, and the franchise’s future seemed bleak.

Sports editor Jason Stallman and deputy editor Jay Schreiber framed the move as a resource decision: with the franchise conceding the season, why waste reporters on losses? They invited readers to suggest teams, which led Cacciola to cover a girls’ squad dominating a boys’ league in Illinois, a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition, and a pickup game at the 14th‑Street Y M C A, and even a high‑school team in Texas.

The experiment earned a modest surge in readership and proved that beat coverage can adapt when a team’s product falters. While some purists balked at abandoning the Knicks, most fans embraced the eclectic stories, and the series reinforced the New York Times sports desk’s willingness to innovate rather than merely chase ratings for advertisers.