It was supposed to be a revenge game for Evan Fournier when his new team, Detroit Pistons, visited the New York Knicks.
However, his performance did not turn out the way he previewed it a day before.
Evan Fournier's stats in the game is the new laughing stock for Knicks fans. He only scored 7 points in under 20 minutes.
They almost pulled off the victory, but late-game fumbles led to a completed Josh Hart and-one with 2.8 seconds left to snatch back the 113-111 victory.
Fournier needed that game more than anyone. It was supposed to be his revenge.
He has to wait until March 24 to get another crack at the Knicks and prove that they should have treated him better.
For now, Knicks fans got the last laugh, which they have been doing all game long to distract Fournier.
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Fans were heard booing their former shooting guard, who went three-out-five on the field.
What could've triggered the Knicks fan base to boo Fournier?
Their relationship makes an interesting case. Fournier came to the team as a solid rotation player after his great season with the Boston Celtics.
However, after two seasons, he just became "unplayable" for coach Tim Thibodeau.
This led to Fournier becoming disenchanted with his present and future with the Knicks, to the point that he only got media mileage for expressing his dissatisfaction with the lack of playing time.
First time he was removed from starting five
It was in the summer of the 2023 season when Fournier first bared about the painful conversation he had with Thibodeau.
"When he took me out of the five, he just told me he was going to try something else," Fournier told L'Equipe via basketnews.com.
"Then at the first match of a road trip, he announced to me that I was leaving the rotation, and ciao."
The 66-year-old coach defended this move in October last year, saying something has got to change coming into the new season.
"I didn't come into (last) season thinking we were going to do the things that we did. We did it because we didn't have success one way," Thibodeau, as quoted by Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.
"So, we adjusted and then the next group that went in, it's hard to argue with (a) 37-22 (record) with a plus-5 net rating. So, it is what it is."
Fournier also seemed intent on leaving the Knicks based on his interviews. He also thought it was a wrong move for the Knicks to hold him up, diminishing his trade value.
"I was coming out of a season where I was the fourth-best 3-point shooter in the league. Why not take advantage of it?" he said.
"Now they won't get anything interesting and that's normal because I couldn't show anything [on the court]."
The trade eventually happened on February 8 when he was traded to the Pistons alongside Ryan Arcidiacono, Malachi Flynn, Quentin Grimes, and two second-round picks for Bojan Bogdanović and Alec Burks.
His France teammate Rudy Gobert celebrated it. European star Nikola Vucevic thought he got out of prison.
Who benefited from this trade remains to be seen.
He will meet his former team again on March 24 at the Madison Square Garden.
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