Ask any English major — or anybody with even a modicum of knowledge about world literature — and they’ll be able to quote the opening line from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

I’ll be the first one to admit that I’ve always loved the Summer Olympics. Not as much as I love the Winter Games, mind you — after all, what could possibly beat the endless loops of Mike Eruzione’s game-winner in the 1980 Miracle on Ice?

As my fellow columnist Harlan Goode so astutely noted this past Friday, basketball lies on its deathbed in New York City — where Isiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury are conspiring to sully the good name of the city that gave the world Rucker Park.