Nate Robinson, Dime #46

A couple years back, I was interviewing somebody on the AND 1 Mix Tape Tour — I seriously can’t remember who — and asked for some crazy “life on the road” stories. The player told me about one hotel the team had used in a South American country (Argentina?) that everybody thought was haunted: furniture moving by itself, strange sounds in the hallway, super-creepy front desk guy, etc.

Apparently the pro playground ballers got a taste of life in the NBA that night. According to the New York Daily News and Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie, the New York Knicks believe the hotel they stayed in during a road trip to Oklahoma City was haunted. From Yahoo!:

For two days, several players had trouble sleeping because they were convinced that their downtown hotel, The Skirvin Hilton, is haunted.

“I definitely believe it,” Jared Jeffries told Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. “The place is haunted. It’s scary.”

Eddy Curry claims he slept for only two hours Sunday night because he couldn’t stop thinking about ghosts roaming the hotel. (Man, what is it with Curry and ghosts? Remember when a haunted rock band took over his UStream feed?) Word has it the Knicks’ big man spent most of his time in Nate Robinson‘s room, curled up in a corner, shaking with fear.

Of course, a lot of people will just write this off as the Knicks making excuses for getting waxed by the Thunder on Monday night, but if you believe in ghosts, it could be true. In fact, the Knicks aren’t the only people to report scary activity at this particular hotel.

For years, guests staying at the Skirvin Hilton have reported strange noises and ghost sightings.

As the M. Night Shyamalan tale goes, the hotel’s original owner had an affair with a maid that led to a pregnancy. To avoid scandal, the maid was locked on the top floor where she went crazy, gave birth and then jumped out a window killing herself and the baby. Since then, guests have reported hearing a wailing infant, seeing naked female ghosts and one man claims he was sexually assaulted by an apparition.

If nothing else, I’m pretty sure no NBA team will ever book this hotel ever again. But maybe they can make up for the lost revenue by hosting a bangin’ Haunted House every Halloween.