All the Way Up
When I graduated college, my first job was at an engineering consultancy firm. They dealt with telecom, fiber optics, and a whole bunch of other legitimately nerdy stuff that went way over my head. I enjoyed everyone I worked with, but mostly we didn't have much to talk about. One of the few guys I could relate to was Jeremy. He was a Knicks fan. You could tell, because he would constantly shout "KNICKS, BABY!" I used to give him a hard time, because this was the 2001-2002 season, and the Knicks were awful. They went 30-52, which was last place in the division (back when there were seven-eight teams per division), and 13th out of 15 in the East. But "KNICKS, BABY!" never lost its enthusiasm. Rarely a day went by when we didn't shout it at each other, much to the chagrin of our other colleagues.
My college roommate, Kevin, like so many New Yorkers, is a Jets-Knicks-Mets fan. Nothing could prepare you for the lifetime of sports sadness that Kevin, his brother James, and his father Paul have endured from each of these teams, often simultaneously. The night the Knicks lost Game 2 of their first-round matchup vs. the Hawks, the Mets lost their 11th straight game. The next morning, I asked James which felt worse – the Knicks losing Game 2 or the Mets losing 11 in a row. He responded that the Knicks' loss clearly felt worse, because he had already given up on the Mets season. It was April 21st. It would feel even worse when the Hawks again won by one point in the following game. But their enthusiasm never waned.
To be a Knicks fan in New England, you need to have a lot of enthusiasm. Such has been the case for Knicks fans I know in the area like Jon and Robin, who have faced a constant barrage of jokes, belittling, and more from obnoxious Celtics fans such as myself. The feeling of the last two seasons must have made all the pain feel worthwhile. I went to a Knicks-Celtics game last season that the Knicks won, and the jubilation of the Knicks fans on the way out was palpable. I couldn't even be mad about it.
That same joy and jubilation has been there all playoffs long, as New York fans have turned games in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Cleveland into Knicks home games. You better believe the same is about to happen to San Antonio. In a past life, I sold tickets for the Colorado Rockies. My first year doing so, the Red Sox came to town. Back then, it was still a rarity, a novelty even, that the Sox would head out west for a National League road trip. I remember Sox fans calling and asking for our most expensive ticket. I would tell them, it's $250. And they would say, "no, your most expensive ticket," and then cackle when I confirmed that not only was that truly our most expensive ticket, but that you could get first-level seats near the dugouts for even cheaper. A couple years later, the Yankees came to town, and while I wasn't selling tickets at that point, I confirmed with those who were that they were getting the same reactions. The Spurs could probably double or triple their prices, and it'll be cheap compared to Knicks tickets, even when you factor in travel.
But the biggest moment of enthusiasm, joy, and jubilation – the one that will stick with me for a long time, was a Knicks home game. In Game 1 of the Conference Finals, when the Knicks completed the comeback and tied the Cavs at 99 all on a Landry Shamet three that bounced around before falling in. In the moments after that, as the Cavs were bringing the ball back up the court, grown adults could be seen literally jumping for joy at courtside in MSG:
Really, watch the whole clip. Slow it down, and watch the fans courtside, next to the Knicks bench. These are very rich people. The cost of one courtside ticket to a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden right now is multiples more than my monthly mortgage payment. One ticket may in fact equal my yearly mortgage payment. But in this moment, their wealth didn't matter. They were little kids again, caught up in a moment that had been 27 years, 53 years in the making. A moment they thought they were getting last season, only to see the hated Indiana Pacers steal it from them.
There were was no such theft in the Conference Finals. The sweep of the Cavs seemed inevitable to me before Game 1, and it was an ironclad lock after Game 1. A game in which Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson stood shell shocked for seven minutes of game time, doing absolutely nothing while his team's gigantic lead evaporated. Somehow, Atkinson has been retained for next season, which is how you know the Cavs won't be a threat then either, which is comforting to know.
In the aftermath of an incredible Spurs win over the Thunder in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, it may be easy to think of them as invincible, but they are anything but, and the Knicks actually match up better with San Antonio than did Oklahoma City. Once Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell went out, the Thunder had approximately one player that you could count on to put the ball on the floor and drive to the hoop with any authority, and that was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Spurs were able to shut him down because he was it. As if to prove the point, at one point last night, Alex Caruso careened into the lane and tried to put up a left-handed lay-up/floater. It, uh, didn't go in. He shot 3-for-14 in Game 7. Cason Wallace and Jared McCain were effective in bursts when the defense wasn't focused on them, but they didn't have the reps to put the ball on the floor and win games for their team when it counted. Lu Dort got played off the floor in each game of the series, and Jaylin Williams – like Wallace – was only effective as a spot-up shooter. And the Thunder bigs? Chet Holmgren took two shots in nearly 33 minutes of play in Game 7. Please.
The Spurs are going to get a much different experience against the Knicks. Karl-Anthony Towns is now an offensive hub. If the Spurs have Victor Wembanyama guard him, that means Wemby will be out at the perimeter, where the Spurs don't like to have him. If they don't use Wemby to guard him, then KAT will have a roughly six-inch height advantage on whomever is, which will give him the freedom to fire the passes from the perimeter that have fueled this Knicks winning streak. In terms of driving to the hoop, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart are all better equipped to do so than any non-SGA player the Spurs faced in Game 7. And that's before we get to Jalen Brunson, who is going to relentlessly hunt the Spurs' weakest link, and be smart enough to do so while not drifting into Wemby's orbit.
On the other side, the Knicks aren't going to play defense the way the Thunder did. The Thunder like to pack the paint, and as a result, give up a lot of wide-open three point attempts. For the playoffs, the Thunder allowed their opponents to shoot .350 from three, which ranked ninth out of the 16 playoff teams. Conversely, Knicks opponents these playoffs have shot .305 from deep, which is by far the lowest among playoff teams. The gap between them and No. 2 Orlando at .327 is cavernous. A lot of the Spurs offense in crunch time in the Conference Finals was open corner three's that the Thunder willingly surrendered. The Knicks aren't going to surrender anything.
I said it before the season, and I'll say it again now – the New York Knickerbockers are going to win the NBA Finals and become champions for the first time since 1973. It won't be as easy as the last two rounds were for them. The Spurs are tough as nails, and have at least two potential future MVPs on their roster in Victor Wembanyama and Dylan Harper (Stephon Castle probably has a little too much Marcus Smart in him to ever win over all types of voters, but I won't rule it out). It'll take the Knicks all seven games. But this is the Knicks' year. They're rested, and aside from Mitchell Robinson's pinky finger, they're healthy. They're connected, and they're deep, and now that they have Control Tower KAT, they are playing a brand of basketball that can beat you in enough different ways that they're a true nightmare to play. The Knicks, and their fans, quite simply, are all the way up.