SAN ANTONIO — It’s not just New Yorkers who are rooting for the Knicks.
That may be one of the most remarkable things to come out of the Knicks’ crazy postseason ride. The Knicks team that could win the franchise’s first title in 53 years with a win over the Spurs here Saturday is so exciting, so likable, that viewers across the country who would normally be pulling for the small market have fully embraced Jalen Brunson & Co.
Heading into Game 5, this NBA Finals is the most watched Finals since 1998, which featured Michael Jordan going for what would be his sixth and final title.
Sure, part of the spike might have to do with the fact that New York is the NBA’s top viewing market, but it’s much more than that.
Heading into this series before the Knicks’ opponent was determined, a national survey by Casino.org found 46% of Americans were backing the Knicks in the Finals. Though I have no empirical scientific statistics heading into Game 5, I can tell you that in the wake of their stunning Game 4 comeback I personally have gotten at least 50 “Go Knicks”-themed texts from friends around the country who never paid much attention to the NBA and definitely never rooted for the Knicks.
The Knicks have certainly won Magic Johnson over.
“This is a great team. I’ve watched a lot of basketball,” Magic Johnson said Friday morning on ESPN’s “First Take.” “The way these guys love each other. Play for each other. Pull for one another. You’re not going to see this anywhere else. The grit, the toughness, that’s how they beat you. Together.”
Together. That word is the key to the national fixation and the New York obsession with this team.
This Knicks team is a throwback to a time when the concept of team and the sacrifice it involves trumped the lure of watching teams of superstars go at one another.
The Knicks, unlike most teams that get this far including the Spurs, don’t have a player who has been recognized as MVP caliber. Jalen Brunson did not get a single vote this year, and the highest he has ever finished was fifth place in 2023-24. Meanwhile, Spurs 22-year-old center Victor Wembanyama finished third this season.
What’s more, the fact that Brunson, the team’s marquee player, is 6-2, a full 14 inches shorter than Wembanyama, also is tremendously appealing to the average fan. In a game of Goliaths, it’s fun to root for someone who is a mere mortal in stature.
Wembanyama has the potential to dominate this game for years to come. But right now, he is still young and mistake-prone at the end of games. The Knicks have been able to beat him with balance and teamwork.
The Knicks’ top three players — Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby — all have the ability to take over a game, but not one of them made first-team NBA this year. Anunoby has never played in an All-Star Game. Yet, after the shot he tipped in to win Game 4, he may very well win the Finals MVP.
The fact that it is a three-way race among Towns, Brunson and Anunoby to win the Finals MVP if the Knicks win it all says volumes about the team. It also is reminiscent of the last Knicks teams to win titles.
Six starters from the Knicks’ championship teams from 1969 and 1973 — Walt Frazier, Dick Barnett, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley — have their retired jerseys hanging from the rafters of Madison Square Garden. Yet, when fans of that team look back it’s not the individual statistics they rattle off, it’s the way the team played and supported one another.
Frazier, one of the most beloved Knicks of all time, has said that the feeling on this team reminds him of the championship teams he played on and went so far as to call them a “team of destiny” after they won the first two games of the series.
The team certainly looked like one of destiny Wednesday when the Knicks made history with their 29-point comeback. It was a comeback that featured teamwork and trust on almost every basket, the kind of teamwork that makes believers and fans out of skeptics.
“I think that last game is just another example of us talking about how connected we are together and how much we truly do have love for each other as teammates, as a team, as brothers, as a family,” Towns said Friday after practice. “Only brothers would keep each other going like that. When things got really bad, we got closer.”
The kind of closeness that can win over the biggest skeptics. The Knicks as America’s Team? Who would have thought?
ggest skeptics. The Knicks as America’s team? Who would have thought?
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.