Good Morning! WE MADE IT!!!

The NBA season is finally here. Real games tip off tomorrow night, and then on Wednesday, New York’s hunt for their first championship in 53 years officially kicks off. What a time to be alive. Two things before we get to today’s newsletter…

FIRST, the Knicks finalized their roster on Saturday, keeping all the folks we expected and waiving Garrison Matthews, Alex Len and Matt Ryan, all of whom were on non-guaranteed deals. Landry Shamet, congrats on another year with the club. As for Mohamed Diawara, per Keith Smith, because he has already signed an Exhibit 10 deal, he isn’t eligible for the Second Round Pick Exception which would have allowed the Knicks to sign him for more years at the league minimum figure. He will simply be converted to a standard non-guaranteed minimum one-year rookie contract and be a restricted free agent next summer.

SECOND, keep those mailbag questions coming to Macri@KnicksFilmSchool.com! Remember that I’m answering reader questions for every off-day newsletter, so if you get a question in, there’s a good chance it’ll be answered!

THIRD, I know today is the first day in several months that many of you have checked in on the Knicks, and thus, on this newsletter. If that’s the case, you may have missed my summer news that I’m now doing this work as my full time job. Yay! If you’re someone that has always thought of becoming a full subscriber to this newsletter but was waiting for the right time, might I suggest that now is the PERFECT time. Not only do you get to follow the best Knicks coverage around as they engage in their quest for a title, but you can support a true independent content creator in the process. Have at it:

We start off the first week of the most important Knicks season in more than 30 years with a question from Chris Carter. It’s a little longer than usual, but I felt it was worthwhile to include the whole thing:

From 1988-2001, the Knicks made the playoffs every year – 14 consecutive seasons in total. That is tied for eighth all time.

I grew up on the 90’s Knicks. Those teams hold a special place in my heart. The fondness and significance of those teams only grows with age, especially when I spent most of my formative years living through the mess that was the 2000’s. But it didn’t always feel like that at that time.

For many fans during that time the season didn’t really start until the second round of the playoffs, because that’s when you expected them to really be challenged. That seems like first-world sports fan problems now, but by the mid to late 90’s there was, among myself and many Knicks fans I knew, this dread that the team would inevitably let us down. That dread was a result of the scar tissue that had been compiled over the years from so many epic letdowns: Charles Smith, Starks’ Game 7, 8 points in 8.9 seconds, the finger roll, the suspensions.

You can just say these words without context to any Knicks fan of a certain age and you’ll put them in a mood. And the thing that bothers me most about last season is that now these Knicks have added their own moment of terrible Knicks lore: Game 1 Pacers. I didn’t want that for Brunson because he’s the best thing to happen to me in sports in a long time, but it goes on his ledger now. Every single playoff loss before then, however disappointing, felt more or less straightforward to me. But to lose like that? To that team? To give that f——-g theater kid an iconic image that he gets to hang over the Knicks for the rest of his career? (You know he was practicing that in the mirror all day) And you compound it with the fact that he was so thirsty to do it that he did it prematurely, and that we had the opportunity to embarrass him by winning in OT and still failed. That’s a gut punch, man.

That loss shifted something in me. As far as I’m concerned, the only way this era of the Knicks can overcome that loss is by winning the title. It sounds obvious when you say it out loud, but before that loss, I could envision a version of this era of Knicks basketball that didn’t result in a title that I would not have considered an incredible failure. But that’s done now. As a fan, I’ve moved past phases like “grateful my team is relevant” or “we randomly have a top 10 player in the league, is this my life?” or “excited about their future potential” and am now squarely in the “what have you done for me lately?” phase that I existed in three decades ago. What is old is new again.

Do you think I am being too harsh?

When I read this question a few weeks ago, I knew immediately I wanted to save answering it for this week, because it really does get at the heart of what makes this season so different from anything we’ve felt in such a long time.

Last week I went through the Finals vibes of various Knick teams of the last 32 years. It was a great question, in part because for the longest time, that is how our brains were trained to think. Can the Knicks make the Finals? That was the question when Jordan was in the league, because making the Finals meant getting past MJ, at least when he wasn’t on his baseball sabbatical. During Melo’s run, it meant getting past LeBron at the Heat. Even the last two seasons, it meant getting past the mighty Celtics.

I distinctly remember how I felt in 1999 after the Knicks beat the Pacers in Game 6. I felt so much pride in being a fan of that group of players who collectively overcame inconceivable odds as an eighth seed. Winning that game felt like winning the championship. But that feeling existed as much because I knew it was the last celebration I’d get to have as it did because of the accomplishment itself.

1994 was different. As I’ve said repeatedly, it was my first year really rooting for the Knicks, so I had no conception of expectations and what did or did not count as a disappointment. I just knew the team was very good, and the more they kept winning, the more I expected the winning to continue.

Little did I know that that that season was nearly a decade in the making. From the moment the 1984-85 season started to go south, vaulting the Knicks into the thick of the first ever NBA lottery with the most coveted draft prospect since Lou Alcindor, everything had been building up to that moment. 1994 was supposed to be New York’s year, and when they couldn’t go all the way, you’re damn right it felt like a disappointment for millions of fans around the world like Chris.

As additional disappointments began to pile up and Patrick Ewing began to age out of stardom, we began to realize that they’d missed their best shot. In retrospect, the ‘94 Finals probably ended with the right champion. Hakeem Olajuwon was that dude, and and is now considered by most NBA historians to be one of the 15 greatest players ever, whereas Ewing lingers on the outskirts of the top 50. Would those perceptions be reversed if the ‘94 Finals went differently? Perhaps. And if my mother had wheels, she’d be a wagon.

The fact is that fans can’t “blame” 1994 on anything. They didn’t get screwed by a ref. There was no major injury. And there was no freak occurrence (unless you count the notoriously hot and cold John Starks having the coldest night of his life at the worst possible time).

They just lost.

Did that make it more or less painful than the following season, with the double gut punch of Miller’s heroics and Ewing’s miscue? Or two years later, with David Stern’s interjection? Or in 1999, when a healthy Ewing might have made a difference against San Antonio’s twin towers? Did it help or hurt not to have a goat like Charles Smith to kick around after the fact?

Whatever it was, the sum total of that journey – from the drafting of Ewing in 1985 to the day he walked off the court as a Knick for the final time after the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals – made it an incredible time to be a Knick fan even if it resulted in something less than it should have been. It’s like a family that goes on a trip to Disney World with a daughter that’s jumping out of her skin to meet Cinderella in her castle. The trip is everything they built it up to be and then some, except on the day they were scheduled to go to the castle, Cinderella got the flu and had to stay home. The daughter is heartbroken in the moment. Even though that scar will heal in the years to come, every time she thinks back to that trip, there will be that nagging itch of the one thing that went wrong amidst all the happy memories around it.

Which brings us to the 2025-26 Knicks.

On the surface, the answer to Chris’ question should be a hard no. Just three years ago, the Knicks were coming off a season in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The team’s best player turned into a pumpkin who fans wanted gone, the coach was public enemy no. 1, and they were stuck with several bad contracts and no obvious path to relevance. Should Leon have tanked? was a question I fielded often that summer, without an obvious answer.

And then, just like that, Jalen Brunson arrived to save our poor souls.

Brunson hasn’t been here for nearly as long as Ewing was when the Knicks made the ‘94 Finals and didn’t arrive with anywhere close to the same level of expectation or anticipation. Ewing’s arrival suggested that an eventual Knick championship was all but guaranteed. Brunson’s arrival was met with sneers.

By that logic, asking “What have you done for me lately?” is not only incredibly premature, but worse, is a question with an easy answer: they’ve done a lot of winning lately.

They’ve won a lot by NBA standards – four series victories in the last three seasons, trailing only the Celtics, Nuggets, Thunder and Pacers in that span of time – and they’ve won a ton by Knicks standards, securing more playoff victories in the last three seasons than the number of playoff games played in the 16 years from 2005 to 2020. What have you done for me lately? Been a damn near model franchise during one of the most competitive eras in NBA history, that’s what.

And yet…

No, Chris, I don’t think you’re being too harsh, for five reasons:

The current NBA rules make it so that extended runs with the same relative core are no longer possible. There’s a reason that only four current teams have a playoff streak of longer than four seasons, and a few of those could end this year. The days of Portland and Utah making the postseason for two consecutive decades (in the Western Conference, no less!) are long gone. Now, once a team is close to contention, they almost have to sacrifice a chunk of their future to give themselves the best chance to win in the moment. Oklahoma City and San Antonio may test that theory, but even they will have to start cutting costs before too long, otherwise they’ll be victims of the dreaded second apron repeater penalties. With the constraints of this era in mind, New York’s front office has been methodically building towards this very moment for years now. From a cap / apron perspective, the window might not close after this season, but it won’t be open forever.

Speaking of the front office, they (in conjunction with the owner, no doubt) made the decision years ago that winning would always be the goal. That plan was obvious when they hired Thibs and it was cemented when they didn’t trade Julius Randle and then traded for Derrick Rose soon after. Had they gone a different route, they might have bought themselves a longer runway, but given this approach, they’re the ones most responsible for setting the bar as high as it is.

Mastermind Brock Aller might be able to tiptoe over and around various apron issues moving forward, but they won’t be able to control what’s going on around them in the East after this season. Boston and Indiana will both be back. Atlanta is already good and could be armed with a premium pick in next summer’s draft to headline a trade package. Detroit is young an has the goods to make a major trade as well. Orlando will only improve. Cleveland isn’t going anywhere. In short, there will never be a cleaner path through the conference than there is right now.

On paper, the Knicks have the goods to get it done. They have a top 5-10 player in his prime. Another All-NBA level guy. Two other top 40-ish players. Two more in the top 100. Proven NBA contributors off the bench. A two-time Coach of the Year winner who has coached in the Finals and won titles as a lead assistant. A front office that knows what its doing. Every individual on the roster and coaching staff with the exception of Mitchell Robinson was acquired or hired by this front office, and no move came out of necessity. These were people Leon Rose targeted and then went and got. It’s not like someone is here because of a bloated contract or because it was the best they could do at the time. Everything was by their design, and thus, there is no excuse to fall short.

Game 1 changed everything.

Chris said something shifted in him after that loss. I can say the same.

Let’s say one of a dozen things in the last few minutes of that game go differently. Maybe Nesmith misses one of those threes, or they don’t blow multiple defensive coverages, or KAT, JB and OG don’t all miss free throws, or Brunson never throws that pass, or Hali’s ball bounces one inch to the left, or the refs don’t miss a blatant goaltending call in overtime. Whatever happens from there – Knicks win in seven but lose in the Finals, Knicks lose in seven to Indy, Knicks still lose in six, whatever – you live with it. Might it still have been painful? Goodness, yes.

But at least we’d know we lost to a better team. Instead, for the second straight year, we’re left to wonder whether we got a fair shake. The difference now is that the Knicks have no one to blame but themselves. More than that, given how shaky OKC’s offense looked in the finals, we should all be wondering whether last year was supposed to be our year.

Because of that uncertainty, combined with other the factors I listed above, the end of that game has now completely superseded the fact that the Brunson era is entering just its fourth year. If you’re a Knick fan who is still just happy to be here, thrilled to be rooting for a very good team led by the best superstar in New York sports, I envy you. Truly, I do. The least enjoyable way to consume sports is with the sensation that only one outcome will be satisfactory.

But if you’re like Chris, and the good will from being almost good enough has already run out, I certainly won’t blame you.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy the journey. This season above all others should be cherished, because rarely is there genuine discovery involved with a contending team. Mike Brown’s arrival justifiably brings that level of excitement.

It also doesn’t mean they’re screwed if they don’t win it all this season. Other than Jordan Clarkson, who is 33, the oldest rotation player is Josh Hart at 30. The second apron is designed to lock a team into its roster, but maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world. Alternately, if this year doesn’t end in a parade, there may very well be an out clause in the form of a 6’11” power forward from Athens.

So maybe “Championship or Bust” isn’t an accurate term to describe what faces the Knicks in the next eight months.

But that doesn’t mean anyone has to be satisfied with anything less.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”