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<\/a><\/p>\nWe start off the first week of the most important Knicks season in more than 30 years with a question from Chris Carter. It\u2019s a little longer than usual, but I felt it was worthwhile to include the whole thing:<\/p>\n
From 1988-2001, the Knicks made the playoffs every year – 14 consecutive seasons in total. That is tied for eighth all time. <\/p>\n
I grew up on the 90\u2019s 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\u2019s. But it didn\u2019t always feel like that at that time. <\/p>\n
For many fans during that time the season didn\u2019t really start until the second round of the playoffs, because that\u2019s when you expected them to really be challenged. That seems like first-world sports fan problems now, but by the mid to late 90\u2019s 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\u2019 Game 7, 8 points in 8.9 seconds, the finger roll, the suspensions. <\/p>\n
You can just say these words without context to any Knicks fan of a certain age and you\u2019ll 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\u2019t want that for Brunson because he\u2019s 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\u2014\u2014-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\u2019s a gut punch, man.<\/p>\n
That loss shifted something in me. As far as I\u2019m 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\u2019t result in a title that I would not have considered an incredible failure. But that\u2019s done now. As a fan, I\u2019ve moved past phases like \u201cgrateful my team is relevant\u201d or \u201cwe randomly have a top 10 player in the league, is this my life?\u201d or \u201cexcited about their future potential\u201d and am now squarely in the \u201cwhat have you done for me lately?\u201d phase that I existed in three decades ago. What is old is new again.<\/p>\n
Do you think I am being too harsh?<\/p>\n
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\u2019ve felt in such a long time.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t on his baseball sabbatical. During Melo\u2019s run, it meant getting past LeBron at the Heat. Even the last two seasons, it meant getting past the mighty Celtics.<\/p>\n
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\u2019d get to have as it did because of the accomplishment itself.<\/p>\n
1994 was different. As I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s year, and when they couldn\u2019t go all the way, you\u2019re damn right it felt like a disappointment for millions of fans around the world like Chris.<\/p>\n
As additional disappointments began to pile up and Patrick Ewing began to age out of stardom, we began to realize that they\u2019d missed their best shot. In retrospect, the \u201894 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 \u201894 Finals went differently? Perhaps. And if my mother had wheels, she\u2019d be a wagon.<\/p>\n
The fact is that fans can\u2019t \u201cblame\u201d 1994 on anything. They didn\u2019t 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). <\/p>\n
They just lost.<\/p>\n
Did that make it more or less painful than the following season, with the double gut punch of Miller\u2019s heroics and Ewing\u2019s miscue? Or two years later, with David Stern\u2019s interjection? Or in 1999, when a healthy Ewing might have made a difference against San Antonio\u2019s twin towers? Did it help or hurt not to have a goat like Charles Smith to kick around after the fact?<\/p>\n
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\u2019s like a family that goes on a trip to Disney World with a daughter that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to the 2025-26 Knicks.<\/p>\n
On the surface, the answer to Chris\u2019 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
And then, just like that, Jalen Brunson arrived to save our poor souls.<\/p>\n
Brunson hasn\u2019t been here for nearly as long as Ewing was when the Knicks made the \u201894 Finals and didn\u2019t arrive with anywhere close to the same level of expectation or anticipation. Ewing\u2019s arrival suggested that an eventual Knick championship was all but guaranteed. Brunson\u2019s arrival was met with sneers.<\/p>\n
By that logic, asking \u201cWhat have you done for me lately?\u201d is not only incredibly premature, but worse, is a question with an easy answer: they\u2019ve done a lot of winning lately.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s what.<\/p>\n
And yet\u2026 <\/p>\n
No, Chris, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re being too harsh, for five reasons:<\/p>\n
The current NBA rules make it so that extended runs with the same relative core are no longer possible. There\u2019s 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\u2019ll be victims of the dreaded second apron repeater penalties. With the constraints of this era in mind, New York\u2019s 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\u2019t be open forever.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t 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\u2019re the ones most responsible for setting the bar as high as it is.<\/p>\n
Mastermind Brock Aller might be able to tiptoe over and around various apron issues moving forward, but they won\u2019t be able to control what\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t going anywhere. In short, there will never be a cleaner path through the conference than there is right now.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Game 1 changed everything. <\/p>\n
Chris said something shifted in him after that loss. I can say the same. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s 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\u2019t blow multiple defensive coverages, or KAT, JB and OG don\u2019t all miss free throws, or Brunson never throws that pass, or Hali\u2019s ball bounces one inch to the left, or the refs don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
But at least we\u2019d know we lost to a better team. Instead, for the second straight year, we\u2019re 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\u2019s offense looked in the finals, we should all be wondering whether last year was supposed to be our year.<\/p>\n
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\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
But if you\u2019re like Chris, and the good will from being almost good enough has already run out, I certainly won\u2019t blame you.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t enjoy the journey. This season above all others should be cherished, because rarely is there genuine discovery involved with a contending team. Mike Brown\u2019s arrival justifiably brings that level of excitement.<\/p>\n
It also doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re screwed if they don\u2019t 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\u2019s not the worst thing in the world. Alternately, if this year doesn\u2019t end in a parade, there may very well be an out clause in the form of a 6’11” power forward from Athens.<\/p>\n
So maybe \u201cChampionship or Bust\u201d isn\u2019t an accurate term to describe what faces the Knicks in the next eight months.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean anyone has to be satisfied with anything less.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc0<\/p>\n
\u201cInjustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good Morning! WE MADE IT!!! The NBA season is finally here. Real games tip off tomorrow night, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-238330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}