I want to make this about New York, and their Knickerbockers.
On one hand, it is pretty awesome to see Knicks fans flooding the streets in a frenzy going absolutely wild for their franchise winning the Eastern Conference and making it to the big dance. On the other hand, as I stare out from the proud but dilapidating confines of the Golden Empire here in Dub Nation HQ, my eyes glaze over with creeping disgust. Knicks fans are already having a parade just for making it to the NBA Finals? That feels
like a very Knicks move for as long as I’ve been a ballwatcher.
I do not personally respect their franchise very much because my biggest Knicks related memories are Steph Curry dropping 54 on them in the Garden and Michael Jordan destroying them in the 90s. But I do enjoy their fan base. I have hella friends in New York and to see their eyes light up off Hennessy and deferred hopes coming to fruition is something I can relate to as a Warriors fan who saw my hometown team be trash for most of my life before they ruined the league for a decade.
I absolutely remember going to games during the late-90s and early-2000s when they were force feeding tickets on people. Get four hot dogs and four bags of chips with the family four-pack! Giving free tickets away if you complete the Oakland Public Library summer book club challenge! READ THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD AND GET TO A GOLDEN STATE GAME FOR FREE!
(Also looking back that’s a CRAZY name for a kids book. I do remember enjoying the hell out of that series though, along with Beverly Cleary books about Ramona Quimby and Ralph the mouse with the motorcycle. Sigh. Simpler times.)
The point is that I understand Knicks fans better than they probably realize. I know what it’s like when your franchise spends decades surviving on hope. I know what it’s like when loyalty itself becomes the accomplishment because championships aren’t even part of the conversation. I know what it’s like when simply reaching a Finals feels like the biggest thing that has happened to your basketball life.
But I also used to sleep on an air mattress as a freshman in college. At some point you gotta level up and actually win some championships, as the Warriors have done in the Splash Bros era. The Knicks don’t know anything about that.
The Knicks last won a title in 1973 when Richard Nixon was president and the ABA still existed. Walt Frazier was still crossing people over in bell bottoms. Since then, eighteen different franchises have won an NBA championship. The Celtics built multiple dynasties. The Lakers built multiple dynasties. The Bulls happened. The Spurs happened. The Heat happened. The Warriors happened. The Raptors got one. The Cavaliers got one. The Nuggets got one. The Thunder got one. Fifty-three years!
Every season another franchise climbed the mountain while New York kept talking about how nice the view would be when they finally got there. Now my friends from New York laugh at my disdain for their organization. They ask me, “Ayo B, why you mad buggin’, son?!”
Fortunately I watched Do the Right Thing when I was a kid so I can translate.
I’m buggin’ because your team hasn’t won yet. Do you think I respected the 2018 Cavaliers, a team with LeBron damn James, just because they made the Finals? Absolutely not.
But my respect doesn’t pay bills or win titles, and so I’ll be watching to see if these plucky Knicks and their boisterous fanbase can actually get four more wins and write the most beautiful closing chapter in sports: becoming a champion.
