If you live in New York, then you know how it is. Ask anyone here what their favorite basketball team is and all you’ll get in return is an embarrassed turn of the head and a barely audible whisper: “The New York Knicks.” Well, either that or they’ll mention the team across the East River that we shall dare not speak of.
It’s sad, really. Once upon a time, the New York Knicks were a juggernaut in the NBA. Were it not for the unstoppable tidal wave that was Michael Jordan, we could have had multitudes of championship parades going down Fifth Ave all throughout the nineties. We were a game away from holding the trophy in 1994 and once again we bullied our way to the NBA Finals in 1994, but sadly the Knicks haven’t earned the title of “Champions” since 1973.
The time of the nineties is unfortunately over; Patrick Ewing has gone south to Charlotte, Doc Rivers is feeling the warmth of Los Angeles, and Anthony Mason has moved on to a much better place (God rest his soul). Instead, we’re now left with something that has little to no resemblance to the greatness of the team that once made New Yorkers proud to be a Knick fan.
Since late 2001, the Knicks have managed to make it to the playoffs only four times. Four. Times. Compare that to other juggernaut teams from the nineties like the Chicago Bulls or the Miami Heat who have managed to stay successful to a certain degree since then, and ask yourself this question: What the hell did they do wrong?
I thought I came in at such a ripe time. At the age of fifteen, all I could hear coming from the mouths of my friends and family was that the Knicks were about to get good again. I heard that this dude named Amar’e Stoudemire, supposedly a good player or something, make a deal to come to the Knicks. I didn’t care much of it, until the constant chatter drove me so crazy to the point where I grabbed the remote and switched it to the Knicks game. Lo and behold, that one game just happened to be Carmelo Anthony’s first.
From that season on, the Knicks managed to make it to the playoffs three seasons straight--finishing with a 54-win season that showcased J.R. Smith winning the Sixth Man of the Year, Carmelo Anthony becoming the scoring champion, and a trip to the second round of the playoffs in 2013. From that point on, however, it has been a completely downward slope. It’s been three seasons in a row that have brought tears to our eyes and forced us to yell profanities of all languages, even of those yet to be forged, to the television screen.
Let us remind ourselves of the rant this longtime fan made after a dreadful forty-one point loss to the New York-hated Boston Celtics (NSFW for sure):
It’s been a completely sad journey so far with the New York Knicks, and yet, for some reason, we refuse to be anything but Knick fans. Sure, we’ll find ourselves cheering for the Warriors or the Spurs come playoff time, but we all know the one team we’d trade our heart and soul for to see beat those teams in the NBA Finals: our beloved New York Knicks.
Whether it’d be today’s team led by Carmelo Anthony, or a future squad led by our promising Kristaps Porzingas, or perhaps even a group driven by someone yet to be foreseen...all I know is that I won’t be completely happy with my life until I’m walking down Fifth Ave rocking an Ewing jersey, screaming at the top of my lungs with the rest of Manhattan and New York City, “We’re the champions!”
Yeah, there’s no denying it. The New York Knicks are absolutely terrible, and they probably will be for years to come. Phil Jackson, once thought of as the answer to all our problems, has done seemingly nothing to make our team better. We’re undoubtedly a bad team.
But the Knicks is our bad team, and nothing will ever change that. If you’re not okay with that, I’m sure that team across the Brooklyn Bridge is desperate for some fans.
