THE BOYS ARE (ALMOST) BACK IN TOWN

It’s Time To Start Celebrating Wins, Not Changes

It feels like the Warriors winning yet another championship against the Cavs was ages ago, but we are finally only three weeks away from the Knicks season opener! The media has had ridiculously high hopes each year since they last made the playoffs in 2013, but I truly feel that this year represents our best shot at the playoffs since then. Is our top gun Kristaps Porzingis going to miss most of the first half of the season with his torn ACL? Probably. Are we going to be relying heavily on a lot of unproven players? You bet. But that’s what makes it all the more tantalizing – this season has the most uncertainty surrounding the team since they traded for Carmelo Anthony in 2011.

Back home on Long Island, my friends and I are the biggest, most die-hard Knicks fans I’ve known. New York fans generally demand success and are notoriously harsh on their teams, but we take it to the next level; when Phil Jackson was fired on a June day in 2016 (one of the best decisions Knicks ownership has ever made), one of my best friends had a party that night – it didn’t matter that it was a Wednesday, and that we all had to get up for work the next morning – we just wanted to celebrate. And as a Knicks fan since I first started watching basketball in elementary school, I’ve heard all the jokes…

SPOT. ON. 

Knicks fans always keep it real – when the team plays well, they will get loud and supportive, but are unafraid to boo and heckle after a string of bad plays. At a game against the Grizzlies at Madison Square Garden in 2016?, Knicks point guard and Spanish national José Calderon dribbled to the top of the arc and took the first shot of the game, an open three pointer… and air balled. Badly. A few rows in front of me, a heavily intoxicated man stood up and yelled out the following, heard by all over a near-silent crowd: “Hey Calderon! You’re trash! Pack up your sh*t and go back to Spain!” Yikes. But over the next two minutes, Calderon scored the next seven points in a row, and that same guy stood up and started an “MVP!” chant in our section for him.

That man epitomizes most Knicks fans – not in sharing that same sentiment of telling foreign players to go home, but that they have a constant love/hate relationship with everyone on the team – they could belittle a player and boo him throughout a whole game if he isn’t performing, but the next game, those fans will be on their feet screaming and chanting if he drops 30 points, with the previous game forgotten.

SF Michael Beasley (8) is fired up upon getting MVP chants on his way to 32 points in a win against the Celtics

But this year, finally, FINALLY, things are looking up. We drafted two studs this year – Kevin Knox 9^th overall and Mitchell Robinson in the second round, but both have shown the potential to be all-stars within the next few years. Trey Burke played great and was able to shake his “draft bust” label, Frank Ntilikina showed glimpses of greatness last year (not to mention he just turned 20 and grew to 6-foot-6 this offseason), Enes Kanter improved his conditioning/stamina while remaining the beast he is, Tim Hardaway Jr. will have the chance to be a top scorer with Porzingis out… I could go on and on and on about the players this year. But it’s the coaching change that’ll be the biggest difference.

We got an awesome new coach in David Fizdale, and he’s instilled a playoff mentality into the team – in fact, Kanter was quoted at the team’s media day saying, “When I think about the playoffs, my nipples get hard.” Kinda weird, yeah, but hey, seems like everyone’s really pumped about making the playoffs this year. And, in a reversal of Phil Jackson’s worst move with the Knicks, Joakim Noah and his awful contract are finally being released! Now, the Knicks are in the financial position to go for Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and other top free agents next summer. Worst comes to worst, we have another losing season, but since our team has so many guys under 25 years old, they’ll get to develop, and we’ll have another high draft pick to snag another future star. Get your popcorn, Knicks fans – this may finally be the year the Garden goes from looking like this to looking like this ⇓ . 

Other NBA News:

-Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler officially wants out – coach Tom Thibodeau met with him to try and convince him to stay, but to no avail. Butler listed three teams he’d prefer to be traded to: the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Clippers… and the KNICKS! It remains to be seen what happens, but a Butler – Knox – Porzingis front court would be incredible for years to come.

-The famously emotionless Kawhi Leonard is finally back; at the Toronto Raptors media day, he actually laughed… kind of. Just take a listen… it sounds like this might be the first time he’s ever done that.