A Long Time Coming

Some thoughts on unique skill sets, dynamic duos, and destinies fulfilled.

Good morning! The rematch is tonight, with OKC coming off their first loss in 16 games. Can the Knicks make it two in a row? Join me and the KFS crew at T2 Social where we’ll find out together:

For OKC, Alex Caruso and Chet Holmgren are still out, while KAT and Deuce are both questionable. No halftime tonight, but I’ll see everyone on Sunday (reminder that tip off for the Bucks game is at 3pm).

A Long Time Coming

“I mean that's the legend. That's the man who built Mecca. For me to grow up & watch him play, then for him to now watch me play in the Mecca, is a humbling experience” - Karl-Anthony Towns on playing in front of Patrick Ewing

Over the first two and a half months of this season, I wrote two odes to New York’s dual MVP candidates, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.

They’ve been fun pieces to pen, and helpful ones at that. For all the stuff I’m still getting used to about this Knicks team - the passing, the offense in general, the defensive ebbs and flows, etc - the thing that I still haven’t been able to wrap my mind around is having two legit, no-bullshit top dawgs who manage to make each other even more dangerous than they already are individually. Whenever I go in depth on them, I gain an even greater appreciation for how lucky we are to be experiencing this era of Knicks basketball.

This is unfamiliar territory since the title years, even if we’ve had some close calls:

• Julius and Jalen, at their best, were awesome, but they never reached the level of synergy that KAT and Jalen have. The front office also clearly had reservations about making an investment in Randle that was commensurate with what a top-two player on a title team should earn, and I’m not sure anyone blames them.

• Amar'e was in the thick of the MVP race at the time they traded for Melo, but his season (and knees…and career…sigh) started to go downhill right around the time Anthony arrived. Their lasting legacy as teammates is that Carmelo was at his best when Stoudemire wasn’t next to him.

• We got two close calls in the Ewing era, one at the beginning with Bernard and one at the end with Sprewell. The first never happened, and the latter came to fruition after Pat was long past his prime.

The thing that makes me feel the worst about that last bullet point? I know intellectually that Ewing at his best was a far more complete player than Towns, and yet game after game, I find myself saying “I’ve never rooted for a big man who can do that.”