And We're Back!

As we tip off season seven (!!!) of the KFS Newsletter, a few updates to get things started.

Good morning! Today is officially the last day of summer, which means three things:

1. The KFS Newsletter is officially back in full swing!

2. Basketball season is upon us.

3. My daughter Scarlett’s birthday was yesterday.

I’ll say a quick happy ninth birthday to her, even though she won’t read this, and I’m not entirely sure she knows I write a daily newsletter about the Knicks.

As for more pertinent matters, Knicks Media Day is tomorrow, so I thought today would be a good time to set the table for the year ahead where this newsletter is concerned. Read on, if you please…

And We're Back!

My goodness, has it really been that long?

I can’t believe that this will be my seventh season writing the Knicks Film School newsletter, which means it’s now been six years since I took it over from the incomparable Jeffrey Bellone. He started it in March of 2019 mostly as a way to keep fans up to date on the latest news and rumors surrounding the Summer of Kevin Durant. The Knicks were allegedly playing basketball games at that time as well, but no one much cared about what was happening on the court back then, give or take the exploits of a young Mitchell Robinson.

After KD went to BK and New York’s front office executed Plan some-letter-below-A, Jeff stopped sending out the newsletters. I figured he’d restart once the games began, but when we got close to opening night and he was still on radio silent, I reached out to ask what was up.

“I don’t think I have it in me to write about this team anymore. If you want to take over the newsletter, it’s all yours.”

(Easily the funniest part of this is that Jeff now writes about the Mets, who this season have achieved multiple PHDs in how to bait and torture an entire fan base. JB didn’t know how good he had it.)

That was six years ago, and what a ride its been ever since. The team has slowly risen up the ranks in respectability, from a 4-18 start in the immediate aftermath of Durant’s shunning to now being the co-favorites to win the Eastern Conference.

Every one of those previous six seasons has ended differently, giving each summer break a unique feel. This one was no exception.

On one hand, it feels like forever ago that the Knicks last played a game even though they made it deeper into the calendar year than in any previous season this century. Our troops last suited up for battle 114 days ago, or 65 days ago if you count Summer League, which I most certainly do not. In that sense, seeing the Knicks in their uniforms for Media Day will feel like ice cold water on a hot July day.

On the other hand, for me personally, the last few months have absolutely flown by. As usual, I have no one to blame but myself. You’d have thought that after the intense journey of last season, I’d have spent the last few months recouping some energy and resting up for an even deeper playoff run.

Ha!

For those who dipped out of regular newsletter readings after the season ended, here’s how my last four months have gone:

• As soon as New York got eliminated, I began packing up our Brooklyn apartment. Final total: 83 boxes plus furniture and the contents of three storage units. It’s incredible how much crap one accumulates after having children.

• The moving truck came for our belongings on July 2, after which we bounced between various houses for a week before spending 13 days in Europe for my mom’s 75th 65th 50th birthday trip.

• On July 25th, the day after we returned, the moving truck showed up to our new abode with all of our belongings mostly unscathed.

• I’ve spent the last two months (and most of our life savings) turning our new house into a home and a previously unfinished basement into a podcast studio. Thankfully, it’s nearly done. I have only to adorn the walls with various Knicks paraphernalia. Once I do that, I’ll snap a pic and include it here (or, you know, you could join over 43,000 others and just subscribe to the KFS YouTube channel to catch it live in a few days.)

In short, it’s been a whirlwind. Oh, and I left out one part:

Your boy is officially a full time content creator¹. After 10 years as a special education teacher at the Boerum Hill School for International Studies, I turned in my resignation to the NYC Department of Education last spring. When I told my principal the news, she responded with “beat me to it!” which I’m pretty sure was meant as a joke about how she too wished she could resign, but in the moment I took as “good thing you’re quitting, because I was getting ready to fire your ass.”

The decision was a long time coming. Ever since KFS became a full time endeavor post-pandemic, I’ve basically existed as a zombie from the months of October until May. Needless to say, the opportunity to build KFS from a pastime into a career has been the greatest gift of my professional life, but it definitely took its toll over the last four years, not only on me, but on my family and the kids I attempted to teach every day².

As I started feeling like 42 going on 82, I knew I couldn’t keep it up much longer. More than that, it was clear that I wasn’t giving all of myself to the thing I’m most passionate about: connecting with other Knick fans and creating enjoyable and insightful content about my favorite team and favorite sport.

So here I am, getting ready for year-seven of the KFS newsletter and year-10 (!!!) of writing about the Knicks in some form or fashion.

10 freaking years. Unbelievable. How much has changed in that time? Go back and read my first ever published article about the Knicks, aptly titled “An 8-Step Guide To Respectability.”

In that piece, Mindaugas Kuzminskas was unironically mentioned as part of the future core and my biggest summer priority was re-signing Justin Holiday to a long term contract. How the Pulitzer passed me by, I’ll never know.

I’m not sure what future reality would have shocked me more back then: that the Knicks would be one of the best and most respectable franchises in the league within a decade, or that I’d be making my living writing and talking about them. Wild and wacky stuff, indeed.

Given all this good fortune, it feels only appropriate that we take the 2025-26 KFS Newsletter up a notch, especially since we’re expecting our beloved basketball team to do the same. So here goes: All season long, I’ll now be writing full game recaps after EVERY game, regardless of if the game is played on a Friday or Saturday night. That means for 82 regular season games (and hopefully for 20-25 on top of those), full subscribers will be getting a full newsletter in their inbox 5am the next morning, including weekends.

As for my free subscribers, you’ll still be getting the free Monday edition every week (starting today), but from now on, off-day newsletters will look a little different. Rather than try and conjure up stuff to write about between games, I’m going to take the KFS Mailbag concept one step further. Instead of writing a mailbag every few weeks in which I try to get to 20-30 questions in one sitting, every off-day newsletter will now consist of my answer to one reader question in deep detail. You can get these questions to me in one of two ways:

1. Ask a question in the newsletter comments, which remains the first thing I read every morning, and is most likely to be the place I get my topics from, or

2. Write an email to knicksfilmschool@gmail.com, writing “KFS Mailbag” or something to that effect in the subject line.

Fair warning that I probably won’t respond to many of these emails individually, but I promise I’ll read and consider every one in an effort to provide the best content possible for the newsletter. I’ll also do my best to spread the love and answer questions from as many different readers as possible over the course of the season.

The reason for the change is twofold. Mostly, I value what you, the readers, want to hear me write about. On top of that, I’ve found in recent years that I spend a ton of time and energy trying to think of ideas for off day newsletters, to the point that the eventual product often suffers. I’d much rather spend that time researching and writing, especially if it scratches an itch I know is there.

So thanks in advance for your help, and please do get those questions in ASAP. I’ll probably do a few season preview-ish pieces between now and opening night, but with a month of newsletters to fill and only five preseason games on the schedule, I’m going to need your help to fill in the gaps.

That’s it as far as newsletter news goes. As a reminder to my free subs out there, you can sign up for a full subscription for $8 a month or $65 a year (which is a full 32 percent off the price of a month-to-month subscription). Just click the button:

I toyed with raising prices for new subscribers, but my God if the world isn’t getting out of hand with how much stuff costs nowadays. Not to complain, but I’m now penning these things on my grandfather’s old typewriter after I had to sell my laptop for ramen noodles. In short, I don’t want this newsletter to be something anyone feels like they’re struggling to afford.

And hey, if there’s a Knick fan in your life who you think might enjoy it, you can always let them know what they’re missing by forwarding the occasional newsletter or by giving a gift subscription:

I’ll also have a fairly significant non-KFS related announcement coming soon. I won’t spoil anything, but if you’re someone who enjoys my inane musings in front of a microphone and also likes the NBA at large, this news may be of interest to you. Stay tuned.

I think that’s all on my end. The only thing left to do now is wake up tomorrow morning, sniff the beautiful fall air, and say to yourself:

Bless you, basketball gods, for bestowing another year of Knicks basketball upon us. Please let this year be better than most of the last 25 years, and if you really want to be kind, better than any of the last 52 years. We don’t ask for much, and we have so little as New York sports fans, other than us Yankee fans, but that’s only because it isn’t October yet and Aaron Judge is still hitting. We have been through so much. I read a newsletter written by a guy who once touted Mindaugas Kuzminskas as a legit find. If this isn’t proof of my worthiness, I don’t know what to tell you. Please let this year be The Year. It’s as good a year as any other year. And really, what have you got to lose? I promise, we’ll really appreciate the generosity. Thanks in advance for your consideration, for Jalen Brunson, for the bright lights of MSG, for not making me a Nets fan, and of course, for another media day.

See y’all tomorrow.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

1. I introduced myself to the parent of one of my daughter’s new friends last week and she asked me what I did. “I’m a podcaster” was my knee jerk response, which I realized as soon as I said it was something a 42-year-old man should never say out loud. I’m not sure “content creator” is any better, but I’m leaning towards that as the lesser of the evils.

2. If any of my former students are reading this and I ever snapped at you in the classroom seemingly out of nowhere, I promise, it wasn’t you, it was me.