One More to Go

The Knicks look to close out the Celtics tonight in Boston.

Good morning. The news on Jayson Tatum became official yesterday, as the Celtics’ star underwent surgery to repair his torn achilles. Sam Houser is the only other name on either injury report, and he is probable. Tip off is at 7pm. I’ll be on at halftime for anyone who wants to join.

As for New York’s potential opponent in the ECF, Indiana dispensed with the Cavs in Game 5 last night. First things first though…

One More to Go

True story:

I’m walking my daughters to school yesterday morning, and as we approach the front gate of PS 29, a group of about 10 fourth or fifth grade boys start jumping around in a rhythmic circle chanting “Go New York, Go New York, Go!”

Sure that my sleep-deprived brain was manifesting these Lords of the Flies, I turned to my daughter, who had the most horrified look on her face. I couldn’t tell if the look was because she was already sick of boy bullshit at the ripe age of eight years old, or if she was pondering how her father had incepted the minds of these young men merely by walking down the same block. Either way, I knew my eyes did not deceive me.

Minutes earlier - and I swear on both of my children that this is also true - I asked her if she wanted to impress the boys in her class when they inevitably brought up the game. I took her “no, why?” as a resounding “yes, of course,” and instructed her to repeat after me: Mitchell Robinson’s screen setting was the most underrated aspect of the Knicks win. She actually repeated it twice before speeding up and pretending not to know who I was. A win if there ever was one.

After I dropped both kids off, I walked around the neighborhood for a bit¹. Every other person I saw had a Knicks hat, shirt or jersey on, including a nice gentleman who stopped to tell me he was listening to the Game 4 postgame pod. Sorry I didn’t catch your name, but thank you!

Suffice it to say, yesterday morning confirmed that this city is officially under blue and orange rule.

In my 30-plus years as a Knicks fan, I can only remember a few other times when this happened. Last year, for sure. Linsanity, obviously. And then in ‘99 and ‘94, but that’s about it. In When the Garden was Eden, Harvey Araton details a city that was captivated by the Knickerbockers of the late 60’s and early 70’s. I never thought I’d get to experience anything quite like that, but with every additional kid I see wearing a No. 11 jersey, I wonder if the 10-year-olds of today will someday talk of Jalen Brunson in the same way that many readers of this newsletter still talk about Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier.

In other words, this is starting to feel special.

Never was that more apparent than on Monday night, which gets more impressive in my mind with each passing hour.

Let’s go back and revisit five keys from the best Knicks win since, well…since I was pretty close in age to those excitable boys from yesterday morning.