We Did It.

The Knicks - our Knicks - are back in the Finals

My apologies for not getting this newsletter to your inbox by 5am, as has become custom.

As many of you know, in addition to writing this daily missive, I also host the KFS Postgame Show, and we just concluded the longest postgame in our eight-year history. It is the first time I can recall the sun being up when I finally signed off. It is also the first time I can recall wishing it had gone on even longer, because the feeling I have right now is one I never want to lose, even for the sleep my body is telling me it desperately needs.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one.

My process in writing these newsletters is usually to save the title for last, and try to think of something that roughly fits whatever drivel I’ve come up with. Today was different. For whatever reason, before I could even start to think about what to write, I found myself dwelling on the appropriate title, with my mind being pulled in opposing directions.

The first direction: We Did It.

The second direction: They Did It.

“They did it” is an easy case to make, with the titular “they” being the Knicks and “it” being winning the Eastern Conference for the first time since before Y2K. “They” - the cavalcade of heroes who are marching towards basketball immortality - should be the focus of our attention, because “They” are the ones who did the thing.

The thing, lest there be any confusion, is not something any of us have ever seen before. They just won the East by a greater cumulative point differential than any team has ever won any conference, surpassing the previous record set by the 2017 Warriors; aka, the team that broke basketball. These Knicks cleared that insurmountable bar, and they did so mostly without breaking a sweat.

If ever there was a “They” that deserved the full spotlight, it is this group of players. That would be true even if they hadn’t been doubted, diminished and occasionally pilloried by the national media and even by their own fans (🙋‍♂️) over the course of this season. That they’re doing what they’re doing in spite of the myriad questions that have plagued them since training camp is all the more reason to marvel at their accomplishment.

And yet…

I went with the alternative option, and titled this newsletter “We Did It” for two reasons.

First, “They” may have made the Finals - their first since 1999, before half of the current roster had even been born - but “they” are also far from done. New York may go into the NBA Finals as underdogs, but only a fool would doubt their capacity for winning the championship. The Cleveland Cavaliers actually put up a fight and made the Knicks sweat for a handful of possessions in the third quarter, and they still lost by 37 points in their own building to begin their summer vacation. Pick any LeBron-led East champ over the last 15 years, when the conference was in shambles compared to what it is now. None trounced the pre-Finals competition like New York just did.

This wasn’t a shot across the bow as much as it was a nuclear bomb dropped before anyone had a chance to evacuate.

For that reason, the real “It” remains unconquered, sitting four wins away, waiting for a final boss to emerge. I reserve the right to use “They Did It” at a later time, but as I’m sure Jalen & Co. would agree, “They” ain’t close to being done yet.

The second reason I chose this title isn’t steeped in logic, but in love. Our love for this team, through thick and thin, no matter how inconceivable their eventual success might have seemed to us at the time.

From Jeff Van Gundy resigning in December of 2001 to David Fizdale smiling and laughing it up in December of 2019, Knick fans have had to live with indignities of every species and genus imaginable for the better part of two decades. For so many of those years, the mere thought of having a team competent enough to win more games than they lost was unimaginable, let alone a team that would waltz into the NBA Finals on an 11-game winning streak. Whereas most fan bases dream of paths to success, we merely dreamt of a day when the overriding emotion of our fandom was something other than shame and despair.

Trudging through those dark days could feel like navigating quicksand on snowshoes. It wasn’t just the losses or the bad trades or the botched signings or whiffed draft picks. It was opening up the back page of the paper and reading a rumor about some asinine thing the front office was contemplating doing, and having that moment when you asked yourself “could they really be that stupid?” You’d tell yourself it’s just Berman stirring the pot, but you also weren’t so naive as to dismiss it completely.

And on and on it went. Another day, another opportunity to ponder whether they’d ever find a path out of the darkness, and who would be the saviors able to take on such a task.

Thankfully, “They” arrived, first in the form of Leon Rose, and then in the form of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Karl-Anthony Towns and finally Mike Brown.

For that, we are eternally thankful, but in order to show thanks today, we must first have persevered through far too many yesterdays to count.

That is why, for as much as today is about the Knicks, it is about us just as much. We did it. We withstood the test of time to have a team that once again rewards our dedication. We never let the dark moments diminish our light, no matter how hopeless it looked. We kept finding reasons to believe, no matter how far fetched or fanciful they may seem in retrospect. We trusted that one day - some day, no matter how long it took - the Knicks would be back playing for the NBA championship.

Now, finally, they are doing exactly that.

Whether they complete that journey or not, when their run ends, we will dole out the appropriate praise and etch their names in the annals of New York sports history like the great Knick teams before them.

Today, though? Today is for us. The fans. Who stuck it out, who never gave up, who drank the Kool Aide long after it had spoiled.

We did it. We made it. We’re here.

The NBA Finals.

Read it again and again and again, until it sinks in. Read it, because no one can take it away from us.

The New York Knicks are competing for the grand prize of basketball.

What a long, strange journey it has been.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”