Knicks 4, Spurs 1
I was a New York Knicks fan for years before I became a New Yorker. It all started in the early 1990s growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Like most children in that era, I was raised on Michael Jordan propaganda. “Be like Mike!” We didn’t know until later that meant berate your teammates, compulsively gamble, and never let anything go, ever.
At the time, it was watching Superman do super things on the basketball court. And on their way to winning their first three championships, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls beat the New York Knicks each time.
Even as I rooted for Jordan, I was drawn to the Knicks. They wore the same orange-and-blue as my beloved Denver Broncos (who I’d become a fan of when I lived in Boulder). They didn’t back down. “Ewing” was a cool name. Pat Riley had awesome hair. What’s not to like?
When Jordan retired for the first time in 1993, I decided to roll with the Knicks. They’d climbed the mountain year by year, getting progressively closer to the championship, taking the same meta-journey as Jordan himself. It was their time. And I was all in.
For the rest of the decade, I was all Knicks, all the time, even when Jordan came back.
I was in for two Finals runs. For June 17th, 1994. For several duels against Reggie Miller and the Pacers. And most memorably, for the backyard brawls that were the Miami Heat playoff series, four years in a row.
My friend Phil and I had an ongoing bet series going across all sports, and the centerpiece of it was Knicks-Heat. Every time they played in the playoffs, I got $25 if the Knicks won and Phil got $25 if the Heat won. I think the payout may have increased for longer series, but it’s hard to remember the details. What I do remember is winning the bet 3 years in a row.
The bottom line was I put my money and my heart on the line for the team I loved well before I made this city home. When I graduated high school in May 2000, my friends got me a Knicks Barbie doll. I was happy to have it, and never took it out of the box until my son demanded so many years later.
Then I went to college. The Knicks started imploding. A new team captured my heart, the San Antonio Spurs.
I hated the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers, and I had to root for one of their enemies.
The Mavs? Too gimmicky. The Kings? Too trendy. The Spurs? Perfect.
I loved the way they played. Defense-first, like the Knicks of the 90s. Offensive playmakers that fit together like puzzle pieces. Tony Parker was almost exactly the same age as me when he joined the team, which I thought was cool.
And more than all of that, they had the GOAT, Tim Duncan, whose style of leadership inspired how I operate in my own career.
It’s been over a decade since I wrote my love letter to that Spurs era. And that team really did mean a lot to me. Through both heartbreak and championships, we were ride-or-die.
Enough to wake my son up just to get this shot right after they won the 2014 championship.
And enough to get this t-shirt to remember it all after everyone retired.
I still loved the Knicks, though. They were my first basketball love. And I had become a New Yorker, moving to the Bronx in 2006.
I spent years waiting for any sign of life.
I remember going to a game against LeBron and the Cavs in November 2009 with my sister, hoping this was a preview of LeBron joining the Knicks and becoming a mainstay at Madison Square Garden. Nope, he picked Miami. It had to be Miami.
I remember going to multiple Knicks-Spurs games with my friend Connor and rooting for the Knicks in surprise wins.
I remember how incredible Linsanity was in energizing the city. We had Dim Sum in Flushing’s Chinatown and instead of the usual educational math show they had on for children, they were actually playing the Knicks game.
I remember going to the Knicks-Pacers playoff series in 2013, incidentally the only year they won a playoff series between the Ewing and Brunson eras.
In 2015 at my old website I did a full blown analysis to predict how many games they’d end up winning when they were 10-45 and Carmelo Anthony was out for the season. My model said they’d probably get to 15. (They got to 17!)
This whole era was really captured well by Secret Base’s Seth Rosenthal in this video:
𝄆 Hope. Letdown. 𝄇 And so it goes.
All I could do was bring the Knicks championship glory in NBA 2K.
Then, some signs of life. The Julius Randle + RJ Barrett “bing bong” era. I went to a game with my friend Chris. The magic was coming back.
Then the Brunson trade that changed everything in 2022.
I went to all three home games of the Miami Heat series in 2023. It was amazing seeing him in person, wibbling and wobbling his way to unthinkable baskets. It oddly reminded me of Dante Hall from the Kansas City Chiefs 20 years earlier. (That deep cut reference didn’t land with anyone.)
Right after that series, I spent some of my Meta layoff money on a half-season ticket package for the Knicks. It felt like something special was brewing, and I wanted to spend more time at the Garden.
So for the past three years, I’ve had these seats to every other Knicks home game:
That 2023-24 season was great. Taking so many of my friends to random games. Seeing Brunson carry the offense late. Seeing how the Garden responded to Josh Hart and Deuce McBride. Seeing all the crazies who go to Knicks games (and only one fight).
The Knicks were back in the same classic climb-the-mountain meta-journey that they were back in the 1990s. They lost to the familiar Pacers in the 2nd round in 2024. They lost again to the Pacers in the Conference Finals in 2025.
Based on the trajectory, 2026 was their year.
The only problem? The Spurs were back, earlier than expected.
I was in the stands when Victor Wembanyama was drafted, courtesy of the rare good VP I worked with when I was at NBA 2K. It meant a lot to be there, and I’ll never forget it.
Wemby and the Spurs made their own run towards the top of the league, making the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Uh oh, was 2026 their year, too?
Going into the playoffs, I was oddly confident about both teams. For the first time in my life, I picked the Knicks to win the championship. I picked them to beat the Spurs in the NBA Finals.
Both teams obliged, of course, but in very different ways.
The Spurs were tested progressively more each round and took out the Oklahoma City Thunder in a tightly contested 7-game slugfest. The whole basketball world cheered as they eliminated Unethical Hoops star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Wemby became a beloved hero league-wide.
On the other side, the Knicks put together one of the greatest playoff runs in history.
It didn’t start smoothly. I was at my friend Connor’s for game 3 against Atlanta. The Hawks win by 1 and take a 2-1 series lead.
At some point during the game I say “dammit” enough times that his 3-year-old son learns the word. His son keeps saying “dammit” in the next week. I’ve made a huge mistake.
The Knicks don’t lose again for 5 weeks, curb-stomping the Hawks, Sixers, and Cavaliers to 11 straight wins. Mistake averted, “dammit” saved the Knicks.
So we have a Knicks-Spurs final. Am I conflicted by this matchup?
Not in the least.
The Knicks are my first basketball love. New York has been my home for the past 20 years. And Madison Square Garden has my seats in the stadium. It’s time.
Go New York, go New York, go!
The series starts tight with the Spurs taking leads early and the Knicks closing it late. New York is up 2 games to 1, and the vibes are shaky. Whoever wins the next game probably wins the series.
Connor’s over at my place for Game 4. We’re both wearing our Wu York Knicks t-shirts, since Wu-Tang Clan is performing at the half. The Knicks fall behind by 29 points in the first half. Ouch.
We cleanse the aura. We switch from Bulleit rye back to Bulleit bourbon. We’d been drinking bourbon when the Knicks were winning. We put a Simpsons episode on during the half. No need to relive it.
We tune back to the game a couple minutes into the 3rd quarter. Wemby has just committed yet another flagrant foul, this time an elbow against Karl-Anthony Towns.
We lean forward. We let the optimism creep in. We don’t say a word. We stop breathing. The deficit goes from 29 to 15. Back up to 20. Down to 12.
We now both believe, but we don’t let each other know. Neither of us wants to be the jinx. When we do talk, we pretend that we’re being level-headed and objective with our observations. The Spurs keep chucking. The Knicks keep hitting.
Josh Hart borks a layup that would have given the Knicks the lead. We both jump off the couch, head in hands. We pull it together quickly. That wasn’t our last shot.
And it wasn’t. Brunson gives the Knicks the lead a minute later. OG Anunoby does it again with 1.2 seconds left with one of the greatest buckets in NBA history.
The Knicks pulled it off.
My son is asleep in his bedroom so our celebration is quiet and introspective. We are both in tears. We’ve witnessed one of the all time games. We’ll never forget this moment. We get more Bulleit bourbon.
The Knicks close the Spurs out the next game. It followed the same script as all of the others. And this time, when the Knicks were down late, everyone watching - literally everyone - knew the Knicks were coming back.
My Knicks fan life starts flashing before my eyes. Back to Bing Bong, Linsanity, the bet I had with Phil. What a ride.
I had tickets to Game 6 of the Finals as part of my half-season plan. I of course won’t get to go, because the Knicks won too fast. I am too excited to care.
In the aftermath, it’s hard not to view this Knicks team as an all timer in NBA history. No, they didn’t have a dominant regular season, but their playoff run is virtually unprecedented.
My NBA rating model (which goes back to 1977) puts these Knicks as the 3rd-highest rating of any NBA champion:
More than the stats, though, I want to capture this feeling right now.
This team was full of castoffs, players who weren’t wanted, players who were passed up in the draft. They were called too small, not talented enough, not consistent enough.
And they’re the most resilient champions I’ve ever seen.
“You’re allowed to think about the worst possible scenario, but you’ve got to go out there and do something about it.”
Amen, Jalen. Amen.
New York is having the best summer I can remember. Great weather after a truly horrible winter. The World Cup is in town, and the city is alive with even more tourists than usual.
And the Knicks pulled us together. Made us feel the humanity around us. Made us just plain feel good. I will always be grateful for this feeling.
Thank you. 🧡 💙 Let’s Go Knicks.
