Knicks' magical run needs to continue, so take care of business in Game 6
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 14: Former New York Knicks Patrick Ewing, Herb Williams, Larry Johnson, John Starks, and Stephon Marbury are seen in attendance during Game Five of the Eastern Conference Second Round Playoffs against the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden on May 14, 2024 in New York City. Credit: Getty Images/Sarah Stier
INDIANAPOLIS — End it here. End it now.
Don’t tempt fate. Don’t rely on the fact that Madison Square Garden would have your back big-time if you had to go back and play a Game 7 there. It’s time to move on, you deserve to move on, your fans deserve to move on. So why not now?
That’s the best advice anyone can give this Knicks team heading into Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Pacers on Friday night. The Knicks, up 3-2, are standing at the precipice of history. All it will take is one win for the Knicks to end 24 years of dysfunction and misery. All it will take is one win for the Knicks to advance to the East finals for the first time since 2000.
This needs to happen. The Knicks' faithful are tired of watching fool’s gold, they are tired of the words “long-suffering” being used as an automatic precedent in front of the words “Knicks fan.”
I don’t know if it is the fact that Jalen Brunson grew up watching his dad play here, and dreamed of being a Knick. I don’t know if there is just something so incredibly appealing about the narrative of the three college teammates and close friends — Villanova’s Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo — reuniting as pros. I don’t know if it is the heroic way that the Knicks have survived injury after injury to their teammates.
What I do know is this Knicks team has made believers out of both Knicks fans and former Knicks players like no team has in years.
Just take a look at the number of former Knicks players — some of them Knicks legends — cheering wildly in the stands for every game.
There is a great photo that has made the rounds after the Game 5 blowout of the Pacers on Tuesday. It includes 13 Knicks from various generations, among them Walt “Clyde” Frazier (1967-77), Bill Bradley (1967-77), Patrick Ewing (1985-2000), John Starks (1990-98), Herb Williams (1992-99), Larry Johnson (1996-2001), Allan Houston (1996-2005), Latrell Sprewell (1998-2003), Stephon Marbury (2004-08), Tim Thomas (2004-05 and '08-09), Wilson Chandler (2007-11), Carmelo Anthony (2011-17) and Kyle O’Quinn (2015-18).
It's a photo from a family reunion years in the making. For way too long, there has been an undercurrent of sniping and competition between the different generations of Knicks faithful and to some extent the different generations of Knicks players themselves.
The 1970s Knicks are the only ones to have titles, yet they were too early to make big-time money and obtain the basketball transcendent celebrity that comes with it. The '90s Knicks never won a title, but they got to the finals twice and were embraced by fans for a toughness that reflected their city. Since then, with the exception of a few misleading forays into relevance, there’s been so much misery, so many missteps that some Knicks fans began to take perverse pride in their misery.
This is all on the verge of changing.
In particular, it appears that the '90s Knicks players see something of themselves in this current team. Never mind that the game of basketball has changed drastically since they played with today’s softer defensive rules, less reliance on a dominating center inside and heavy emphasis on three-point shooting. Yet the way the current Knicks throw themselves on the floor, fight for every point and show an incredible resilience is evocative of the Knicks teams many of today’s fans grew up watching.
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau was an assistant with the team from 1996-2003. He sees some similarities between the two eras.
“I think it’s the togetherness and tenacity,” Thibodeau said. "Every player is different, every team is a little different, but I think the commitment to each other, that's similar. I think the toughness, that aspect of it is similar.
“But we still got a long way to go. Every year I felt with Patrick and John and Larry and Spree and those guys, we always felt like we had a chance to win it, and we went deep every year if we were healthy. There was a consistency to it; every year you felt like you had a good chance.”
Starks, in particular, has been so animated during the playoffs that several videos of him have gone viral. Starks, 58, is doing his best impression of the screaming AAU dad reliving his glory days at x-and-under tournament. At one point early in the Philadelphia series, Starks leapt out of his baseline seat and slapped Hart on the back after he was fouled trying to finish off a fast break. In another, he jumps out of his seat to help Hart off the floor, almost as if he were still in uniform and reaching out to help Charlie Ward.
The current players love the support.
“It’s not just one game, they’ve been to a lot of games," Brunson said earlier in the Pacers series. "They’re not just sitting there drinking and having some popcorn. They’re up yelling.”
That’s why the Knicks need to end it now in Indiana and not tempt fate by playing a Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. This Knicks team has excited the fan base like no other in a generation. Like the birth of a grandchild in a dysfunctional family, this playoff run has brought generations together like no other team has been able to in decades.
It’s been a lot of fun. And no one is ready to go home.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.