‘It’s nice to have hope’: Finally a bright future for the New York Knicks

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Louise Thomas

Editor

New York Knicks fan Marc Kaplan had found himself stuck in what most sports fans would recognise as a tragic routine. Game after game, after watching his beloved Knicks fall to its latest defeat, Kaplan would eagerly visit the website ‘Tankathon’ to see the updates on the race to the bottom of the NBA, in the twisted hope that the loss would have taken them one step closer to ending a generation of misery for New York City basketball.

Kaplan, who was far from the only Knicks fan to do this, wished that by being so bad, the franchise would be compensated with an improved chance of getting the top pick in the NBA Draft, which, given a bit of luck, could transform the team’s fortunes. For season after season, that was all he had to hold on to. It summed up what it was like to be a modern day Knicks fan.

“The last few years have been like rooting for a dumpster fire,” Kaplan says as he reflects upon that time. “Watching an organisation that is completely lost - just a terrible team, putting up awful performances. The season usually starts in November, and the team would be unwatchable by 1 January.”

This season, however, the Knicks have ensured interest has remained for a lot longer than that. For the first time since 2013, the Knicks are back in the NBA Playoffs - surprising everyone on their way to a 41-31 record and the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference after being most experts’ pick to finish the season as the worst team in the league.

“I don’t think anybody in their wildest dreams thought that would happen this year,” says Alex Wolfe, editor of Knicks website Strickland.com. For a fan base who had become conditioned to always expect the worst, hope has returned to Madison Square Garden.

It’s been a long time coming. Over the past 20 years, the Knicks, a franchise steeped in history and prestige, in a city immersed in basketball heritage and tradition, had gradually become the laughing stock of the NBA.

The decline was sharp. The two-time NBA champions went from being a team that reached the playoffs in every season during the 1990s to one that qualified just five times in 20 years. Three of the seven seasons since their last playoff appearance have been among the worst in Knicks history.

And while the losses piled up, so too did the embarrassment. From being turned down by LeBron James during his infamous ‘decision’ in 2010, to the shockingly poor spell under legendary NBA head coach Phil Jackson, and, more recently, missing out on free agents Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to their noisy neighbours the Brooklyn Nets, each blow has seen the team stoop lower than before.

The NBA Draft, which in theory was supposed to provide salvation to the beleaguered Knicks, has often only served to compound the misery. In 2019, the Knicks entered the Draft Lottery with the best odds of receiving the number one pick and, in turn, incoming superstar Zion Williamson. But the Knicks dropped to number three overall, missing out not only on Zion but eventual Rookie of the Year Ja Morant, too.

In the foreground, meanwhile, has been the lingering discontent with the team’s owner, billionaire James Dolan, whose tendency to meddle with the Knicks has resulted in several setbacks and further anguish. “It’s been low moment after low moment,” Kaplan grimaces as he thinks back on the last 20 years. “It was a tough era to be a Knicks fan.”

The team’s sudden return to prominence has therefore been as significant as it has been unexpected. At the end of last season, the team’s seventh losing campaign in a row, Jay McKenna, host of the New York Knicks Podcast, was close to shutting his show down. “I said, ‘I can’t do another season if the team is this miserable’”, he remembers. “But this has been better than our predicted best case scenario ever could, it’s been amazing.”

Much of the team’s resurgence can be traced back to the hiring of head coach Tom Thibodeau under new team president Leon Rose. Thibodeau, the no-nonsense, defensive specialist, has imprinted his stamp on the team. This season, the Knicks have the league’s best defence and lead the NBA in fewest points allowed. A former Knicks assistant, Thibodeau also represents a link back to the team that reached its last NBA Finals in 1999, when New York was renowned for its tough, gritty play.

It has resulted in creating a team that feels as close to its fans as any since the Patrick Ewing-led teams of the 90s. “They were ‘the’ New York team - what everyone thought was New York basketball for a really long time,” Wolfe says. “I think this group and the defensive identity resonates with a lot of people.”

Even during difficult spells, the Knicks have retained an ability to spark into life thanks to the passion of its fanbase and the electricity of Madison Square Garden. The whirlwind of ‘Linsanity’ in 2012 is testament to that, while this season, the synergy between the team and its city reached a climax in April when a nine-game winning run produced wild excitement in Manhattan and beyond.

The Knicks streak coincided with a small number of fans being allowed back into Madison Square Garden, which also saw Julius Randle, the team’s breakout All-Star, serenaded with MVP chants. Randle’s story epitomises that of the Knicks this season. The 26-year-old has taken such an unexpected leap in terms of offensive output and shooting efficiency that he is now favourite to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

It’s also helped inspire those around him. RJ Barrett, who the Knicks selected with the third pick in 2019, has made strides in his second year and is showing glimpses that perhaps the team didn’t miss out so badly in that draft after all. Derrick Rose, reunited with Thibodeau, the coach who oversaw his MVP campaign at the Chicago Bulls, is back enjoying his basketball while playing an important veteran role.

What has emerged, essentially, is a team that is willing to fight and scrap for each other and its coach; and a group of players on friendly contracts, many of whom are entering their prime years. It’s why there is the feeling among fans that this isn’t another false dawn. While there is an acceptance that the Knicks would struggle to get past any of the three stacked Eastern Conference teams, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Brooklyn, right now, there is genuine belief that this is only the first step. Hope that for the first time since the days of the 90s, the success of this season could be sustained.

With a favourable series matchup against the Atlanta Hawks to come, the Knicks could also progress to the second round for just the second time since 2000. But even if they don’t go much further, there is an appreciation that they have already done so much. New York has been left devastated by Covid-19 and while the team’s nine-game winning run was played in front of a largely empty Madison Square Garden, it created a buzz in the city that had been missing since the start of the pandemic.

“In a way, I think the Knicks have brought the city back from Covid,” says Wolfe, who at 31 is experiencing optimism among the Knicks fanbase for one of the first times since he started following the team as a nine-year-old. “I think fans are really enthused by this and just very hopeful for the future in a way that there hasn’t been in my lifetime as a fan at least.”

As for ‘Tankathon’, Kaplan hasn’t looked at the website all season. As it should be, the focus has returned to the Knicks winning basketball matches, rather than losing them. “It’s just nice to have a team that you’re excited about. The future is looking bright,” he says. “It’s nice to have hope.”