We were all confident in the Knicks defeating the Cavaliers, but they just DESTROYED them. Just like they DESTROYED the Sixers, and (after three weird games) DESTROYED the Hawks.
This is by far the most dominant that the Knicks have been in the playoffs…I mean, EVER? Maybe the 1953 Knicks? The 1970 and 1973 teams were amazing, but they didn’t dominate their conference like this. And obviously the 1994 and 1999 Knicks did not dominate their conference.
This is just amazing.
KAT has fulfilled the level of talent that we thought he would have back when he went #1. This team looks like an unbeatable juggernaut right now. The Western Conference winner will be a challenge, but I truly think that this team can take any team right now.
Congratulations, Knicks!
49 replies on “Congratulations to Your 2026 Eastern Conference Champion New York Knicks!”
Congrats to all KBers who kept the faith all these years! And hats off to Mike K for creating this amazing forum and keeping it up and running!
I have been scarred so much, and so often, by this team, that I refused to let myself believe, even as they were boat-racing the Hawks and Sixers. Who knows what’s going to happen when they play the Spurs or Thunder, but guys? I have let myself believe. This is an INCREDIBLE team.
3rd NBA Finals that i’m here for… third time’s the charm ? 🧡💙
https://youtu.be/syPi_HXY1e0?si=XYj_MoVb1i2wrFtG
I hate that I doubted them after game 3 against Atlanta. Thank god these guys have a laser focus and belief in themselves that came out like gang-busters.
Unbelieveable moment to be a Knicks fan now.
There were at least fifteen HOLY SHIT plays in this game. At least that many jaw-dropping, awesome plays
I found this blog the day Isiah Thomas was finally officially fired, how far we’ve come!
This is the franchise that brought you #BlameBeno
Best comment from the game thread:
I’m not crying you’re crying
:’)
I thought Bridges catch and layup going full speed on that pass from Hart in the first quarter was quietly spectacular.
The OG alley-oop dunk…doesn’t he always mess those up hahahaha
When he jammed it home, I knew it was our night and maybe our destiny to win the chip
The ball movement in this game made me cry several times. It’s not just that we’re destroying teams. It’s that we’re doing it with some of the most aesthetically beautiful basketball I have ever seen.
The KAT block and 3 sequence, the OG alley oop and the KAT put back dunk were the holy shit plays for me.
My fave Bridges play was the fadaway grenade in Harden’s face.
OG’s follow slam was sick.
Great to see a bounce back Mitch game. Every single guy on the team playing confident and at top of their game. OKC or Spurs will be tough but we have a super well balanced team and strong defense. Need to stay sharp over the long break!
KAT’s first block was a thing of beauty. He reminded me of prime Rasheed Wallace with his nonchalance on that play.
KAT has always had max player/MVP candidate talent. The way he’s playing right now is all about his brain catching up to his game.
Atkinson and Harden in their post-game press conferences embarrassed themselves with excuses, have no respect whatsoever for that soft ass team.
There was one play where Jalen threw a pass to an empty corner, and Mikal just slid in there, caught the pass, and drained the three. The way Jalen led him with that pass was extremely satisfying
James Harden is a dreadful basketball player. If you watch some of the Knicks fast breaks, he was a total spectator in a fucking close-out game.
The fact that they traded a very good young player who they could have really got something good for to acquire that head case is the death knell of the Spida era.
Jarrett Allen also played like a quitter in this game. Repeatedly got caught jogging down the floor on fast breaks and did nothing to protect the rim. That guy is fugazy
The other thing is, alleged Brunson Stopper Dean Wade was exposed as a total fraud. Dude scored 3 total points in the last 3 games and did nothing to slow Brunson down. He fucking sucks.
Big fan of the OG sky put-back dunk a little after his alley oop play. Not sure I’ve ever seen that from him.
Deuce had a really nice game — 4-6 shooting, including 3-5 from three, for 11 points in less than 17 minutes, with 3 steals.
James Dolan can still suck my drunk Irish dick
Passing and cutting and passing, oh my!
Get everyone rested, rinse, and repeat.
It’s a beautiful day.
I’m watching Steve Novak on the postgame and it reminds me of the vibes during the 2012-13 season. That was fun, but his team is like 1000X more enjoyable and fulfilling to root for, not just because of the winning, but because it feels way more organic. I love all of these guys!
“James Dolan can still suck my drunk Irish dick”
Now the night is complete! What are you drinking?
Actually the play I was referring to was the other way around, it was Mikal who threw the beautiful leading pass to Brunson
Fuck was it, I forget
LNICKS BABY
Mike Breen on the verge of tears or am I imagining it? This is by far the best Knicks team since I became a fan in the 90’s. Now finish the job in 6 in the finals, so the celebration is in NYC!
What an amazing run!! I’ve been pinching myself to make sure it’s real! After Frederic Weis and Layden and plantar fasciitis and Zeke and Larry Brown and Herb Williams and Vaseline and Eddy Curry and Jerome James and Crawful and Renaldo Balkman and Amare’s uninsured contract and I’m Coming Home and not re-signing Lin and verticality and Bargnani and What is he doing?! and You have to look at that and Phil Jackson and Ntilikina and the Porzingis trade and the NTC and David Fizdale and Beyblade and 20 fucking years of absolute shit and legitimately being the worst team in the NBA for 20 years we just fucking steamrolled the playoffs and have an actually real chance the win the Finals! Whoever comes out of the West will deservedly be the favorite but, unlike 1999, we absolutely could beat OKC or SAS.
It’s surreal to see a Knicks team play this way.
This team is +118 in three close out games this playoffs.
Brunson hasn’t played a single 4th quarter minute in any of those games!
Love this blog. Love the Knicks. Tonight was heaven. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if they win it all. 3 times I’ve felt like this in my life. Ewing put back dunk in 94 to send them to the finals, LJ 4 point play. And now today. Which was a demolition. Which is such a welcome change. My now much older 51 year old heart thanks this current team. Thank you Knicks.
I hoped I still could publish something 🙂 But of course after eons of disappearing, whomever removed my editor rights did the right thing. That said, just as the 2025-26 Knicks, I won’t be denied!
—MINI RECAP—
Dudes. We’re in the Finals. I was waiting for this moment to come back and post something – I mean, after recapping a full season of “We will fix you, Emmanuel Mudiay!” back in the day, I was ready for the day the Knicks were going to the Finals as a sort of belated swan song.
Life comes at you so fast. Last time we were in the Finals, I was going head over heels about new hot song “I want it that way”* from Backstreet Boys, I was in the middle of my first (failed) romance and I still had hair and was goofy as fuck. And we had a gritty if still glorious in its way team.
But this team? After all it made us go through?
For a very long stretch this team looked almost unrootable for. Bad demeanor KAT, cardio Mikal, donkey Josh were maddening almost for the whole year. The only real constants were Brunson, if a bit Melo-ish this season, and deltoid god OG, with a sprinkle here and there from Diawara’s comet.
How did we come to this absolute enlightened brand of synchronous basketball? I want to know what happened after Game 3 of the Atlanta series. That thing alone could be a cash cow for decades for Mike Brown in motivational speechs and conferences. I’ve never seen a team transform itself that much in such a short span. At least not in basketball.
You know who did the same thing (with, hopefully, a different ending)? Italy soccer team at USA ’94. Yeah yeah, I know, usual self-centered Farfa. But bear with me.
The team was theoretically one of the favorites for that World Cup, but was mediocre throughout the full round robin phase and got into the elimination phase only because Russia scored six goals against Camerun and so Italy qualified as one of the best thirds. Very humbling. So, Italy-Nigeria it was for the best of 16. Italy fans it was a very reasonable shot at sports redemption, but alas, with one minute to go (plus injury time) Nigeria was leading 1-0 and Italy was playing with just ten guys because the referee absurdly sent off talented magic box Gianfranco Zola at the 70′ for a non-existent foul.
Suddenly, out of the blue, down the right lane came full-back Roberto Mussi, who passed the ball in the box to Roberto Brunson… er, scratch that, Baggio, who scored the equalizer, and then went on to score a penalty in extra time. From that first Baggio goal, Italy went on to become a juggernaut that punched off with relative ease Spain and Bulgaria (!) with another three goals from Roberto Baggio and one from Dino Baggio – incredibly, the two are not related.
Roberto Baggio, if you aren’t well acquainted with soccer, is the greatest trequartista who ever played for Italy (let’s say, the guy in charge of creating scoring opportunities in the final third – it’s something that in modern soccer has pretty much disappeared after Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho). Dino Baggio was a big, hulking – if a bit slow and seemingly uncoordinated – midfielder with a great knack for long distance shooting and headers.
Oh, and essential cog Franco Baresi injured himself in the beginning but then came back as if nothing happened!
Italy went on the Final against heavy favorite Brazil, and yet went toe to toe until the end. The match ended 0-0, but then sadly penalties favored Brazil and Roberto Baggio was the last one to shoot – and miss, effectively costing Italy the World Cup.
Italy went on to win the World Cup in 2006, but you know what? That ’94 Italy team is the one we really fell in love with, even if it didn’t win. And if it had won, it would have been the sweetest victory ever, for the quality of the playing style that the team was employing.
Long story short… let’s hope that the parallel ends there and we win the actual chip.
Oh, but maybe you wanted a real recap.
Well. We steamrolled them. Everybody was awesome. Dadiet scored in a close out game. Actually, everyone save for Diawara scored in a close out game (you can’t convince me that they’re doing everything they can to ensure that nobody wants to sign him for next season). Nobody scored more than 19. And the team scored 130.
A+ for everyone (NE for Mo). A++ for Mike Brown. A+++ for Leon Rose, who has been the best executive this team has seen in a long, long time. F- for me and my life, that made me basically disappear from here.
*”I want it that way” is still my go to song at karaoke. And that failed romance is still one of my closest friends. Party like it’s 1999, folks!
Congratulations to our team and everyone here for sticking with them throughout the many years! Been a lurker here for quite sometime but this blog has kept me sane, so I appreciate you all!
Mike Brown’s a better coach than David Fizdale.
Taking into account margin of victory and underlying numbers, this is the best playoff run by a 3-ish seed in NBA history.
I will always remember the cathartic joy of these two threads, especially from those KBers who have never experienced a championship. Every rotation player rightfully shares in this monumental playoff run.
Will probably repost this in the morning thread, but:
1. So happy for everyone here.
2. So happy to get even a mini-Farfa recap.
3. The Breen clip that darules posted is a must-watch.
Also? Kenny Atkinson continues to dig his own grave:
Your team got its asses kicked up, down, and sideways, Kenny. As Mel used to say to his diner’s waitresses on Alice, “Stow it.”
Incredible feeling, now it’s finally sinking in that we’ve really done it.
Love the little Farfa recap, specially for a subject that’s also so dear to me, the first world cup win I watched with Brazil, and it’s so interesting that the personal journey of Italy was feeling Brazil as heavy favorites, because our own perception at the time was that Italy was in a major roll and was the favorite, while that Brazilian team went into the tournament almost failing to qualify, with a total carry job from Romário the legend, and only beat Sweden in the semis on a header goal by 5’6″ Romário against their giants on defense. For us, it was a heavily unusual team that was much less talented then the teams we were used to watch Joga bonito, but a team that came together when it mattered the most with a ton of unusual contributors, like Branco, Mazinho and Taffarel. Not totally unlike this Knicks team coming together in such an unexpected way at the perfect moment.
Funny that we had both the same, but reversed, expectations for that final 😀
(But it is true, we were on a major roll and R. Baggio looked unstoppable – until his knee started hurting like hell, he basically couldn’t run)
Still completely amazed at the whole journey this team went on for these playoffs. They play like a supercharged Euroleague/Olympics team, and I say that in a very good way.
Farfa, we also had years of trauma from the 1982 Paolo Rossi hat trick that eliminated what to some Brazilians was our best team ever assembled, so it’s safe to say we we’re deathly scared of facing any Italian team lol.
I woke up and can report that it was not a dream.
In 1982 my suburban Michigan high school soccer team became obsessed with Paolo Rossi and all things Italian. (Kind of like the kid in BREAKING AWAY.) We held a bake sale (thanks moms!) and replaced all our decades old smelly v-neck jerseys with brand new “proper Italian” kits with collars(!). We still sucked all season long, but we looked fine and we said “Grazie” after every good pass 😉
I’m so happy for these Knicks and doubly so bc they seem like a bunch of really good guys. Breen mentioned as much in his comments, and I do believe that was part of Leon’s plan: high character guys, please. Let’s hope the Canyon of Heroes awaits them.
And, man(!), Mitchell Robinson as the longest-tenured Knick brings a tear. I feel like he’s been through all the debates with us about incinerated picks and the like. Haha. I’m praying to all the various gods for his free throws. LET’S GO!!
I’m too young a Brazilian to remember the 1982 squad, but my dad is enamored by it to this day.
Brazil won the 1994 World Cup on my birthday, and as a 13 year old, that was so cool. But as Bruno said, Brazil was all but discredited before than run – including a really tough round of 16 game against the US on Independence Day in which they played with 10 guys in the scorching heat due to an early red card.
Last night, my beloved Knicks swept the Cavaliers to earn the right to return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. The last time the Knicks made the Finals, my wife and I were planning our wedding. This time, I have been joined by my 23-year old daughter (now on this board as @madisonsq for each and every minute of every game of the playoffs run.
This iteration of the Knicks is the best team since I became a fan 48 years ago. It is playing a beautiful brand of basketball, filled with teamwork, defense and effort. Jalen Brunson is a superstar who works like a role player. That mentality permeates the team.
Win or lose in the Finals, I am grateful for this delightful run through the first three rounds of the Playoffs. I am grateful for having my daughter sitting beside me and sharing the experience. I am grateful that I have come through the trials and tribulations of the last 27 years.
Go New York Go New York Go!
As Devon Dudley would say ephus, “TESTIFY, MY BROTHER!”
The skies out here this morning are grey. “Sunny” LA is overcast. Why? BECAUSE THEY DONT DESERVE OUR ORANGE AND BLUE SKIES TODAY!!! Hahahaahaha