News & Blogs
Readers sound off on cross-border pest control, Knicks rioters and Black issues – New York Daily News
Knicks’ Jose Alvarado issues Victor Wembanyama warning after dirty play in Game 3: ‘That’ll be the last one’ – SNY
Know the draft prospect: Meleek Thomas – Posting & Toasting
KAT Serves Fiancee Jordyn Woods While Working at Raising Canes in Video After Knicks’ NBA Title Win – BleacherReport
Know the draft prospect: Morez Johnson, Jr. – Posting & Toasting
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani offers Knicks fans chance to see team up close after title parade – The New York Times
Google Joins Jalen Brunson Hype, Directing Fans to Nickname on Searches After Knicks NBA Title – BleacherReport
NBA doesn’t assess Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama a retroactive flagrant foul after shove of Jalen Brunson – SNY
Knicks Nightcap | WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS | Silverthorn Reserve Whiskey – Knick of Time
New York Grit is REAL! – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks vs Spurs – NBA Finals Exit Interview w/ Matthew Tynan | PREGAME POD | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
The Knicks’ Title Is Just the Start [Video Essay] – Hot Hand Theory
YT News
181 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.06.17)”
I haven’t done this in a while, but I feel it’s important to revive it. Here is your Question of the Day:
Are the Knicks the reigning NBA champions?
HELL TO THE MUTHAFUCKIN YEAH THEY ARE, ALAN!!!
My son and I are about to land at JFK as i type this.
Analytically, we lost the series last night 4-2 to the Spurs.
I’m one of those dinosaurs that still reads the print version of the NY Times, but definitely worth grabbing a copy today. They have an entire special section on the Knicks championship run, I’m keeping it to show my grandkids (should I ever have any)
Are you crazy?? Analytically the Cavs swept all their opponents, first time in NBA history! 😀
🧡💙🥲
Welcome back, RicanKnick! 😉 Any lurkers, long time away posters, etc, that want to join our party here at KB, come forward! 🙂
One of my takes is that Dolan has been too interested in The Sphere and too content with his achievement to meddle too much in the Knicks.
https://x.com/yaronweitzman/status/2067225571889746133?s=46&t=0wqff4cNt-sCGcDs-uMExw
Apparently I am wrong about that. Maybe so. Honestly I don’t care if that take is no longer live,
because,
KNICKS IN FIVE!!!!
I’m with little time (although i post several comments in heartbeat! LOL), but also the emotions are still running high… maybe in the weekend i’m more able to acknowledge that we are indeed the 2026 NBA Champions!! 🙂
When Z-man was here in Porto we were all hope, but then the regular season came along, and those first 3 games of the playoffs… our prospects looked bleak at the time! What happened next is the stuff of dreams! What a ride! 🧡💙
Good morning, all! Hope you’re having a good day, thus far.
“Don Nelson wanted to trade Ewing for Shaq and got fired for it, even though doing that would have brought Thursday here 25 years earlier.”
I’m not getting what this means, Donnie. Thursday?
choose any of these buttons for the answer
https://www.myinstants.com/en/search/?name=yeah-boi
Fun piece in NBA.com about statistics that define the Knicks’ run. Lots of unbelievable stuff. This one struck me as particularly amazing.
Over the last two years (regular season and playoffs combined), there have been 46 players with at least 300 field goal attempts in the last six seconds of the shot clock. Among those 46 players, Brunson (51.6%), Bridges (51.3%), Anunoby (50.2%), Towns (50.0%) and Josh Hart (47.7%) rank second, third, fourth, fifth and ninth in late-clock effective field goal percentage.
He means a Championship parade, Doogie.
One thing about Dolan. You do mature, learn and get better at your job (s) with experience. You also sometimes become a better person. Dolan is not an exception.
Got it. Thank you, ess-dog!!! 🙂
The line at the NBA Store is almost on Madison Avenue. Not sure if a Knick is making an appearance, but hopefully Adam Silver realizes how good this is for the league.
I was busy most of yesterday and am just catching up,
On the GOAT Knick, I think that’s two part answer,
1. Who was the best all around basketball player?
2. Who was a great all around basketball player that best carried his greatness into the playoffs and championship round under extreme playoff pressure as the alpha and won a title on a serious contender.
#2 is far more important.
My answer to #1 is Ewing.
My answer to #2 is either either Frazier or Reed, but I lean to Frazier. I give Frazier the nod because of what he did in game 7 to beat the Lakers without Reed. That was one of the greatest two-way peformances in the entire history of basketball under all time great pressure.
Brunson is in the conversation and a work in progress, but imo he does exceed Reed or Frazier yet.
A lot to unpack in that tweet, Owen, but one thing that stood out was:
Makes me wonder what the history of nepo baby’s nepo babies is. Do they get progressively worse or do they take after their grandfather?
I prefer Knicks Mount Rushmore: Willis, Clyde, Ewing, Brunson.
In fact, someone should literally make a Knicks Mount Rushmore in the Shawangunks. It would become a tourist destination.
Alas, I fear one of these dumb kids would chisel Melo’s face instead of Willis.
Since the draft is coming up I want express my view on our strategy, past and future again.
1. I think we should do everything possibe to keep this team together. Not doing so would be like breaking up the Beatles up at their peak. That wasn’t a good idea either. It even would have been a terrible idea to replace Ringo. 😉 He was too important to overall chemistry.
2. If someone offers something outrageous to Mitch or Shamet and management feels we just can’t match it for financial or strategic cap reasons, we’ll have to find another way, but taking even a small step back is far from ideal when many of our major competitors will be taking a step forward.
3. In the past the goal was NOT to just accumulate good young players. The goal was to accumulate assets (picks and players) and ROLL THEM UP into players that were ready to compete for a championship ASAP. It’s way easier to tade picks than players. That’s how you improve hybrid style. Rolling out picks and trading decent players while getting back less than fair value was an effort to maximize cap and trade flexibility to get players like Hart, OG, Mikal and Towns that were good enough to start on a championship team later. Sometimes you have to take 90 or 95 cents on the dollar now for the opportunity to roll that into a $1.50 player later.
4. Now that we have a complete squad that should compete for another 2-3 years we should already be trying to build the NEXT one. That way as some of the older guys fade we can continue competing.
I would be WAY in favor of using our draft picks to bring in new better young talent NOW. There’s no reason to roll them out UNLESS we can’t possibly make the numbers work or they hate everyone available at the price.
We need to start the next rebuild with young talent ASAP. We likely won’t be trading for starting caliber players in their mid to late 20s soon. So we won’t be needing those picks for a roll up trade.
Are Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet future contributors of value to this Knicks core right now?
Putting aside philosophies (*), there are some business/team-building decisions a mere few weeks away, starting with the draft and then more importantly, KAT’s extension. If you don’t offer him an extension, you risk an unhappy player and then obviously, that puts you in a position of possibly losing him in two years, which then feeds back into today’s personnel decisions.
Josh Hart also has only one full year left on his deal, if you’re willing to not exercise the club option for $23M in ’27-’28. That’s an avenue to potentially getting under the SA.
Planning this right really means making a decision on the size and scope of the “core” essentially as we speak. Can’t be punted to next summer.
(*) Octopus’s Garden was actually a pretty good song, IMHO. YMMV.
Difficult to say. Kolek has acquitted himself quite well when he is on the court, but then fell out of the rotation—should keep him around in case we somehow have to give up Alvie, which I hope is not the case (I doubt Alvie *wants* to go anywhere). Haven’t seen enough of Daddy-O to make any kind of determination.
I want to give Thibs some appraisal for Leon’s work. Because although ultimately we could not win with him, he instantly made us play sensible basketball, even if Elfrid Payton was our starting PG. And it is easier to evaluate your core and your needs when you are playing sensibly. Yes, he did not play the bench much, and therefore we could not evaluate that well our secondary players, but that is something to do when you are up there and not at the bottom. He also instilled good habits in the team. I shudder to think what would have happened to the team if Fizdale was all along for the ride.
Also, a shout out for KAT, because I really didnt believe in him and he has been fantastic. I was really hung up on the January Knicks and thought he would not be playing defense the way he has played in the playoffs, and that he would be unfocused, and he has been the player that was thoughtful of what the rivals were doing and what he had to do. What a way to change my mind.
Another shout out to Mikal for fucking them picks in the playoffs. I really liked the move a the time, but his role and the expections made it difficult for him to fit in the team. For me, the trade was not about the picks, but about adding to the team without losing anything. We could have gone for a bigger fish, but then we would have lost someone, probably someone needed for a championship run. Mikal came here not to reshape the team, but to round it off.
Also, it is amazing that Hart of the team just costed us a pick (and then, it was seen as a treadmill move). In the same way as Thibs, his presence makes the team play with effort, and that makes everything click together and see what works and what does not.
And for OG, who has been absolutely BONKERS in these playoffs. What an amazing player. I really liked the trade at the time (although I was sad to see IQ go), but what he has done these playoffs has no price.
And another for Mitch, because I really like that we have our own lovable homegrown player, even if he makes you desparate at time.
And of course, the captain. When Brunson came along, I was really happy to see that we would have a real PG. But I was expecting something like a slightly improved Raymond Felton. Instead, he took over game after game after game. He is just relentless, never gives up, and has given us the greatest of wins.
What an amazing run! Are the Knicks the reigning NBA champions? HELL YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
Another SA factor:
JB and OG become extension eligible June ’27.
JB can get 5/417, a gargantuan raise from where he is now. He’s pretty much already said, “I sacrificed; I want to get paid next time.”
No way all these guys can fit in above the SA for only one year.
Except that Nelson’s trade would have been great for the Magic too. Both teams should have agreed to it, instead of both teams doubling down on their respective hubris.
He was, but Olajuwon was historically great that year and David Robinson was a rookie with universally better stats. So it doesn’t really mean Ewing was the best player at his position that year. He ranked third.
I read that Boston finally figured out that jacking up a lot of 3s is not the optimal strategy for winning games, especially if you are the more talented team.
The thing missing or at least underweighted from their prior view was that volatlity of results is also a factor. Even “if” shooting more 3s will net you more points over the course of a season, it’s more likely to cause short term negative swings that lose you a game or series. That’s doubly true in the playoffs under extreme pressure when some guys fall apart from outside.
The idea should be to try to create and take as many open 3s, especially from the corner, for excellent 3 point shooters. But the rest of the time you should be trying to penetrate, draw double teams via the PG or a dominant big man, draw fouls and get high quality looks at the rim or close mid range. Shooting tougher 3s in a not a great idea.
Apparently, that’s going to be their new strategy.
Phil Jackson approves.
Steph Curry and a couple of other exceptions do not for good reason.
If you’re a New York native who just won a championship with the New York franchise — and you’re a guy who is likely never going to start and never going to make huge dollars in this league — would you ever want to leave?
Dadiet was considered a project when we drafted him, He’s still too too young to figure out yet, but I sure wouldn’t toss him. I think he’s shown enough on BOTH sides to keep developing.
I love Kolek. If he takes another step forward this summer (I think he will) I’m going to be in a diffuclt love triangle between him and Alvarado for who should be the backup PG and/or how we can possibly get both of them on the court. It gets even more difficult because I love Deuce too despite him not having a great playoff run.
Oh, hell yeah.
For the love of god, E, stop trying to convince us that the sky is going to fall before the parade even starts.
I don’t know but I like the progress each has made the last two years and I would definitely keep both of them on the roster next year.
For Kolek, the goal this year is to prove he can handle backup PG minutes. If he does, that makes either him or Alvarado a good trade chip.
For Dadiet, I just want to see him look comfortable on an NBA court. If he can replicate Diawara last year, I’d be happy.
E is a man who commits to a bit, though the bit is more broadly philosophical than specific. For a while, Josh Hart was a “merc” who was the epitome of everything that was soulless and wrong and futile about Leon’s strategy. Then once it was clear that Hart was awesome and well worth a late pick and the rotting corpse of Cam Reddish, OG became the villain of E’s narrative. Then once OG also turned out to be awesome while IQ was always hurt in Toronto, Mikal was the avatar of every bad choice Leon had made and would make.
Now that all of Leon successfully drew an inside straight and won the goddamn title — with all three of those guys making major contributions at different points of the playoff run — E has to find someone/something new to fret about.
We love you, E. We want you to be able to just bask in this win, in the same way we want that for Donnie. It’s okay. Smile. You can wait at least until draft night to worry about next year.
I’d throw Huk in there, too. I would have had him as the most expendable Knick but he acquitted himself well in these playoffs. Being able to play 5 minutes in the NBA finals without killing your team is exactly what you want from an emergency big and is definitely worth a roster spot IMO.
He’s also a vibe. Didn’t know that til he started doing pressers.
The Knicks’ core will eventually become too old and expensive. It will decline at some point. Some guys we might not be able to keep.
DON’T CARE. WE WON THE CHIP SUCK IT HATERS
We can celebrate the current Knicks without putting down past Knicks players, like Ewing. Patrick exhibited greatness year after year despite not having the most talented team. He put the team on his back on both sides of the court. I wish he had the talent around him that the current Knicks squad has. I love both eras for different reason, but without Patrick the Knicks wouldn’t have been even relevant.
Alvie’s already been featured in one commercial that I’ve seen, and he’ll probably land a few more as a native NYer, so he surely wants to stick around.
You know what’s going to be an all time trivia stumper… What five Knicks were on the floor when the buzzer sounded and they won their first championship in 53 years?
Honestly you could ask that at any bar in NYC tomorrow and unless someone like us is there I don’t think anyone would get it right.
Nice one, Hubert — I had to go back and look. I won’t spoil it for others…
How much do players make off of official merchandise and jerseys sold with their name or likeness?
I’d be curious to know.
Somebody ended up being the Wemby kryptonite for 8.8 seconds
[I didn’t get it was an actual question, so edited for no spoilers]
I only know because I watch it every night before I go to bed and every morning when I wake up.
OK, I’ll cease and desist.
Wanted to second the recommendation of the Times’s hard copy full section on the Knicks’ awesome run.(*) I’m a longtime subscriber and it’s a must have, if you can get your hands on one. Lots of material from The Athletic guys, a poignant column by the great Harvey Araton, nice recaps of the games, etc.
(*) Irresistible, at least to me, is a reprint of the small article the Times did in May 1973, covering the celebration:
— No parade
— Celebration at City Hall Plaza
— 2,000 attendees, unruly: “The police were hard pressed as the fans, mostly high school and college youths, threatened to take over the speakers’ stand.”
— Bradley led the speakers to the stand, as “the fans roared.”
— “Crescendo” for Debusschere, who was on crutches for a bad ankle.
— Willis the final speaker
— Clyde wasn’t there. Hard to tell whether he blew it off, or whether only part of the team went.
In much the same way that I’m forever grateful that my raucous years went down before some numbnut or group of numbnuts could video my good times against my will, we can rest assured that Clyde is grateful that his no-show was pre-net, thus avoiding the tens of thousands of comments and stories and various navel-gazings, performative and otherwise, that would have accompanied a similar no-show today.
“Lemme get this straight. No, no, hold on. Hold on. This game and this team and this organization has given you fur coats and a closetful of silk suits and a Rollllls-ROYCE, and you can’t get yourself out of bed to say a few words to the fans??? Is that what you’re tellin’ me????”
–Stephen A. Smith on the set of Get Up, May 16, 1973
Another random factoid:
Brunson is now the undisputed best American basketball player.
I love international basketball as much as Bruno & Marechal love the World Cup. I know most people don’t care, but I think it’s important we begin recalibrating Team USA, which is currently built around losers Tyrese Halliburton, Anthony Edwards, and Devin Booker.
Jalen’s only got one olympics in him, and this next one should be his. If it isn’t, it’s going to be Wemby’s. And people are gonna be mad as hell if we lose the gold on home soil with Wemby’s nemesis home.
From Reddit:
Still marveling at what Brunson did in Game 5. One of the best all time NBA Finals performances, esp given the stakes and context, and one where the eye test and the analytics test perfectly match up!
Brunson’s performance allowed San Antonio, a dominant home team, to win ZERO games at home
Could you imagine if our championship had been tainted by winning in Game 6 with a suspended Wemby? Brunson helped us avoid that
Kept going after a blatant missed flagrant on his ankles to punish the Spurs
Came through, when absolutely no one else had it going, and our 2nd all star had 2 points..
etc
etc
I am looking forward to just watching this team next year and appreciating their energy and flow. It was very hard to fully enjoy this championship run with all the pent up emotions and magical thinking permeating my brain.
In the most idealized world where we’re able to bring back the whole rotation other than Clarkson (who was in and out of the rotation), and we are able to keep Mo, and we use at least two of our draft picks, are there specific kinds of players you’d want Walt Perrin to prioritize? Like, look for an eventual Josh Hart successor? Try to find another secondary ballhandler? Another big wing? A bigger stretch 4 to back up OG (and sometimes play alongside him in jumbo lineups)?
And/or, are there players being mocked in our range whom you’d be especially excited to get into the building, even though the odds on them playing real minutes next season are slim, barring lots of injuries?
The Spurs didn’t dominate shit. They were the front runner in a horse race that couldn’t carry its speed, and the Knicks knew it.
Best player available.
Philon, Quaintance, and Peat if he slips. All very intriguing. Unfortunately, it looks like Philon’s stock is rising and he probably won’t slip to 24.
Subject to refinement.
Injuries scare me the most for the future, but our wings are very versatile, so they can replace each other. So for me a ballhandler PG (luckily Brunson has been durable) and any C (KAT has been durable, but Mitch not so much). I havent looked at the upcoming draftees.
Does anyone have eyes on certain veteran FAs who might take a discount to be a part of this Knicks revival off the bench?
Yeah I do find it funny that we keep hearing how the Spurs dominated us for 75 percent of the game.
No. They got out to big leads early. If you outscore your opponent in the first quarter but you play them even or get outscored in the next 3 quarters, you didn’t “dominate” them for 3 quarters, even if you didn’t give up the lead until the end of the game.
You dominated them for 1 quarter.
The 29 point comeback is a great example. Spurs dominated the first half. We dominated the second half. We came back from 29 over the entire second half. It was 15 doing into the 4th quarter, so we erased half of that lead in the 3rd.
The Knicks sleepwalked for the first 12 minutes of every game and still came back and kicked the Spurs’s asses.
I actually think the Spurs just came out super intense with their defense but it was something they couldn’t really maintain for 4 full quarters, so they tired themselves out and that’s why we kept coming back.
I think their coach kind of messed up going full court on Brunson every posession to start each game. It was the same game plan and strategy every single game. He should have been switching things up.
I’ve been looking at the list of FA’s, Ras, and one particular guy comes to mind (albeit with a huge caveat):
If the players respect him, and Leon & Co deem he’s a good fit for the chemistry, I like Russell Westbrook over Jordan Clarkson. And I’ll tell you why:
1. Even at 37 and playing for the Kings, he was a lot better than Jordan Clarkson.
2. He could eat a ton of regular season minutes at replacement level for two key guys that have carried quite a load the last few years (Brunson & Hart)
3. He’d bring the hunger to win that a team who just won needs to avoid stagnation.
4. He’s enough of a legend that winning one for him could be a fun side quest, like Ray Bourque on the Avalanche.
5. I think he’d love the Garden and the Garden would love him.
All that said, I don’t know how he’d fit (none of us do). But I trust Leon & Brunson to know. If they think he’d be good for the chemistry, that would be a very fun vet min addition.
In 1973, I was a basketball obsessed 15 year old and the NBA champion Knicks – along with girls, rock ‘n’ roll, and weed – were one of the four pillars of my world.
Nearly an entire lifetime has passed since then, during which time a vast array of passions have come and gone. The Knicks had long ago ceased being chief among them. My feelings towards the team have wavered between disappointment, heartbreak, disgust, and cynical detachment. It just became harder and harder to care how the likes of Rory Sparrow would look against the Bullets in some random midseason contest.
I probably would have abandoned the team altogether had it not been for the memories of how galactically important its triumph had been to the 15 year old me. That increasingly thinning strand is what kept me connected to this team through the many, many lean years. I’d turn on games – mostly out of boredom – and then turn them off again, for the same reason.
So I can’t, in all honesty, lay claim to the mantle of “long suffering fan” as so many on here legitimately can. “Long indifferent” is closer to the truth. My fandom had become little more than a vestigial appendage, serving no discernible purpose. Yes, I would always be a Knicks fan. And, yes, I would never again be all that serious about it as the team itself would always be an unserious one.
Those were my immutable truths. But then, in the 2023 playoff series against the Heat, I experienced a weird sensation. I cared. I was emotionally invested in the outcome and downright pissed when WE lost to that dirtbag franchise. Thus did the long dormant embers of my fandom reignite. In the following years as the team grew in relevance, inching closer and closer to the ultimate prize, my interest grew to the point of scheduling my evening plans around Knick games.
Still, I refused to believe. If the last 53 years had taught me anything, it’s that the farther this team went, the greater the heartbreak would be. Even a historically dominant postseason winning streak failed to convince. So when the streak was broken by the Trump Game, I knew the Curse had been activated and that the other shoe would soon drop. It DID drop, no later than the following game when the team trailed by 27 at halftime. I turned it off, certain in the knowledge that the Knicks would be returning to Texas tied 2-2 en route to an inevitable series defeat.
So my answer to Alan’s question is “No, the Knicks are not the reigning NBA champions.” That did not happen. At least not in the universe I’ve been living in for most of my life and knowing all the hard truths I have learned in that time. To believe otherwise would upend the foundational principles of existence. I have come to believe that sometime in the past week or so I was transported into another plane of being in which Knick fans can have nice things. Hopefully, the rest of this reality is also nice.
Btw every time I write this my autocorrect treats it like a typo and suggests a change.
There’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot this week.
We just sustained a 15.5 net rating over 19 games, damn near a quarter of a season. Our net rating was double that of the next best team. That’s not just the best net rating in playoff history — it would also be the best net rating in history over a full regular season, beating the ’96 Bulls’ mark of 13.4. We did this against far better comp than any regular season. The Hawks and Sixers were winning teams that were significantly better than their records, the Cavs were a solid 50-win team, and the Spurs were the strongest losing finalist since 2016.
We had the #1 playoff offense AND the #1 playoff defense. While some guys shot great (OG), we didn’t really do it with outlier shooting (.391 3FG).
This is a pretty decent body of evidence to suggest that this is who we really are: an all-time great team. Let’s assume we bring back the core and go into next season healthy. What should we expect?
Well, it seems like we should expect our greatest season of all time. The bar for that isn’t very high, since we’ve never won over 60 games, but a 15 SRS team should theoretically expect 70+ Pythagorean wins.
Sure, we’ll do some Brownian experimenting and maybe some load management, but that should be offset by having games against the dregs of the league, right? As a rule teams are less dominant in the playoffs vs. RS, not more.
In that context, us having the 4th best title odds seems pretty stingy. Why should we not expect to be the best team in the NBA next season, or very close to it?
At least one of our starters got the Two Quick Foul Special in every single game, which scrambled our rotations, so that didn’t help matters. Pretty much every game one of the starters had to be yanked in the first couple of minutes.
I’m not even sure what “trusting Leon” means. Does that mean your brain and consciousness just shut off and any opinion about NYK transactions or players disappear? Or never appear in the first instance?
Depends what “very close to it” means.
Westbrooke replacing Clarkson would be fascinating. I don’t know if he’d demand more playing time than he’d get, though.
Westbrook would be a great replacement for Clarkson. I like it.
I think chemistry issues are less of a worry. With Westbrook at age 37 and joining a team that already has a title, I don’t think he’s going to come in and expect to start and be a diva if he sits some nights.
Even a few years ago when we were merely a playoff team and he was 34, not 37, I would have been more worried about chemistry issues. But you have to be pretty arrogant to join a championship team at the twilight of your career and expect the team to play around you and not the other way around.
Just think about some of the “character issue” guys who have ring chased on title contenders in the twilight of their careers. It usually works out unless they get hurt or they’re just washed.
Plus it would be funny to get Westbrook a ring while Harden still doesn’t have one.
Yeah, I don’t know if interjecting the Westbrook nightly chuckfest here is the way to prevent stagnation. There are probably better ways.
Put me down for “maybe.” He won’t be expensive, that’s for sure. I’d be more up for it if I knew he could defend.
Never forget.
This was so predictable and blatant that I now refer to it as these players being placed on administrative leave
Pags, I’m very with you (and by the way, loving the Reformed version and basking in many of your posts, so tip o’ the cap…). I think listing us fourth is a scandal well worth investigating by experienced detectives. First, we won the championship, and at this point at least, next year looks like the same group is coming back (and they should). Second, a ton of different metrics say we dominated in ways that while almost inexplicable are also unavoidable, and like the one you mention suggest we’re not only the best but arguably one of the best ever.
It’s just weirdly disrespectful. I presume it’s just a holdover from the lengthy ‘we suck’ narrative (so well described by Gondrezick [“My fandom had become little more than a vestigial appendage, serving no discernible purpose…”]). But it just flies in the face of facts.
stuck at the moment betwen being perpetually ready to move on, and wanting to squeeze every bit of joy possible out of this moment…
starting to scope out different championship shirt options to spread around through the family…
I really like the black t-shirt the knicks wore after they won the series…
Vikings theme song sure helps define the moment:
This will never end ’cause I want more
More, give me more
Give me more
I expect next season the Knicks will have alot of who gives a shit about the regular season performances. I would predict a similar record as this season and probably another 3rd seed.
Then they fucking destroy all their opponents in the playoffs.
Westbrook might be the worst possible signing the Knicks could make, are you guys being serious?
It would be justified to have those odds if there was clear indication that one of our direct competitors in the east was getting a clear upgrade like Giannis or whatever.
But OKC and The Spurs have to get through each other to get to the finals. I don’t see who in the east is clearly better than us at this point. Detroit is the big question mark for me because they did kick our ass in the regular season and you could chalk up their disappointment in the playoffs to inexperience and bad match ups.
but everyone else I don’t see how they get that much better. And we also have to realize that the only teams who saw this new version of us were Atlanta, Philly, the Cavs and Spurs. No one else has faced this new version of our team.
Re: Jazz Funk
I am looking forward to just watching this team next year and appreciating their energy and flow. It was very hard to fully enjoy this championship run with all the pent up emotions and magical thinking permeating my brain.
Well said. I had/have similar feelings. This summer and next season, I am hoping to enjoying and appreciating everything even more!
We have to see what happens in off season. Getting Giannis will require a team to give up a lot and can he stay healthy. Lebron may switch somewhere. Celtics seem like they want to do something big but can Tatum stay healthy.
Another great thing about this title is not having to worry about Giannis.
That said, I hope Boston doesn’t get away with trading Brown for him. That would be a heist (and we would still beat Boston).
Vet min for LeBron to get 2 more titles with the knicks and catch Jordan!
Come over here LeBron!
And bring Bronny too!
😛
I do not want to see washed out vets coming to this team to demand and receive unwarranted attention because of their gigantic egos. Even if they’re HOFers. Maybe 10 years ago. Not now. Immaculate vibes, guys…
I don’t mind washed out vets as long as they’re humble and ready to embrace Brown’s “Who Let the Dogs Out” Culture.
We could use some Kidds and Sheeds next year.
Just checked KAT’s playoff stats comparing this season’s stats with his previous playoff seasons.
The Upgrade of his Playing Quality in these playoffs is Eye-Opening!
Russ isn’t washed. Over the last three seasons, he’s been everything we wanted Clarkson to be.
All that matters is if the team likes him and Leon thinks he’s a good fit. I’m not suggesting we push Russ on the team against their wishes. He might be Josh Hart’s favorite player for all we know. (These guys revere Melo, after all.)
Haven’t checked yet who is FA or who would agree to a Vet’s Minimum but don’t tell me you would not like having a “Conley or Horford” type of vet giving you some minutes during hard times and pumping up the crowd just like Sheed or Kenyon Martin once did.
I would and Westbrook despite being a Crazy mfkr gives me also the impression of a Loyal Rootable Dog ready to go to war for his team.
I’m in.
And If he’s Trouble you just send him home.
Russ 🤣🤣🤣 u buggin
I think Russ will want more court time than we can offer. Plus he’s a bit too similar to Josh Hart.
In the draft, I would take guys who have or seem to demonstrate the ability to do anything for their team to succeed, like Zuby or Graves. I know that’s harder to determine with freshmen, so a lot will depend on interviews. That said, it’s pretty unlikely that this year’s draftees will see many minutes on a championship team, so maybe just go BPA.
Again, it’s if Jalen and Josh and KAT and OG and Mikal all say “yeah, we love that guy”, and Wes (who knows everything) knows he’d be a good fit in in the locker room, then I’d like him as a replacement for Jordan Clarkson.
I was super impressed with KAT’s defense in the entire playoffs. Like he seemed like an all-defensive player out there. Besides the fouls, he challenges a lot of shots, deflected and stole passes, and moved his feet really well.
KAT really shoved in those playoffs, I still want to know more about how…
Over the five games of the NBA Finals
Karl-Anthony Towns on the court: Knicks +44.
Karl-Anthony Towns on the bench: Knicks -32.
Ht Henry Abbott
Awesome
https://nypost.com/2026/06/17/sports/mitchell-robinson-to-show-out-in-custom-truck-during-knicks-parade/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&sr_share=twitter&utm_campaign=nypost_sports
KAT has always had very good plus-minus numbers. Back when we were bored and the team was months away from becoming world champions, there was long back-and-forth about KAT and Brunson not being able to play together and a walk through of all the lineup data showing that KAT’s numbers with Brunson off were better than JB on, KAT off numbers.
That’s kinda the point.
Between Thibs’ insanity and these back-to-back deep playoff runs, Josh and Jalen have logged almost an extra season over the last four years. We might want to start cutting down their regular season loads if we want this to last 2-3 more years.
Your local Clarkson Appreciator checking in here. Clarkson had a substantially higher TS% on lower but similar-ish usage (21.1 to 25.9, but the Clarkson figure strikes me as preferable in the Knicks context), is 4 years younger, and maybe most importantly, never complained about his role and embraced his inner Jrue Holiday when the time called for it.
Obviously Westbrook bested him in plenty of areas too, partially because he was more ball-dominant, but I wouldn’t say he was a lot better, and in particular I wouldn’t say the kind of player he was (i.e. dollar store usage soaker on a terrible team) is something we really want or need.
I’m very excited to see the KAT hub offense all next season against teams that don’t have size at the 5.
We got away from playing so much drop and played a lot more to our strengths as a defensive team. Our switchable wings did a lot more switching.
We supposedly had two “bad” defenders in KAT and Brunson but we stuffed our opponents mercilessly on the defensive end the entire playoff run. #1 defensive team in the postseason and #2 in the regular season from January 20 on.
It was a systemic improvement and they had it fucking DIALED by the time the playoffs came around. WingStop was fully operational and even bench guys like Clarkson and Shamet were defending their asses off.
I don’t see it going that way because it wasn’t like our dominant run was about grinding it out. The Finals were like that, but the Spurs are an atypical team. For the rest, we played loose and it looked palpably like we were having fun! Point KAT was fun! Turning made baskets into transition against CLE was fun! Roasting Embiid in the P&R was fun!
Maybe our defensive intensity won’t be quite as psychotic, but we already saw our D show up towards the end of last season. But on offense, why wouldn’t we play that way? It beats Thibs ball any day.
I’m one of the first if not the first Clarkson supporter in here when he came to the knicks and i do like his game a lot but if it’s between Him and Westbrook….“brother JC, you are going down.”
I think what we will have a lot of next season is Brown using the bench, whatever it is, even more extensively than he did this year. I think the most important thing this year showed is that if you’re good enough and healthy enough, seeding doesn’t matter much. If you’re ready for the postseason, home court advantage doesn’t mean much. In fact, I think that not having Home court advantage worked to our advantage against San Antonio, and said as much before the final started.
It’s easy to disregard HC advantage when you can fill 30-40% opposing arena seats thousands of miles away from home with your own rabid fandom.
I suspect it will be even more in the next postseason to come.
Considering that we’re in the age of parity and aprons and draconian salary caps and eight consecutive different teams winning chips, a repeat title would be very impressive.
Having HC advantage over the Celtics or the Pistons wouldn’t be a very bad thing tho
Exactly, and I believe it’s on the table. The team we’ve been for the last 15 games is the best team in the NBA and should be regarded like OKC was going into last season.
This is actually the hinge on which the entire argument turns, because I think a “dollar store usage soaker” is exactly what we need.
Jalen Brunson takes an incredible physical beating over the course of a season, and that gets magnified tenfold in the playoffs. If we can reduce his regular-season workload by even 10%, I think it materially improves our championship odds. Brunson’s usage rate is around 30%. We went 1-4 in competitive games without him last season. If he misses 10-12 games next year (and I think we should make sure he does), having someone who can absorb possessions and keep the offense functional could easily be worth a couple of wins in the standings. In a crowded East, that can be the difference between the 1, 2, and 3 seeds.
The same logic applies to Josh Hart. He’ll be 31 next season and has probably logged more hard miles than anyone on the roster since arriving in New York. He’s essential to what makes this team work. The goal shouldn’t be squeezing every possible minute out of him from October through April; it should be getting him to May and June in the best condition possible.
Hart missed 11 competitive games last year, and we went 5-6. When he got hurt before New Year’s, the team went through a brutal stretch that nearly derailed the season. He came back, and suddenly everything looked functional again.
So yes, I absolutely want a dollar store usage soaker. In fact, I think it’s one of the few things this roster genuinely lacks. And I want someone who is too similar to Josh Hart. No one on our roster can do what he does. Westbrook can be both, and do it for the vet min. That strikes me as one of the highest-upside uses of a deep roster spot.
For the record, I thought Leon Rose was a fool and a nepotist for locking himself into Jalen Brunson when the much better rounded Dejounte Murray was also available. Just goes to show that a broken clock is still wrong 1438 minutes a day.
Croatia has some major Knicks comeback energy
Ah, you’re reminding me of Knicks legend, Mario Hezonja.
I think you make a strong case, Hubs.
Health is basically the number one factor for the playoffs now. The full season plus full playoff run through a title is brutal in today’s fast paced NBA.
I think that’s as much of a reason for why we haven’t had a repeat in 8 years as the salary cap. A lot of teams in the last 8 years came back the next year with the same squad but didn’t make it because an injury derailed their playoffs.
Use that bench more but get a usage soaker for Brunson and Hart. Sounds good to me. Play Diawara more for OG and Mikal. Mikal’s gonna play every game but we can play him less minutes.
Just get a top 3 seed again and win 50ish games and we’re good.
Love the point about the road not being a detriment when you have fans that can go to every arena.
thinking of adding players to the roster is going to be necessary…feel strongly that tyler, mo (if he stays) and huk should get a shot at the rotation also…
heck, maybe pacome becomes ready…
if i had to guess, we draft a center and mitch leaves to another team…
ha, last time mitch stayed i thought he would leave…
Big news: Dolan on WFAN just now said the Knicks will not go into the second apron.
Good call, Hubie!
so, does that mean unless KAT reworks his extension mitch is most likely gone?
Huh? No, I said the opposite. that’s horrible news.
Talk about raining on our parade (not literally). Thanks, Jimmy D.
Goddammit, Guitar Jimmy.
Here’s the video of him saying it on WFAN: https://x.com/sny_knicks/status/2067359666678456675
Let’s talk about Dolan here and not ruin Jim’s beautiful post with his name…
I listened to that link and it’s just bullshit. The second apron is not “suicidal.” Owners just be using it as an excuse to not pay. Now they can say “well I wanted to, it’s not the money, it’s just the penalties are so severe I had no choice.”
It’s bullshit. There’s not one second apron penalty that is more suicidal than losing your 6th man for nothing. Period.
New thread is up
I’d also consider moving Mikal — who I still think is the least important starter — in a salary dump. That lets us keep Mitch, Shamet, and probably Diawara.
We can also take back someone worth ~$14M in salary in the Mikal trade.
Sarcasm.
But it’s fine. It will all be fine.
It’s worth pointing out…
1. Dolan is still an idiot and he probably understands the second apron as well as some of these two-weeks old Knicks fans.
2. The full quote is actually “There’s certain things in the NBA that you’d have to be suicidal to do. One of them is the second apron. Cannot go into the second apron. But that’s up to Leon.”
So there’s still hope that someone in the Knicks organization has enough sense to realize that avoiding the 2nd apron is far more suicidal than going over it.
Dang, Dolan also said the Knicks accepted Trump’s invite to the White House even though it was already out there that they didn’t accept the invitation .
It’s also being reported that the Knicks are interested in Sergio De Larrea (possibly as an intl stash to save more $$).
Let’s just make it clear as day:
If you go over the second apron, you get to keep your whole roster, but it’s hard to improve.
If you stay under the second apron, you have to lose critical pieces of your roster for nothing, and it’s even harder to improve!
Put another way…
are you more likely to be better with a $250M payroll or if you hard cap yourself at $220M?
Put another way….
It’s actually a huge competitive advantage to go over the second apron because it lets you have a higher payroll than everyone else!
After Dolan says it’s “up to Leon” he then says:
“I’ll write as big of a check as possible, but I can’t write a check that goes into the 2nd apron.”
Then it’s not up to Leon, is it?
.
So he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Really dick move on the day before the parade. Can you please go back to shutting the fuck up?
I don’t think we anticipated how much this title would embolden Dolan to spout shit on air, possibly every day. But at least he have this one sweet Championship! They can’t take that from us.
Is this where we’re posting, or the new thread?
We’re posting about Dolan here, Doogie. Only good things in the Jim Cavan post.
Two topics, two threads, Doogie. Post about Dolan and the apron here. Post about Jim’s article there.
If (big if) this is true, Dadiet would probably be the first casualty (traded into another team’s cap space to free up 3 mil.)
But I still think it would be an either/or situation with Mitch and Shamet, considering you’d have to fill out 4 other slots. Btw this is assuming Alvarado opts in, which easily may not happen.
Leon and WWW on the phone now doing damage control. Hard to conjure an unforced error of that type in that context even by a suddenly verbally liberated Dolan.
I’m legit shocked by this. It’s, like, he won a title, and so now he wants to let his douche flag fly.
He is when he attributes Thibs’s firing to “Leon and I,” too.
This is where the Knicks being a public company hurts us. A fiduciary can write a small check to go over the second apron, in theory at least, but a nine-figure one is pretty much out of the question. It’s the public shareholders’ money. One or two rich dudes can write as big a check as they want.
They also separated the Knicks and Rangers into separate companies (or will shortly); some are reasonably speculating that a sale of one or both of them might be forthcoming. You’d never go into the SA if you were looking to sell.
A normal owner would have told Leon a long time ago that he wasn’t going into the SA, so things could be planned, but Dolan isn’t normal.
I am cautiously optimistic Dolan has no idea what he’s talking about and is referring to the second apron penalties that kick in after going over 3 times in 5 seasons. At least that’s what I’m choosing to believe, in order to maintain my euphoric state.
My son just asked me “Who would you trade Jalen Brunson for right now?” I responded “No one.” And I meant it. Not even with a bunch of unprotected firsts attached.
Anyone else on the team has some price, I guess. I’d be saddest trading OG, then Mikal, then Josh, then KAT, then Deuce, then Alvo, then Huk, but right now I trust Leon to do the right thing for them and for the team. I’d be sad if we lost Mitch or Mo to free agency. But if that’s what Leon thinks is best, that’s good enough for me, at least for now.
I don’t really care all that much who we draft, or if we trade the picks and not draft at all, at least not yet. I don’t care which scrubs we sign to minimums, at least not yet. I don’t care whether we go into the second apron or not, at least not yet. I trust Leon to do something close to the correct thing with these decisions.
I’m leaving at the crack of dawn to go to the parade with my son tomorrow. My two daughters will be there. Planning to get there by 7. It’s a rare tickertape parade through the Canyon of Heroes. It is in honor of the New York Knicks in celebration their first NBA championship in 53 years. There was no such parade for either of the 1970 or 1973 championships (Fuck you Mayor Lindsay!). I owe the ability to attend such an event to Leon, the guy who threaded the needle of the hybrid method and brought me the best greatest sports moment of my 68+ years of life, not just because they won but because of how fucking lovably and respectably bold and courageous they were this year. I love Leon’s silence while doing it. I am not going to be in the business of second-guessing him for quite a while.
What a dumb fuck…Dolan is a moron
Jalen and Hart in Yankee booth right now
The best way to negotiate is when your counterpart in the negotiation knows what goals we have to achieve. Nice one, Dolan!
For anyone that wants to remain euphoric, don’t google “Artemi Panarin Tom Wilson John Davidson Jeff Gorton fired.”
There are a lot of excellent players here, obviously; if the managers are left alone to manage it, the SA issue can be successfully managed. I’m staying optimistic. My optimism starts to dwindle a bit if it starts leaking out that this took Leon and crew by surprise. It very well might have.
It is certainly optimism-sapping that Dolan decided now to blurt this out for no real reason, but my theory has always been that his psyche is such that he likes stepping on the fans’ enjoyment to “show who’s boss” and this certainly helps confirm that.
Enjoy, Z-Man — you deserve it.
Who’s the most popular sports owner in NY right now?
The Celtics went deep into the second apron right before they sold for $6 billion.
They also won 61 games when they were over it. Not exactly suicide, was it?
I think it’s actually still Dolan. That’s how bad Hal and Mara are.
(Maybe it’s Uncle Steve, I can’t really speak for Mets fans.)
The Celtics went out of the second apron before the ink was dry on the closing documents, if not before.
I guess there’s only 15 or so contracts so the buyer can do the SA math on their own during the negotiations if they’re sharp and figure out the ones they’re going to order taken off the books before they offer and pay up, sure. Point taken.
lol this was published this morning:
He didn’t even make it one day.
It was inevitable.
He also said on his own accord, “We’re going to Trump’s White House, he’s a good friend of mine.”
The. Day. Before. The. Parade.
The Razor is back baby!
Enjoy, my friend. The championship you wanted to win even more, because of your son and daughters is here, you deserve this. 🧡💙
And remember, the one championship we won since you know me had you and Lady Z-man visiting me in the summer. Don’t jinx it, we all want to repeat in 2027. 😉 🙂
OMG he’s finally getting the adulation he’s felt he’s always deserved and he’s going a tour to remind everyone what a fucking douchebag he is.
The dark clouds started when he leaked his speech and got outlets like The Athletic to write encomiums about him “leading” the team to a title “his way.”
He’s empowered and emboldened now. In basketball terms, let’s just hope he warned Leon about the SA prior to today.
This is like the Monkey’s Paw part of the story.
Yes, you get to win the title, but the first person who gets to hold the trophy is James Dolan in a ridiculous pumpkin suit and he almost drops it. One finger curls.
Yes, you get to win the title, but the same cunt in the pumpkin suit forces you to go to the White House and pose for pictures with Donald Trump in front of a pile of Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. Two fingers.
Yes, you get to win the title but two days later David S. Pumpkins is going on podcasts telling people he’s gonna have to basically break up the team. Three fingers
My wife took video of me after game 5
https://x.com/i_7md/status/2067311477992636516?s=20
There was his whole “Glen can match up to one billion dollars… but I won’t pay any luxury tax for it” thing that rained on Linsanity too.
I don’t think Dolan can force any players to go to the White House.
He definitely can’t but he can force Leon Rose to trade anyone who doesn’t go. It’s not like he hasn’t done that before.
The only one who can get away with not going is JB, but he’s not gonna leave his teammates out to dry without him.
Apparently, the Wolves are also interested in de Larrea
https://www.si.com/nba/timberwolves/onsi/sergio-de-larrea-reportedly-on-timberwolves-nba-draft-radar
Whatever. He clearly hasn’t spoken to Leon about the apron or his team about the White House. He’s just acting like a narcissist on a talk show. I’m gonna watch game 4 again and wait for this to blow over.
I don’t get the outsized animosity towards Dolan. As I said in a previous thread, most ultra-rich owners are assholes. If you start bitching about his well-known behaviors, you are essentially calling Brunson either a moron or a sell-out. I assume he knew who Dolan was, and he could have stayed in Dallas or signed with a less onerous owner for less money. You are also implying that Leon was either morally bankrupt or an ambitious sellout for working for him.
I think Dolan has enormous character flaws. At the same time, he doesn’t strike me as a fraud. He is spoiled, far from a genius, petty, and narcissistic. But one thing he is not is a fraud. I think his speech to the players was genuine, and I think his interview with Carton was genuine. I think his apology to fans was genuine, and I think his statement that he regrets a lot of decisions he made and wishes he knew then what he knows now was genuine. I think he really thought that novice POBO Phil could do the job because he had ’70s Knicks championship DNA and was perhaps the most accomplished coach in the history of the NBA. I think he fucked Jeremy Lin because he felt Lin fucked him. He is spoiled, narcissistic, dumb (in some particularly “detrimental to winning” ways) and has an incredibly thin skin. But he has some qualities that fans of other franchises wish their owners had.
James Dolan takes douchebaggery to such baroque levels that you almost have to kind of admire it. If there was a Douchebag Hall Of Fame there would be a statue of him outside wearing a fedora and blowing some harp. The surveillance state that exists at MSG alone is enough reason to dunk on James Dolan for the rest of time.
I’d give him a break considering we just won a title and he mostly stayed out of the way, but on the other hand, nah.
Yeah, no
Yeah, maybe a bit much, Z.
But I actually did like Dolan’s analogy about what it felt like to witness the Knicks finally win a championship:
“The surveillance state that exists at MSG alone is enough reason to dunk on James Dolan for the rest of time.”
I’ve been to a ton of games and never thought twice about it. It’s a big nothingburger, and if anything, it might make the venue safer. I guess maybe I’m unaware of the horror stories that have resulted.
“I’d give him a break considering we just won a title and he mostly stayed out of the way, but on the other hand, nah.”
The irony here is not only did he win a title and mostly stay out of the way, but the team is one of the most universally respected teams in the history of the NBA, to the point that a number of talking heads are referring to it as “America’s Team.” Not to mention that he oversaw the most successful redesign of an iconic arena, you know, the world’s most famous arena, that I could have imagined, that makes every opposing arena look like a dump.
The list of NBA principal owners is hardly a Who’s Who of role models. Dolan gets outsized attention because it’s New York, but he fits right in with that crowd. At the end of the day, the product does the talking, and he owns the hottest product in the business, mainly because of the team’s character. Seems like it shouldn’t be that bitter of a pill for a fan to swallow.
Dolan is not a bad owner. Many teams have cheap owners who make moves that weaken the team to save money. Dolan so far has not done that. And he’s been willing to spend to get a large and good coaching staff, have a good scouting organization and a good medical team and to pay tax. . If he’s unwilling to go over the second apron, I suspect it’s because of the transaction and draft penalties, not because of the money. He has the personality flaws described here but he’s also not a racist, is reasonably charitable and treated his employees well when the pandemic shut a lot of things down. We could do a lot worse.
Robbing his players of their agency on a culturally sensitive matter is a new low for him and it’s worthy of scorn.
“Robbing his players of their agency is a new low for him and it’s worthy of scorn.”
Sure.
“Yeah, maybe a bit much, Z.”
Why? (You understand that I’m actually defending Brunson, right?)
OMG I can’t believe people are in here actually trying to defend Dolan. “The surveillance is good actually, it makes us safer!” “He always spends money, of course he won’t break up the team over money. Ignore his radio interview today where he explicitly states he’s not going to spend the money!”
Personally, if he actually does try and force the team to visit the White House I hope somebody plays I Should’ve Known while they’re there.
Defending him from who? No one’s attacking Brunson at all and it’s weird that you think everyone’s animosity towards Dolan somehow reflects on Brunson at all.
way to find the slim glimmer of hope in that debbie downer dolan’s words…
also, probably very true…limited knowledge of salary cap rules and restrictions…
James Dolan had his little Stasi monitor the every move of a trans woman to make sure she wasn’t shown on the broadcast. He is a tremendous piece of shit and there is truly no reason to try to add fake nuance to the situation.
“Defending him from who? No one’s attacking Brunson at all and it’s weird that you think everyone’s animosity towards Dolan somehow reflects on Brunson at all.”
Do you agree or disagree with the premise that if you choose of your own free will to work for someone who who you know is [insert adjectives for whatever you think Dolan is] , and in a way that you know will immensly benefit that person financially and reputation-wise, solely to advance your own career, that you are a sellout?
I sure don’t. That’s why I don’t moralize much about Dolan, especially when I have invested so much time, energy, and money patronizing his product. Maybe that makes me other things, but certainly not a hypocrite.
Put differently, I gladly consume products that I fully know will directly benefit the likes of James Dolan. Criticizing him as those above are doing is analagous to criticizing Trump while knowingly contributing to his campaign, or to his vanity projects. Some artists won’t perform at the Kennedy Center because of Trump. What do you think of those that do? Are they any different than Brunson, who wasn’t traded here against his will, but signed as a free agent who had other choices?
Do you agree that Brunson could have played elsewhere for a less reprehensible owner?
WTF are you talking about? This is some real, “curious, you criticize society yet you still live in society” type shit.
I’ll believe the Knicks are attending the White House when they visit the White House. Until then, I’ll just believe this is Dolan flapping his gums like a dick.
“James Dolan had his little Stasi monitor the every move of a trans woman to make sure she wasn’t shown on the broadcast. He is a tremendous piece of shit and there is truly no reason to try to add fake nuance to the situation.”
So why do you keep donating to him by patronizing his product? How does your conscience allow you to fork over money to that monster?
Really, anyone who feels the way you do but willingly sets foot in Dolan’s arena, even for free, or pays him royalties to watch his product on TV, or wears merch, should feel dirty. You’re part of the machine. Might as well were a MAGA hat while you bitch at Trump.
“WTF are you talking about? This is some real, “curious, you criticize society yet you still live in society” type shit.”
Bullshit. The Knicks are not “society.” They are a specific product that can easily be boycotted without an iota of removal from society. Stop sugarcoating your own hypocricy.
That’s just the point: he won’t let it. Because this is about him. As always for every narcissist.
There are s lot of unhinged takes on here but Guitar Jimmy being a good owner is up there. I’ll give it to him that he canned Thibs, which needed to happen, but from Anucha Brown-Sanders on, it’s been mostly a shit show, a lot of it directly his shit. Any sane owner would keep his mouth shut and revel in the moment, but not Jim! Gotta be the story, because this championship is about his leadership.
If the douchebag isn’t willing to spend to keep the team together, then fuck him forever.
“There are s lot of unhinged takes on here but Guitar Jimmy being a good owner is up there.”
Please point me to the post where I called him a good owner.
“Any sane owner would keep his mouth shut and revel in the moment, but not Jim! Gotta be the story, because this championship is about his leadership.”
Sorry, that’s not what I heard. In fact, he gave almost all of the credit (except for hiring him, which most people here panned at the time and some continuously ever since, even up to the final horn in game 5) to Leon. The uproar here is that he said he doesn’t want the team to go into the 2nd apron. Given the penalties for doing so, that’s actually quite a “sane” position (shared by the vast majority of owners), whether you agree with it or not. Is it the “best” choice? That’s certainly debatable. But it is far from insane.
“If the douchebag isn’t willing to spend to keep the team together, then fuck him forever.”
Well as your favorite poster E pointed out, it is not uncommon at all for management to “not” keep the team together after a championship. It’s actually kind of weird that you think he owes it to you or anyone else.
There isn’t anything insane at all in what he said. Narcissistic? Sure. Unnecessary in the moment? Whatever. Yadayada.
But one thing seems pretty clear to me. Whatever he says or does, it sounds to me like he wants to win, both now and in the future. And he’s finally got a good POBO to run things. Really, who gives a fuck that a proud, defiant, much-maligned asshole of an owner is giving two middle fingers to his critics in the heat of one of the most glorious moments in NYC sports history? Frankly, as one of his most willing “stooges” (I admit to consuming the fuck out of his product, literally can’t get enough!), I find the hypocrisy kind of comical!
that speech was a classic:
okay guys, how about we win this one for me…
he just seems too dim to be anything but fairly transparent whenever he speaks…
not sure how the players may truly feel about him…I imagine it varies amongst them…
ha, I can see ol’ mitch and jimmy d pulling up to the white house in his monster truck – just the two of them…
ummmm, an invite to where? Oops sorry, already got plans to go to the obama center that day…
gonna miss the parade (stay safe and have fun for all you folks going)…
just out of curiosity though, searching locations along the route where it may be possible to stay below the 30th floor and get out on a rooftop or balcony to watch…gotta imagine there are a few hundred thousand people doing the same…
ai is sort of useful for that kind of stuff…
That’s the main part of it, yes. Which directly contradicts your argument that “it sounds like he wants to win.” If you want to win, you keep the team together that…just won. That’s a pretty solid recipe. But you can’t do that if you don’t pay them, which he just said he wouldn’t do, despite it only costing him money.
Another part of it is the timing. Now? You say that now? Wait a freaking week at least. But no, the narcissist clock means you do it when it works for you, which is when everyone is celebrating your team and you need to put yourself in the center of it.
The last part is, for many of us, I suspect, the “we accepted an invitation to the White House” comment. Again, an unsolicited bummer at the worst possible time. He heard the boos; he knows many fans hate the Orange Man, but he said it anyway because, again, it’s all about him.
Everyone he’s giving the finger to. Not hard to parse.
It shouldn’t be a controversial take to say that James Dolan is a moronic tasteless assbag whose main skill in life was being born to rich parents. I root for the team despite the existence of said assbag because they’re the team I chose to root for when I was a kid, because my family came from New York and my dad grew up a Knicks fan.
I am able to hold more than one thought in my head at a time: I like the Knicks, and James Dolan can eat a giant bag of dicks.
I contain multitudes.
Even if it was a flex, as suggested by E, the timing and venue of Dolan’s statement was inexplicable and ties him with Woody Johnson for imbecilic public statements harmful to his own team.
“I am able to hold more than one thought in my head at a time: I like the Knicks, and James Dolan can eat a giant bag of dicks..”
I feel the same way! That makes me a hypocrite! I don’t cop out behind what made me a Knicks fan in the first place. It’s a choice that I make because I don’t really give a fuck who owns the team, because if I really, truly did, I could make the choice to give it up so I don’t continue to be part of the machine that lines some reprehensible asshole’s pockets. As to holding more than one thought in your head, seems like there’s a limit when it comes to this sort of hypocrisy re: the products we choose to consume of our own free will.
The dumb, harmful shit that Dolan spouts today doesn’t bother me any more than it ever did…or ever will. But being that I’m on my parade that I’ve longed for since I was a little kid, and that he has had a direct hand in providing me (and millions of other diehards) with this experience, it probably bothers me a little less today. I’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.
There’s a reason the default state of humanity has been to live with authority’s boot on its throat, and Knickerblogger — among its many other fine traits — has now done its part in helping us understand why.
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