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Knicks Morning News (2026.09.10)

News & Blogs

  • Knicks Mailbag: How can NY address lack of frontcourt depth? – SNY
  • Celebrating Deuce McBride’s career and his 26th birthday – Posting & Toasting
  • NBA champion Dillon Jones signs camp deal with Philadelphia – Posting & Toasting
  • Where does Knicks’ Jalen Brunson rank among the NBA’s best point guards? – SNY
  • NBA preview 2026-27: Zach Kram tiers all 30 teams – ESPN

    • YT News

  • StricklyNFL Patreon Preview Episode 59: Football Is Back… On A Wednesday? – The Strickland
  • 2/1/24: Knicks 109, Pacers 105 – “Jalen Brunson. Born To Play Basketball” – Knicks Film School
  • Mike Breen’s Knicks Championship Call Meant MORE Than You Think 🥹 – Knicks Fan TV

    • 55 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.09.10)”

    Some days I wake up and think it was all a dream. And when I realize it wasn’t I smile and feel the joy again. That ever happen to you?

    I’ll be honest with you, Hubert, I STILL haven’t really processed it yet. Partly because it was so very intense in wildly divergent ways — first down 2-1 with hope fading in that particularly depressing Knicksian way, then reeling off a run of immensely dominant wins (who wins by 51 points, even against the worst tanking teams in the middle of the season????), and then the finals where we were clearly losing repeatedly (who comes back from 29 in the fourth quarter????). It feels like I spent a month in a wind tunnel where the hurricane-force winds switched directions constantly.

    I mean, better than the alternative, but holy cow.

    1

    I honestly don’t think I can fully appreciate it now, and don’t think I will be able to until opening night when they raise the banner. Even then (and hopefully I will live long enough to experience this) it won’t be until I see Brunson’s jersey hanging from the Garden rafters, right between Clyde’s and Barnett’s.

    I say this because every time I go to MSG and see those numbers up there, it reminds me of how utterly amazing that 1970 championship was. The championship banner is great too, but I rarely look at it compared to the numbers.

    But watching opening night on TV with the ring ceremony and banner raising followed by perhaps the most anticipated opening game in Knicks history, and then the next time I go to a game MSG and hear the greatest PA announcer in sports history say “…any your World Champion New York Knicks” followed by the starting lineup trotting out are going to be mega-huge for me in terms of it really sinking in.

    Agree with everything said above. Although the Tik Tok algorithm knows that I’ll watch every Knicks video it sends along and remind me of that amazing playoff run.

    I was thinking about an alternate universe where the Spurs win game 5 and the NBA reviews Wemby’s blatant flagrant foul on Brunson (which could have easily broken Jalen’s ankle and ended the series)

    Do they retroactively assess Wemby a flagrant and have him sit out game 6 and basically hand the title to the Knicks? Or do they ignore it which would have created its own massive firestorm?

    You know Adam Silver will forever be grateful that our little superstar didn’t allow a game 6 to happen, he would have had the toughest decision of his tenure as commish.

    1

    I’m totally over it. Bring on next season.

    The time slips away
    Leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of
    Glory days

    1

    I’m looking forward to the opening night banner raising ceremony.

    I’m also really looking forward to the first home game against Boston when Mitch returns. I can’t wait to see whatever tribute video we put together for him. We’ve never done one for a former player who helped us win a chip and he was also here for so long. I also can’t wait to hear the welcome he gets (and hope to god no one boos him, but I don’t think anyone will).

    They might boo Mitch if he makes a free throw. Although the Garden may go into paroxysms of wild cheering as a learned knee jerk reaction…

    1

    the past no longer exists, or does it…not really sure…

    any who, move forward…

    gonna go with: in some ways it does, in some ways it does not…yeah, that is it there, for the moment…

    The NBA account on YouTube has a shitload of awesome highlight videos of the Knicks championship run. There are also great videos on last season’s playoff run and a ton of Brunson videos from all his Knicks seasons.

    1

    This week, not sure why and exactly when, flipped from revel-mode to can’t wait til next season mode. Perhaps because I know I will enjoy the next regular season (other than a 2-9 start or crucial season-ending injury) no matter what. Contrast to the start of the last 3 seasons when each loss had me worrying that they are not playing up to their potential.

    2

    boring stories of
    Glory days

    Can we talk more about the end of the world? The playoffs starting soon.

    1

    I don’t know about you guys but I still haven’t ruled out an announcement being made that it was all a big mistake and the NBA will be rescinding our championship under the heretofore undisclosed Art. 9 Sec. 129 of the NBA Rule Book, known informally as the Wemby Wins, You Lose rule.

    “The time slips away
    Leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of
    Glory days”

    Ah. We share a high school alma mater.

    Cognitively, I know we won, but it feels unlike every other Championship I’ve experienced going back to the ‘77 Yankees. I think we were so conditioned to recognize a NBA championship team by certain markers that the Knicks never really had. Brunson being a best-in-league super duper star is still hard to comprehend. They won the last game of the season and I’m still waiting for them to be eliminated.

    I’m also really looking forward to the first home game against Boston when Mitch returns.

    It’s probably LeBron’s fault Mitch won’t be there for the banner party on opening night. Celtics were the likeliest opponent for that game til he joined Philly.

    I’m annoyed that we’re playing the Sixers on opening night, in large part because I’m afraid LeBron’s going to saddle KAT with quick fouls and spend the whole game force feeding a healthy Embiid against Andre Drummond, making me mad at James Dolan all over again for letting Mitch go.

    Even though we won, I’m still scarred.

    I wanted a patsy, like Donnie’s Pacers.

    and then the finals where we were clearly losing repeatedly

    Offseason reflection on this has actually had me come around to different thinking – in virtually every Finals game, the Spurs sprinted out to a big lead to the tune of a massive 1st quarter scoring differential. But for the remaining 3 quarters, especially the 4ths, the Knicks were either even or significantly better.

    The notion that the Spurs were “winning” the Finals a majority of the time is bunk. The Knicks won far more quarters of basketball. Thus, Champs.

    3

    Cognitively, I know we won, but it feels unlike every other Championship I’ve experienced going back to the ‘77 Yankees. I

    I don’t know if you’re a Giants fan but to me it felt like the spiritual twin of beating the 18-0 Pats. A team no one thought would win, coming together late, building momentum as the playoffs went on. The end of Game 4 gave me deja vu to the Super Bowl. OG’s block on Fox followed by slo-mo replays of Alvarado’s almost over & gave me the same chills I felt watching Eli almost getting sacked and seeing on replay that Tyree’s catch was actually legal. OG’s tip is Plaxico in the corner of the end zone. And the last 1.2 seconds was like watching Randy Moss almost reel in the Hail Mary.

    No equivalent to watching Jay Alford knock Tom Brady on his ass, unfortunately.

    Robtachi, this so much.

    The narrative that the Spurs dominated us the entire game except for the very end does not accurately tell the real story.

    We won the majority of the quarters. They just sprinted out to early leads in the first quarter.

    Game 4 is the biggest example. In that one they did beat us in the first and second quarters but we won quarters 3 (by a little) and 4 (by a lot).

    You don’t win games just by winning quarters. If you sprint out to a huge lead in a marathon the first five miles but then a bunch of people pass you by the end because you run super slow the last 10 miles, you didn’t dominate. You just foolishly exerted all of your energy early.

    1

    I feel like that narrative has been has been debunked completely and no one other than Wemby and some really dumb people still believe it.

    As a Mets fan with a long memory, I’ll say that Game 4 was like the Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, the WTF-did-I-just-witness Bill Buckner game, then Game 5 was like Game 7 of the 1986 series: the less memorable but logical denouement.

    I personally can’t compare any other sports championship to the Knicks because I viscerally love the sport of basketball above all others by a country mile. I played it several times a week for over 50 years, and not a day goes by where I don’t wish I was back out there competing, whether in local leagues…Lawyer’s, Urban Professional, Asphalt Green, Contenders, etc…to being a weekend warrior in pickup full-court games at the local high school, to the shirtless bloodsport-level 3-on-3 “straight up” games on the hot asphalt at Orchard Beach where there were a slew of teams waiting, to ultra-competitive games of 1-on-1. The satisfaction of getting that big basket, rebound, assist, steal, block; being the hero or the goat, sometimes both on the same day, playing until I was totally spent, and then brooding about it for days afterwards.

    The thing about basketball I love the most is that it’s the only team sport I can think of where every player has the ability to do everything on both offense and defense, no matter what position you play. For me, there’s just a different sense of relatability to what players are doing on an NBA court than there is in other sports. It’s hard to put into words, but it feels more like part of me is out there playing than it does when I watch other sports like baseball or football.

    1

    KFS has been doing a series this summer on the best games of the Leon era. Recently they did this one:

    https://www.espn.com/nba/game/_/gameId/401585313/pacers-knicks

    It’s the “Jalen Brunson, born to play basketball” game.

    Macri thinks this is the moment where we became bonded to Brunson, where we knew that this guy could be special.

    I mention this because I vividly recall the moment I became bonded to Brunson and knew he could be special, and it was a while before this.

    It’s this game:

    https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401544978

    Game 6 vs the Heat.

    Randle sucked (3-14).

    RJ sucked (1-10).

    Grimes sucked (1-6).

    Thibs was coaching with his pants around his ankles for the 6th straight game of the series.

    Hart was good but wouldn’t shoot.

    And Deuce was so bad the Heat went on a 10-0 run as soon as he came in the game, forcing Brunson to play 45 minutes.

    And with all that against him.. Jalen had 41 pts on 22 shots and almost willed us to victory!

    That was the Brunson moment for me, the moment I knew we had a guy. I had never felt so good after a Knicks season ended. I even remember being giddy listening to Spoelstra talk about him after.

    (FWIW I also distinctly recall this was the moment I was certain that Deuce McBride was never going to be good enough for the NBA 🙂 )

    Game 7. Bruce Hurst, who had been very effective in the series, against Ron Darling, who had also been pretty solid but not quite as good.

    Darling runs into trouble in the second. Back-to-back HRs to Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman. Sox up 2-0. Walk and a bunt brings Wade Boggs up with 2 out and a man on second. He singles up the middle. 3-0 Red Sox.

    Hurst cruises through five shutout innings, allowing only one baserunner, but the Mets break through in the sixth. The rally is started by Lee Mazzilli, who I often forget even played for the 86 Mets. Singles by Mazzilli, Mookie Wilson, and Tim Teufel load the bases with one out. Keith Hernandez rips a single up the middle. Two runs score, runners now at first and third. Gary Carter grounds out but the Sox can’t turn the DP, and now it’s tied 3-3.

    Bottom of the seventh, Sox bring in Calvin Schiraldi, who the Mets immediately light up. Leadoff homer for Ray Knight, now the Mets lead 4-3. Lenny Dykstra singles and advances to second on a wild pitch. Light hitting Rafael Santana singles Dykstra home. Sac bunt and two walks load the bases, and Keith Hernandez hits a sac fly. 6-3 Mets.

    But the Red Sox rally back in the top of the 8th: Buckner and Rice hit singles off Roger McDowell, then Dwight Evans doubles them both home. Nailbiter again at 6-5. There is nobody out. Jesse Orosco enters the game with Evans on second and gets three straight outs. He would be the last pitcher the Mets would use.

    Mets score two insurance runs in the bottom of the 8th as the Sox bullpen continues its implosion, this time Al Nipper allows a solo HR to Darryl Strawberry, and also oddly an RBI single to Jesse Orosco himself.

    Orosco then pitches a clean 9th and the series is over. It was actually a pretty great game.

    lol I perused the old game threads from the 2023 playoffs and was amused to be reminded that Donnie Walsh was cosplaying as a Heat superfan that spring.

    1

    Oh and also, the Orosco single was a clear bunt situation, there were runners on first and second and he had showed bunt on the first two pitches, but on a 1-1 count he did a butcher boy and rolled a groundball up the middle. Epic.

    I thought Jalen Brunson had a chance to be special when we acquired him because I studied a lot of game film from his Dallas days, expecially the playoff games where Luka was out. I compared him to Kyle Lowry, which I think was pretty high praise. At Brunson’s age during his Knicks career, Lowry had 3 consecutive seasons with a BPM higher than Brunson’s career high of 5.8, 6.1, and 5.2 with a similar TS% (but lower usage) and was a much better defensive player. But Brunson’s clutch shot-making at high usage in 4th quarters really vaulted him above Lowry, and that’s something I didn’t see coming until he was routinely scoring 30+ and even 40+ points in that first season. Then it just became a matter of how high can he go? He just keeps improving! And the coolest thing is that he isn’t necessarily done getting better!

    Earlier in the countdown KFS did the game where Brunson scored 48 at Cleveland out dueling Mitchell a couple of weeks before the start of the 2023 playoffs. I think that was the game where I knew for sure we had someone special in Brunson.

    I personally can’t compare any other sports championship to the Knicks because I viscerally love the sport of basketball above all others by a country mile.

    Same

    “with a BPM higher than Brunson’s career high of 5.8, 6.1, and 5.2”

    Sorry, I meant Brunson’s Knicks career average, which is 4.1. Brunson posted a career high 5.8 BPM in 2023-24.

    And the Sixers the next year, what’s your point?

    dang donnie, you done made me choke on that one…

    living loud and proud sounds like a pretty great default setting sir 🫡

    I remembered Donnie Sixers fan, of course. But Donnie Super Heat fan had been lost to the annals of time.

    3

    Donnie Super Heat Fan was a character I was tinkering with, but hadn’t fully unlocked yet

    I guess if Giannis’s calf holds up you could always rework it…. But could you be a fair-weather fan of the Sixers, Heat, AND Indy? That seems a bit much even for you.

    Can you tell us who we got? No one else seems to be reporting anything.

    I didn’t see anything either

    And I hate being made to go to X

    I wonder what it’s like if you are in G league in the Kings organization and you are suddenly traded cross country to the Knicks (or vice versa). It’s got to be disorienting, to say the least.

    could you be a fair-weather fan of the Sixers, Heat, AND Indy? That seems a bit much even for you.

    I can get behind exactly 29 teams at a time, no more.

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