Whenever I’d allow myself to fantasize about success my paternal grandmother would admonish me “don’t pashrai it”. It’s Yiddish-ish for “don’t jinx it”, but it sounded more declarative and I interpreted it as more of a violation of the forces of nature if I behaved otherwise. After all, to do so would be a shondah, and G-d forbid that should happen.
Grandma Eddye was not much of a basketball fan, but I suspect she’d be advising myself and Knicks fans of those risks this morning, even in the wake of one of the most definitive wins and in the midst of one of the impressive runs in NBA history. As YAHOO! Sports’ Kendall Baker waxed this morning:
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The Knicks cruised to a 130-93 victory over the Cavaliers on Monday night in Cleveland (where there were lots of Knicks fans!) to complete their second straight series sweep and reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. A month to remember: The Knicks have outscored their opponents by 262 points during their current 11-game winning streak. How dominant is that? It’s the best point differential during any 11-game stretch (regular season or playoffs) by any team. Ever. |
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Put another way: No team has ever entered the NBA Finals on a bigger heater. Only two teams have had a longer winning streak in a single postseason (2017 Warriors, 1999 Spurs), and neither of them were annihilating the competition during their respective runs like these Knicks. |
All that aside, you’ll note the mention of 1999 twice above–one regarding the Knicks’ most recent presence in an NBA Finals and the Spurs’ first of five championships in a 15-year span. And if you aren’t seasoned enough to remember, the fact that was not called the 1998-99 season speaks volumes–thanks to a players strike, not a single regular season game as a part of that season was played in calendar 1998. It was a truncated 50-game sprint where the Knicks somehow caught lightning in a bottle as an eight seed to move into a showdown with a San Antonio team lead by an emerging big man superstar (Tim Duncan) and a cast of equally young talent. Pretty much sounds like what their fate next week could be–unless, of course, the defending NBA champions who have already won 74 games this season can somehow win two out of the next three games with home court advantage.
And those same Knicks fans who recall how fleeting partying like it’s 1999 really was will also recall how the 1994 team, taking full advantage of Michael Jordan’s perhaps mobster-enforced decision to pursue playing minor league baseball in Birmingham had a 3-2 lead over another Texas team only to be incapable of winning once more in Houston. The exasberated intoning of Marv Albert exclaiming “Stahks For Three–No Good!!!” has stayed in our brains ever since.
You need to be at least as seasoned as moi to remember the last time a Knicks team won a title and was dominant in the process. That was the 1972-73 squad that gained revenge on a Los Angeles Lakers team that had beaten them the year before with a decisive Game 5 win on the LA Forum floor. The one that still had the core components of the miraculous 1969-70 team–Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dick Barnett and Willis Reed–and had shrewdly added All-Stars like Jerry Lucas and Earl Monroe via trade. The 2025-26 Knicks have taken a similar route–building up their roster with risky gambits like trading five draft picks for Mikel Bridges. up-and-comers like RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for OG Anudoby and one-time untouchable Julius Randle for Karl-Anthony Towns to join Jalen Brunson. That’s where I’m drawing my comparisons and my almost ashamed-to-admit confidence.
I am humored by the dancing in the Manhattan streets that took place last night that resurrected Prince’s Y2K anthem, since for a majority of those so capable that’s their reference point for past success. With all due respect, you don’t want this year to echo 1999. You might want to draw from the more seasoned thoughts of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS’ Mike Lupica, who has suffered with these Knicks practically as long as I have. Here’s how he celebrated last night’s accomplishments:
This is the month when the new Knicks have turned into the old Knicks, the ones with all the Hall of Famers who won the only two titles the team has ever won. This is the month when the Knicks have rolled an 11 in the postseason the likes of which no NBA postseason has ever seen, when they have gone all of May without losing a game, when they have made their fans and the city believe they can win it all for the first time since the ’73 Knicks, because this team really has looked like that team, the one with Clyde and Willis, with DeBusschere and Bradley and Earl the Pearl. It is no longer hoops sacrilege to talk about this team, trying to win one title to go with the two the old Knicks won, with that team.
Since we now once again have more than a week to rest while the Spurs and Thunder fights to the finich to earn their berth, I’d encourage you whippersnappers to Google a few stories and videos of those ’70s teams, not just take Frazier’s version of storytelling as the most visible link still associated with the team at face value. The rotation and responsiveness of that ’72-73 team was even better than the one that Red Holzman trotted out three years earlier. It will take a roster as deep and playing on all cylinders as these Knicks have been of late to at least have a shot against the likes of Victor Wembanyama or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. We all know even in spite of this run the Knicks will likely be underdogs.
We’ll deal with that inevitability next week. For now, let’s party like it was 1973.
Courage…