{"id":51290,"date":"2026-06-13T22:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T03:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51290"},"modified":"2026-07-03T22:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T03:47:13","slug":"the-knicks-winning-is-my-12-year-old-selfs-dream-come-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=51290","title":{"rendered":"The Knicks winning is my 12-year old self\u2019s dream come true"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

I knew that I was vested in the Knicks when I stopped watching or following the games<\/a>, because that\u2019s what I do when I want a team to win.\u00a0 I don\u2019t watch, because my presence will obviously cause whatever team I want to win, to lose.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was on an airplane, en route to Seattle for a night before getting on a longer flight to Seoul, when mythical wife turned on game 5 on the in-flight live television. We had just watched two World Cup matches of wildly different skill levels, and we still had an hour before we landed, and despite her being aware of my superstitious beliefs, turned it on anyway, because I like to believe that as a former New Yorker, she felt some modicum of support to the Knicks and wanted them to win as I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was 1:26 left and then Knicks held a slim lead, and I\u2019ve been in this position enough times to know that me tuning in would be akin to the kiss of death, that the Spurs, probably Victor Wembanyama was going to hit some crazy impossible three-pointer to take the lead, survive game 5, and propel them to overcoming the 3-1 series lead and win the NBA Finals.<\/span><\/p>\n

But such did not happen.\u00a0 As has been the case since really, the last two years or so, this Jalen Brunson-led squad bent a little bit, but did not break.\u00a0 Defenses did their job, rebounds were corralled, and they\u2019d get to the free throw line, and convert just enough to keep them mathematically out of the realm of a game-losing shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The last 29 seconds of the game predictably lasted about 29 minutes as both teams leveraged their remaining time outs, and strategized their foul usage to attempt to manipulate <\/span>the win probability charts <\/a>as best as they could.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the New York Knicks held, they did not yield and break, and for the first time in 53 years, won the NBA championship.\u00a0 Bringing ultimate basketball glory to a franchise and city that has been starving for one for a literal lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n

This championship is for the city of New York<\/em>, which I normally don\u2019t hold a tremendous amount of regard for, but can understand decades and generations of basketball fans who have been hoping to see a Knicks championship, same as I did for a period of my time.<\/span><\/p>\n

True story and not just because it\u2019s convenient to rehash this narrative because they just won the ship: when I was a kid, I was a gigantic New York Knicks fan. I\u2019m not entirely sure how it even started, perhaps it was the contrarian in me that really wanted to see Michael Jordan lose in the 93 playoffs, and was ignited by <\/span>John Starks\u2019 The Dunk<\/a> on Horace Grant and MJ, but for better or worse, I can earnestly say that my first favorite basketball team was the Knicks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tough choice of when to declare my fandom, seeing as how the Knicks would squander their 2-0 lead against the Bulls, but such would kind of set the tone for my journey with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This championship is for Patrick Ewing<\/em>, the eternal face of the franchise, and unquestionably one of the faces on the Rushmore of New York Knicks.\u00a0 He never won a championship, but he carried the franchise for the vast majority of his career, despite almost never having any sort of All-Star help.\u00a0 He may have been dunked on by every star of the 90s, but he never gave up, leading the squad to the Finals in 94, and helping them reach again in 99, before his body broke down.\u00a0 I know I have clowned on Ewing a lot in my history of writing, but I am happy for him at this moment and feel he deserves to enjoy this win, along with all the players and rest of the fans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the years of my peak fandom, the Knicks would enjoy success in the brutal 90s, where defense was king, and final scores were always like 84-79.\u00a0 100 point games were practically non-existent, and the Knicks were among the elite of this bruising, hard-nosed era, reaching the Finals twice, and pretty much being the playoffs every single year.<\/span><\/p>\n

1994 was a year in which I experienced possibly one of the first if not the first heartbreak I\u2019ve ever felt as a sports fan, when 12-year old me watched the Knicks fall to the Houston Rockets in the NBA finals.\u00a0 The Knicks had a 3-2 series lead after five, but couldn\u2019t keep up with the ascension of Hakeem Olajuwon who decided he was the heir to a <\/span>suspended<\/span> retired Michael Jordan, and win the next NBA championship, and would win the next two games to take the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

This championship is for the 94 squad<\/em> who came so close, but fell short to the championship that would\u2019ve stopped the drought clock at 21 years.\u00a0 Their series with the Rockets was oft-overlooked as the Finals \u201cthat didn\u2019t have MJ in it\u201d or being \u201cthe OJ Simpson chase Finals\u201d as game 5 was interrupted by live footage of LAPD chasing OJ Simpson\u2019s Bronco through the highways of Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

This championship is also for John Starks<\/em>, who went nuclear in game 6, draining six threes and was a seventh away from winning the series, had it not been for the aforementioned Demi-god Olajuwon, who blocked his game winner and forced game 7, where the squad put all their eggs into Starks\u2019 basket, who instead went a woeful 2-for-18, and became one of the oft-mentioned examples of a player crumbling to the pressure, in spite of the fact that in the 22 years since then, there have been tons of James Harden performances that have been equally if not worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s long past time to put the John Starks cry to rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

In ensuing years, the Knicks would remain good, but it was apparent that the times were changing, and the window was closing.\u00a0 Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers who had been chasing and battling the Knicks in previous years would go on missions to overcome the Knicks, and in 1995, the roles would reverse with the Pacers coming out on top in seven games, highlighted by <\/span>Reggie scoring 8 points in like 8 seconds<\/a> to steal game 1, and <\/span>Patrick Ewing missing a game-tying layup<\/a> at the end of game 7 to lose the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if they survived the Pacers, I didn\u2019t think they would be able to hang with the rise of the Shaq and Penny duo that had been beginning to show signs of the new era.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next few years would see the return of MJ, and even though the Knicks would still be good enough for the playoffs, and even good enough to be the only team in the East to take a win from the nigh-invincible 96 Bulls that won 72 games and the championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Humorously, it would take a second retirement from MJ after 98 for the Knicks to get back to the Finals, where they also had to deal with a lockout that shaved nearly half the season.\u00a0 But they won just enough to sneak into the playoffs, where they would go on a truly magical heater, advancing all the way to the Finals, before eventually falling to the San Antonio Spurs, which was powered by a rising Tim Duncan and a gracefully transitioning David Robinson.<\/span><\/p>\n

This championship is for that 99 squad<\/em> which really renewed my Knicks fandom at a time when adolescence and waning interest really deprioritized sports fandom in general.\u00a0 Entering the playoffs as the woeful #8 and final seed, they would embark on a legendary run that saw them upend the #1 seed Miami Heat in five games, punctuated by an Allan Houston floater for the win, sweeping the Atlanta Hawks in dominant fashion, and yet another memorable clash with the Indiana Pacers, which <\/span>featured a game-winning four-point play from a reinvented Grandmama Larry Johnson<\/a> that send Madison Square Garden into rapture.\u00a0 If that didn\u2019t feel like some team of destiny shit, I don\u2019t know what would be, but unfortunately, they ran into a Spurs squad that clearly left a lasting grudge which made this win a little bit sweeter from a redemption standpoint.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the 99 Finals, admittedly my fandom for hoops and just sports in general started waning. I was really going through my anime and weeb phase, I\u2019d eventually move to Atlanta, and I remember the 76ers and Nets\u2019 runs to the finals where they\u2019d lose to the Lakers and Spurs, I\u2019d remember the Lakers\u2019 upset to the Pistons, and the Spurs upending those same Pistons after a <\/span>WCW belt-holding Rasheed Wallace<\/a> guaranteeing a repeat, but I was definitely losing my basketball fandom in place of my burgeoning baseball one.<\/span><\/p>\n

In that time with the increasing amount of sports blogging and societal change where memes practically became a language in its own, the Knicks clearly went through some really rough times, going from the perennial powerhouses of the 90s into becoming one of the saddest franchises in the league.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Snarky and jaded Knicks fans <\/span>bought into an era<\/a> of believing the Knicks were always crap, and 1973 seemed like a fanfic based on how unbelievable it seemed that the Knicks were ever championship material.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t seem to matter who was on the team or who came to the Knicks, and nobody could rescue them.\u00a0 Stephon Marbury.\u00a0 Carmelo Anthony.\u00a0 (Jeremy) Lin-sanity.\u00a0 Nobody and nothing seemed to be able to shake the narrative that the team was cursed.<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t follow closely, but I knew passively that the Knicks were pretty dreadful for quite a long time at this point.\u00a0 Be it through seeing random articles detailing their futility, or the fact that Howard Stern would talk about how he was able to get courtside seats only when they sucked.<\/span><\/p>\n

Admittedly I had no idea who Jalen Brunson was when I started hearing about him.\u00a0 I knew who Karl Anthony-Towns was because he was a weird specimen of a big man who could shoot threes and won a three point shootout that one year and spoke with a <\/span>zesty<\/em> affect that really made fans ask questions, and I vaguely remember making an off-hand remark about how KAT was inevitably going to be the next guy to succumb to the pressures of New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then I noticed that the Knicks were clawing their way back into the playoffs.\u00a0 The first time I did, it was interesting because living in Atlanta, it was talked about a lot when the Hawks clashed with the Knicks in the playoffs and Trae Young appeared to make it a personal mission to become the next big bad guy to New York by absolutely destroying them, specifically in games at Madison Square Garden.<\/span><\/p>\n

One year, the Hawks prevailed, sending the Knicks home early, but in following years, the Knicks prevailed and were back in the Eastern Conference Finals against a familiar foe, the Indiana Pacers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of my boys are bigger hoops fans than I am, and through their enthusiasm for watching, it piqued my own interest to want to watch.\u00a0 Admittedly, watching the Knicks playing inspired hoops was fun, and I could feel my inner-12 year old feeling the excitement of prospect of Knicks success.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then something happened in game 1, the Pacers found the <\/span>NBA Jam<\/em> fire cheat code and suddenly they closed the deficit, but it seemed like the Knicks could still win.\u00a0 That is until, <\/span>Tyrese Halliburton launched and hit this inconceivable three<\/span> two pointer<\/a> to tie the game, and send the game into overtime, where they\u2019d steal game 1 of the ECF.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a sports fan long enough to identify the pattern that this kind of game really meant that the Knicks were dead in the water, and in spite of their previous success and new sense of toughness and tenacity, it still seemed like it was inevitable that they were going to lose, it took seven games, but it happened, and then the Pacers would go on to lose in seven to the Oklahoma City Thunder after Shai Gilgeois-Alexander shot 768 free throws in the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most miraculous things that happened between 2025 and 2026 is the fact that the Knicks were actually able to get a second shot, which at least in my experience is not something that happens a lot in sport.\u00a0 A championship window of opportunity is a fleeting, hot opportunity that really often times only lasts for the span of one playoff run, not two.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the \u201826 Knicks made the playoffs, vanquished the Hawks again, clobbered the 76ers, and had a date with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the ECF.\u00a0 Which was an interesting matchup in itself, because all through the playoffs, it was interesting to me that the of the teams to ascend toward championship contention, all of them were fairly notorious for having a history of choking, so it got to a point where among all these chokers, someone was going to have to succeed, in spite of history.<\/span><\/p>\n

This championship is for Danhausen<\/em>, the kooky WWE superstar whose character is primarily known for cursing others, but subsequently capable of <\/span>uncursing<\/em> things too, and there was a moment after the Knicks had vanquished the Hawks, where Danhausen announced that he had \u201cuncursed the Knicks.\u201d\u00a0 As silly and inconsequential as this sounded, the Knicks would subsequently rattle off ten straight playoff victories, sweeping the 76ers, Cavaliers and winning both games in San Antonio to start the Finals.\u00a0 Sports fandom is fickle and very superstitious, and undoubtedly, Danhausen\u2019s mystical contributions towards this Knicks victory will forever be a part of the legend, and despite hardly ever actually wrestling, the man is going to become (even more) very, very rich at the merch he is going to move from Knicks fans alone, which will make his greedy bosses in the WWE and parent company TKO, very, very happy in their own right but fuck those corporate assholes.<\/span><\/p>\n

If there was absolutely one person for whom this championship <\/span>is not for<\/em>, it is none other than the miserably man-baby who is unfortunately the sitting president of the United States, and frankly every single piece of shit that supports him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t bet on sports anymore, because my success rate was a cool .000 in all the times I\u2019ve ever put money on an official sports bet.\u00a0 When I heard that the walking orange turd was planning on going to Madison Square Garden to attend game 3, I would\u2019ve put a sizable bet that the Knicks were going to lose, in spite of their win streak, momentum, and uncursing by Danhausen.\u00a0 Frankly, I assumed that this was going to be the beginning of the end for the Knicks, that the Spurs would rattle off four straight wins, and give New York yet another choke job that would scar generations of basketball and sports fans for another 22 years.\u00a0 But I knew, <\/span>I knew<\/em> for sure, that then Knicks weren\u2019t winning game 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

And sure enough, they lost.\u00a0 And our pathetic excuse for a leader was caught dozing off in the middle of yet another exciting game, because he old as fuck and isn\u2019t qualified to lead rain to the ground much less an entire country.<\/span><\/p>\n

But amazingly, the Knicks didn\u2019t collapse, they didn\u2019t choke.\u00a0 <\/span>These<\/em> Knicks shrugged off game 3, and although it was a nail biter that required the heroics of OG Anuoby\u2019s tip back to snatch game 4 from the Spurs and take a commanding 3-1 series lead instead of having to back to San Antonio 2-2 with all momentum lost and the stink of orange on them.\u00a0 Once again, some team of destiny shit going on here.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then they did it.\u00a0 They defied history, they defied destiny, and they defied the re-cursing by the Orange fuck.\u00a0 They played so very unlike The Old Knicks, and they played like The New, York Knicks, that didn\u2019t crumble, didn\u2019t cave, didn\u2019t collapse, and didn\u2019t choke.<\/span><\/p>\n

This championship is for Jalen Brunson<\/em>, who is unmistakably the new king of New York, and the man who will forever be immortalized as the man-god who did what seemed like the impossible, and brought an NBA championship to New York.\u00a0 And he did it in a way that was so unlike a lot of aura and attitudes as those who tried before him; instead of being a hyped savior, he was a man oft-criticized and overlooked.\u00a0 He\u2019s too small, too quiet, not enough personality.\u00a0 But it turns out that he was exactly the right guy for the team, a man who had something to prove, a man who knew how to better internalize his drive and motivation, and a guy who seemed to embody the gritty and hard-working populous of New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it mattered most, he was a guy that always seemed to have 30+ points in a box score, and the man operated with ice water in his veins at all time.\u00a0 All the time, especially in this day and age of sports, athletes bend and struggle in high pressure situations, but not seemingly Brunson.\u00a0 He always seemed to sink his free throws, didn\u2019t shy away from having the ball or taking the shot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that New York hasn\u2019t exactly been too starved for sports success, considering Eli beat Tom Brady twice for Super Bowls, and the Yankees last won a World Series in 2009.\u00a0 But it\u2019s always been pretty obvious that the Knicks were still the team that the city has been waiting on and waiting for, to achieve championship success, and now they\u2019ve gotten there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There was clearly a level of thirst for Knicks success than any other New York team, I can\u2019t imagine that a win by the Nets, Mets or Jets would result in <\/span>the pandemonium that ensued<\/a>, <\/span>in the name of celebration<\/em>, after the Knicks won.\u00a0 I like to imagine the look(s) of unmitigated envy by Jay-Z or whomever owns the Nets, at seeing just how much happiness a Knicks win is bringing New Yorkers, and knowing that there\u2019s pretty much nothing they\u2019d be able to do to get such adulation.<\/span><\/p>\n

This championship is for 12-year old me<\/em>, because even though my fandom has wavered, flitted away at times and outright vanished, what\u2019s great about sports is that they don\u2019t stop just because one person or a few people stop paying attention.\u00a0 In spite of my inconsistent participation, even unbeknownst to me, this has remained something I\u2019ve always wanted to see, and to see finally happen, even after 22 years of when they last came so close, it does bring me great joy.<\/span><\/p>\n

As awkward and crazy as it felt to type out when teams like the Raptors, Nuggets, and Bucks won, it seems similar to this one too: The 2025-26 NBA Champion, New York Knicks. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I knew that I was vested in the Knicks when I stopped watching or following the games, because that\u2019s what I do when I want a team to win.\u00a0 I don\u2019t watch, because my presence will obviously cause whatever team I want to win, to lose. I was on an airplane, en route to Seattle … Continue reading The Knicks winning is my 12-year old self\u2019s dream come true<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,100,129,83,52,91,165,99,58],"class_list":["post-51290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-basketball","tag-comparison","tag-nostalgia","tag-observations","tag-owned","tag-pf","tag-politics","tag-reminiscing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51290"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51293,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51290\/revisions\/51293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}