Fans of the New York Knicks are about to engage with one of the seven deadly sins. And no, it’s not pride nor envy, although I’m sure they’ve been guilty over the years. Knicks fans are about to experience feelings of greed.
As you may know, the Knicks are in relatively unfamiliar territory, at least by recent standards. After winning their first-round playoff series against Detroit, they entered what most assumed would be the end of their short playoff run – a best of seven series against the defending champion and second seed in the East Boston Celtics. This would be where Knicks fans are reminded that they’re at least a player short and have no real shot of winning the conference, much less the entire NBA Title. Then New York won game one on the road in overtime after trailing by 20 in the second half. Then they stole game two in Boston while holding the Celts to 17 points in the fourth quarter. Then, after dropping game three at home and expecting the inevitable clock to strike midnight, the Knicks won game four to take a stranglehold three games to one lead. And worse for Boston, they lost star Jason Tatum late in the game with a torn Achillies, an injury that will likely cost him not only this series but all of next season and may be a butterfly moment for the trajectory of the entire Eastern Conference.
Why do I mention all of this? Because before the series started, only blindly optimistic or possibly delusional Knicks fans truly believed their team would still be playing in late May. You’d have found way more who were just waiting for the season to end so they could fire the head coach than those planning for more games. And even if the Knicks won, then they’d get Cleveland, the top seed with a superstar in Donovan Mitchell. Only the Cavs lost in five games to Indiana, which means that if the Knicks do what should be a near formality and beat Boston in one of the next three opportunities, they will actually have home court advantage for the series to play for a spot in the NBA Final.
Which means, and this is 100% natural, but Knicks fans are no longer living in wonder that they might actually beat the mighty defending champs. They’ve already moved on from that. Now, they’re looking ahead. More to the point, Knicks fans are starting to day dream about what it might be like to win the whole thing. In other words, Knicks fans are likely to get greedy.
In some cases, it actually works out, or at least almost. One of my earliest sports moments was when a 40-42 Houston Rockets team led by Moses Malone somehow made the NBA Finals before losing to Boston in six. And a bunch of lower seeded college basketball team have made a run to the Final Four, including Butler two years in a row in losing the final game. But more often than not, it goes something like this, in a Sweet 16 basketball game in 2010 when number one seeded Kentucky played 12 seeded Cornell. A bunch of us went up to the game in Syracuse, because we assumed we’d never live to see the Big Red make it this far ever again – fully expecting to get blown out by a Kentucky team with three future NBA stars. But nearly five minutes in, Cornell led 10-2. At that euphoric moment, we already starting planning our trip to the Final Four, even though if somehow Cornell had won the game, they’d first still need to beat West Virginia two days later. In other words, we got greedy. Kentucky ended up leading 32-16 at the half and mercifully won 62-45 in a game that was not as close as the score may indicate.
Is this a warning to Knicks fans, which for the record I am not and still find their ego centric view of NY Basketball to be nauseating. I’m still a Rockets fan, as are my kids thankfully. No, it’s no warning. In fact, I would be disappointed if fans felt anything less. In fact, it’s perhaps the most essential and intoxicating part of fandom – the audacity to dream. Or as the band Bleachers says in a recent single, how dare you want more. It’s a sin for sure, one with high risk. But an avarice Knicks fans will enjoy while they can.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
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