The Knicks are giving their fans a sense of excitement that hasn't been felt in The Garden in seemingly decades.
After throttling the rival Nets for their seventh straight win on Wednesday night, the buzz inside The World's Most Famous Arena felt like it did in the 1990s, with one constant from that unforgettable basketball era in New York.
There was Tom Thibodeau, on the Knicks bench just as he was in the late 90s, then as the team's assistant coach.
Asked if he sees any similarities between his current team and those cherished groups of a previous millennium, Thibodeau pointed to his group's work ethic.
"Patrick Ewing set the tone for all of that," Thibodeau said, via Ian Begley of SNY. "When you walked in – could be the middle of the summer – he was in there, he was your hardest worker. When your best players are setting the tone for the team, it's special."
Thibodeau sees that now with Jalen Brunson, his young core that comes in early consistently, and mainly across the board, and it's showing, as the Knicks are now 10 games over .500 and looking like their strongest team since perhaps those years when Thibodeau was an assistant.
"I love coaching these guys, they're committed to each other," Thibodeau said, via Begley. "They live in the gym, they're gym rats, so they're going to get better and better."
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