The first caller of the day on BT and Sal declared the Knicks season an abject failure, and reaching a conference final for the first time in a quarter of century meant nothing when it didn’t end in a championship.
For this Knicks fan, the true disappointment lies in the reality that the caller is far from alone.
First, to get the obvious out of the way, there is nothing I want to see more in my sports fandom than the Knicks celebrating a title. That is the ultimate goal, and given the strides this team has taken in the Leon Rose era, it should continue to be the goal moving forward. But have we gotten so far removed from decades of irrelevance that a return to the Eastern Conference Finals highlighted by a handful of unforgettable moments is now tossed aside as a disappointment that can’t be looked back on with an ounce of fondness?
If that’s the case, then we’re simply missing the mark as fans.
In the immediate aftermath of getting bounced by the hated Pacers, sure, it’s fair to say that there is a lot of frustration and disappointment, especially given how the series started (and then ended). But for me, it’s not difficult at all to play the tape forward and see the wounds healing and the overall fondness for the season returning to the forefront. This is still a team that won 50 games (despite there not being much appreciation for that from several corners of the fanbase), won a playoff series on an epic game-winning triple from its superstar, and defeated a hated rival and the defending champions, capped off by an all-out party at The Garden in game six. Are fans really unable to look back on those moments with a shred of pride or excitement because the season ended the same way it did, or will, for 29 other teams?
A season can’t be seen as a failure any time it doesn’t end in a title. Sure, look back at game one and lament what was a disastrous collapse that will take a long time to get over (trust me, I was in the building, and it royally sucked), but for me, I won’t let that game be the highlight of a season where I saw the team go further than I have since I first became a fan at nine years old. As time goes by, I’ll remember the feeling of being in The Garden when Jalen Brunson and Jayson Tatum were trading haymakers in the second half of game four, with the Knicks on their way to taking a 3-1 series lead against the team everyone said they had no chance to beat. That was the moment where I stood among a rabid MSG crowd and realized the team I desperately wanted to see become a legit contender had arrived.
If those moments can’t still be enjoyed, then there needs to be a reckoning of fandom in some capacity. If you can’t let yourself fall down a YouTube wormhole in a month, a year, or five years, and rewatch Brunson’s game six dagger against Detroit, or Mikal Bridges’ defensive heroics in Boston, or the celebration in game six against the Celtics, then where is the true enjoyment of fandom? Only when the team is finally the last one standing?
It’s important to remember where we’ve come from. Just two years ago, the library for potential YouTube wormholes for this generation of fans consisted of Iman Shumpert’s putback dunk in a second-round series, Jeremy Lin’s buzzer-beater against Toronto, and what, David Lee’s tip-in against Charlotte? It’s fair to appreciate how far this franchise has come while also holding out hope that it will go even farther.
Entering the playoffs, the majority of Knicks fans were expecting another second-round exit given the team that was looming in the second round. New York made it past that gauntlet, but because they lost means those expectations were completely rewired to the point where this season was an abject failure? That seems unfair, not just to the Knicks, but to yourselves as fans, who should be able to enjoy a deep playoff run, even if it ended in frustration.
Who knows what’s to come from here, whether it be a new head coach, a shuffling of the roster, or simply some moves around the margins. Should this core never reach an NBA Finals, then perhaps some of these playoff moments along the way are seen in a different light. But for now, given how much of a rarity it is to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy, or for Knicks fans, how hard it is to even be in the conversation, there is nothing wrong with calling the season an overall enjoyable one that doesn’t get completely washed away by how it ended.