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For all of the foibles
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of the New York Knicks over the last 20
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it is absolutely remarkable that this
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team looks like this headed into its
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first NBA finals in 26 years. Because
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it never goes well for the Knicks. And
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now it's going all too well. It's like
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the story not only changed but changed
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so dramatically that you can't even know
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whether you should believe it. It's It's
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a little bit like if the Cleveland
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Browns were 15 and two and the one seed
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and had just ripped apart the AFC
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playoffs and landed in the the Super
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Bowl. You'd be like, I don't know if I
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believe this because this this thing
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doesn't happen. There are the Knicks of
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the 90s, which are my youth, and I love
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those Knicks teams, the the Ewing and
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you know, whether it was Derek Harper or
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Greg Anthony. I loved Anthony Mason. I
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loved Oakley. I loved those guys. I
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loved the tenacity and the toughness and
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all of that. All of those things were
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disintegrated, blown to smithereens over
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the last two and a half decades because
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none of those teams had any grit. They
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had no fight. They had no togetherness.
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They had no unity. They had no
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leadership. They had no none of the
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stuff that the 90s Knicks did that came
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up short but they at least were
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something you could be proud of.
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The fact that this Knicks team did so
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many things that perennially,
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traditionally blow up in their face and
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it worked is to me the most bizarre
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part. First of all, you have a coach who
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has flamed out multiple places before. I
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know Mike Brown probably should not have
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been fired in Sacramento, but this is a
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guy who coached LeBron, who coached
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Kobe, who's had multiple stints across
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the NBA, and it felt like another
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re-tread lands with the Knicks.
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You look at a guy like Jalen Brunson.
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Now, the receipts are infamous, but when
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he was signed by the Knicks, it seemed
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like yet again a tier B free agent given
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tier A money because it's the Knicks
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overspending for a guy that cannot
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And Jalen Brunson's become perhaps the
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best clutch performer in the game.
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You look at, you know, the addition of
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big of of the bigs of of Karl-Anthony
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Towns, and he's a guy that never seemed
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to be a clutch performer, playoff, big
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game guy. You add him to the Knicks and
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you're you're guaranteeing yourself
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these big goose eggs and and minimal
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performances in the playoffs, and he has
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You know, even the Mikal Bridges trade,
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which was a lot of draft picks, a lot of
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collateral, and it seemed like again an
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It has worked out well enough, and even
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when it has not worked for Mikal
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Bridges, it hasn't submarine the season.
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They gave the keys to Leon Rose, who's
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never before been an executive, who's
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never before run a franchise. They
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basically gave a sneaker guy all the
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Somehow that worked. These are all
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things that over the last 25 years, each
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one of them always goes wrong for the
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And this this version
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it it can do no wrong. And you look at
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primrose path that they've also walked.
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They were the three seed, they earned
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that, that gets them the six seed, and
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they had trouble with the Hawks, at
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And then of all the things, they don't
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have to play the two seed, they played a
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seven when the Sixers come back from
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down 3-1, then they don't have to play
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the one seed, they get to play the four
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because the Cavaliers knock off the
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Pistons. So, a three seed
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does not have to play the one
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or the two in a route to the NBA finals.
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Now, it's not that huge a deal because
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of Knicks are the best team in the
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Eastern Conference by far as we see. I
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think they would have demolished the the
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Pistons and the Celtics, but
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it's a the point is that these are
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things that have never gone the next
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direction. And when you go back to the
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and those teams, they were star-crossed.
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Because when they were at their best,
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they ran into Michael Jordan.
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And when they didn't even have to run
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into Michael Jordan, they ran into
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And even when it looked like they could
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beat Hakeem Olajuwon, John Starks shoots
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one for 19 or whatever that was.
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Every time they had something, the
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Charles Smith layup, the Patrick Ewing
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finger roll, even the '99 finals were
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it's a magical run, they're the eight
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seed and they get all the way to the
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finals, they are dismantled by a young
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Tim Duncan and David Robinson still
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Nothing ever comes up Knicks. So, for
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to be coming up all Knicks
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is so unique and remarkable and out of
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body, and I don't quite know how to
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explain it, especially if you're from
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this thing that's happening with the
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I give the Knicks a fighting shot in the
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NBA finals. I do. I I think the Thunder
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or the Spurs are better,
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but with the way the Knicks are playing
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and the rest that they will have
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and the the the players that they have
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at the moment playing at their absolute
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apex, I give them a chance and everybody
