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A lot of people outside New York hated this.
The loud fans.
The celebrations in the streets.
The nonstop coverage.
Even former NBA players like Draymond Green and Jalen Rose took shots at Knicks fans after the championship.
But D.A. says everyone is missing the bigger picture.
This is one of the best sports stories we've seen in years.
Why?
🏆 Another seemingly impossible championship drought ends.
🏆 Decades of bad ownership finally overcome.
🏆 No lottery luck. No generational No. 1 overall pick.
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0:00
If you are somebody who hated watching
0:02
the Knicks and their fans celebrate an
0:05
NBA championship and revel in the last
0:07
couple of months, I'm glad you're here
0:10
because I was that way, too.
0:12
And now I'm here to tell you why
0:14
actually it's the best thing that could
0:16
have happened. I know New York is loud
0:19
and in your face, obnoxious. Knicks fans
0:21
can't let you forget when they're
0:23
winning, bing bong, taking over opposing
0:26
arenas,
0:27
all the types of nonsense in the
0:29
streets. But there is something about
0:32
this team and this run that is so much
0:35
more than that. Let's talk about this
0:38
specifically for long-suffering fans of
0:41
all types of teams.
0:44
If you are a Buffalo Bills fan,
0:46
if you're a Buffalo Sabres fan, if
0:48
you're a Cleveland Browns fan, if you're
0:50
a Minnesota Vikings fan, a Minnesota
0:53
Timberwolves fan, any of these
0:56
franchises who are synonymous with
0:59
losing and dysfunction,
1:03
the New York Knicks were you
1:06
for the better part of 53 years.
1:10
It's why I tell the people of Buffalo to
1:13
believe, even though history has not
1:15
been kind to them at all. It's why I
1:17
tell Browns fans to believe, even though
1:20
history has dunked on them time and time
1:23
again. It's why when I talk to Jets fans
1:26
or Vikings fans or anybody that has been
1:29
without a championship their entire
1:31
adult lives, maybe because I'm a Mets
1:33
fan and I know pain and heartache, I say
1:37
stay optimistic. We live in an era
1:41
where droughts and jinxes are being
1:44
destroyed every single year.
1:48
Look at the last eight years. Eight
1:51
different NBA champions.
1:54
And in the middle of these eight years,
1:57
you have three completely tortured fan
1:59
bases of teams that were never really
2:01
much of anything all winning titles. The
2:04
Bucks, the Nuggets,
2:06
and the Knicks.
2:08
And let's not forget in there, there's a
2:10
Phoenix Suns NBA Finals appearance.
2:14
This is the day and age for snapping
2:17
your droughts. In that same time,
2:20
Stanley Cup, the Washington Capitals
2:22
would never want a thing,
2:24
as well as the St. Louis Blues again had
2:26
never won a thing. Both took home their
2:28
first cups in franchise history as did
2:31
the Florida Panthers back-to-back. Now,
2:33
the Panthers fan might not be
2:35
long-suffering since they were '90s
2:37
expansion, but they were the single most
2:41
poorly run,
2:43
lightly regarded joke of an organization
2:46
in the NHL. And here they are as
2:49
back-to-back Stanley Cup champs. This is
2:51
the era. This is the moment. We look at
2:54
the Kansas Kansas City Chiefs,
2:56
and we look at them as a modern dynasty
2:58
with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, and
3:00
they are inevitably in the AFC
3:01
Championship game or to the Super Bowl
3:03
almost every year.
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Before Mahomes showed up,
3:09
they had not been to a Super Bowl in 50
3:12
years.
3:13
50.
3:15
This is the moment. This is the era.
3:17
This is the time.
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I mean, it's not that long ago that the
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Chicago freaking Cubs, 2016,
3:26
snapped a 108-year
3:30
drought.
3:31
This is the time.
3:33
The Texas Rangers had never won a World
3:35
Series. The Houston Astros had never won
3:37
a World Series. Teams are doing this
3:40
year after year in all of our major
3:42
sports. Believe. And the New York Knicks
3:46
are again a great example of that.
3:49
The second part is
3:51
the Knicks overcame
3:54
poor ownership. If you've got an owner
3:57
that's getting in the way, meddling,
4:00
cheap, whatever.
4:03
There might not be a more unpopular
4:05
owner in America than James Dolan.
4:07
James Dolan inherited the New York
4:09
Knicks and the Rangers and Madison
4:11
Square Garden itself from his dad who
4:13
built the cable empire Cablevision.
4:16
James Dolan didn't do anything for all
4:17
this wealth, for all of these riches,
4:19
for all of these trophies or at least
4:21
organizations that act as civic
4:23
trophies.
4:27
Somehow he handed over the keys to Leon
4:29
Rose because he had finally learned his
4:30
lesson of getting in the middle of
4:31
things to a guy that said stay out and
4:34
he did.
4:35
And Leon Rose built a champion.
4:38
I also look at the type of team that
4:42
Leon Rose built.
4:44
And I think this is good for sports.
4:48
This was not about a singular individual
4:52
who sucked up all the oxygen in the room
4:55
and you had to build around that guy
4:58
singularly. Jalen Brunson obviously was
5:01
the Finals MVP, is the engine that makes
5:03
everything happen, was incredibly
5:05
incredibly tremendous, stupendous in
5:09
game game five and throughout the entire
5:11
post season.
5:13
But that is a second round draft pick,
5:15
lightly regarded coming out of college
5:18
who didn't get a qualifying offer from
5:20
the Dallas Mavericks
5:22
was roundly dismissed when he signed
5:24
with the Knicks
5:25
and through heart and guts and will and
5:28
confidence
5:30
built himself into a champion.
5:32
Meaning you don't need to win the
5:33
lottery.
5:35
You don't have to have a
5:36
transformational
5:38
draft pick come out.
5:40
You actually can build a champion around
5:42
a guy that works himself into that.
5:45
And then look at the other pieces that
5:47
Leon Rose put together around.
5:50
Karl-Anthony Towns, who had so many
5:53
bruises and black eyes from a
5:55
reputational standpoint of not being
5:56
tough enough, not being good enough, not
5:59
being able to carry the water when it
6:00
mattered most, getting bullied around
6:02
the NBA against bigger, stronger,
6:04
nastier opponents.
6:06
Was almost a perfect fit, cuz he didn't
6:08
need to score all the points anymore and
6:11
carry a franchise.
6:13
They traded five firsts for Mikal
6:15
Bridges. And so many times, Knicks fans
6:17
couldn't believe, "Where are you? You're
6:19
disappearing all of the time."
6:22
Bridges was phenomenal in the NBA
6:24
Finals. A guy like Josh Hart, again, a
6:27
complimentary role player. OG Anunoby is
6:30
not a household name. Maybe he will be
6:32
now. These are the pieces the Knicks put
6:34
together, so you don't need to have the
6:37
Heatles.
6:39
The Heat's big three of the LeBron,
6:40
Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh era. You don't
6:42
need the Golden State Warriors with Hall
6:45
of Famers littered across the starting
6:47
lineup.
6:48
That's a pretty empowering thing as
6:51
well.
6:52
Also,
6:53
there was no junk and trash talk and
6:56
arrogance and bloviating and look at me
6:59
on social media or through the media, no
7:02
passive-aggressive wanting Mike Brown
7:04
fired or different rotations or
7:06
different playing minutes or different
7:08
shot selections from any of the players
7:10
on this roster. The stuff that we hate
7:12
about the modern athlete, the modern
7:15
NBA, did not affect this locker room at
7:17
all.
7:17
None of them seemed to be pulling in a
7:19
different direction, and none of them
7:20
seemed to want any of the credit.
7:24
You look at all of these pieces and
7:26
realize why this was such a great team
7:29
from a sports standpoint to win.
7:33
I also look at the clutch factor.
7:37
We love to put Jordan on a pedestal or
7:40
Kobe on a pedestal or Magic and Larry on
7:42
a pedestal. Tom Brady on a pedestal.
7:45
Why? Because we want to see you perform
7:48
best when everybody else shrinks.
7:50
When the moment is biggest and
7:51
brightest.
7:53
And this series was such an unbelievable
7:56
blinking light of how the Spurs just
7:59
stunk in that spot.
8:01
And the Knicks rose to the occasion.
8:04
In all four of the Knicks wins,
8:07
the Spurs had double-digit leads.
8:09
In fact, if you had a five-game streak
8:14
of leading by double digits at the end
8:17
of the first quarter or in the first
8:18
quarter,
8:21
over the course of NBA history, every
8:24
one of those teams has had a winning
8:26
record over those five games except the
8:28
Spurs, who are one and four.
8:30
The Spurs didn't deserve to win this
8:33
championship because the way that they
8:35
played so haphazardly,
8:39
especially in game four with a lead.
8:42
To me, they taunted the karmic gods, the
8:44
sports gods, because they got lazy, they
8:47
got entitled
8:49
to just hoist and chuck three-pointers
8:52
when you're up 29 points early in the
8:54
shot clock and not think through
8:55
possessions. For Mitch Johnson to let
8:58
his team continue to do that, it it
9:00
seemed so lazy and arrogant
9:04
to approach game four that way.
9:07
And they got exactly what they deserved
9:09
cuz it happened again in game five where
9:12
they seemed to take their foot off the
9:14
gas yet again, and they deserved
9:17
everything they got.
9:18
We hate when teams can't come through in
9:20
the clutch. Well, the Spurs, there is
9:22
never a team that was worse in the
9:24
clutch than this version of the Spurs.
9:28
Then finally,
9:30
the unification factor.
9:32
You know, my family is from New York
9:33
City. I grew up in the the Valley, so
9:36
outside of New York City, but
9:38
I've watched that New York City sports
9:41
landscape for the better part of 45
9:44
years.
9:45
And
9:46
it is a fractured, tumultuous, divided
9:50
sports landscape.
9:52
Jets and Giants fight all the time.
9:54
Giants fans Jets fans can't stand one
9:56
another.
9:57
Mets and Yankees fans, same thing. I'm a
9:59
Mets fan. We all hate when the other
10:02
team succeeds because it means we're
10:04
not. And if you're a Mets fan like me,
10:06
boy do you hate the Yankees arrogance
10:09
and the Yankees championships and all
10:11
that stuff.
10:13
Hockey, you're split three ways.
10:16
Basketball, the Nets have never really
10:18
registered, at least not since their
10:20
finals days back in the early 2000s, and
10:22
they were in New Jersey at that point in
10:23
time. The Knicks
10:25
are the one thing. And you look at those
10:28
streets, and yeah, there's a lot of fans
10:31
that
10:32
were certainly not true Knicks fans.
10:35
Lots of very entertaining social media
10:37
videos of people being asked, "Who's
10:39
your favorite Nick?" And they couldn't
10:40
name one of them.
10:42
Can you name one person on the Spurs?
10:44
Couldn't name one of them. There was a
10:46
lot of fugazi bandwagon happening for
10:48
people that just wanted to be out and
10:49
have a good time in the summer in New
10:50
York City.
10:52
But for the people that came together
10:54
and were dancing and cheering and their
10:56
and their Obi jerseys or their Oakley
10:58
jerseys or their Starks jerseys or their
11:00
Clyde Frazier jerseys, the ones that
11:03
knew,
11:04
and even the ones that did,
11:06
there was a unification that happened
11:08
out of pure joy that can only be a
11:10
positive.
11:11
Yeah, there were some real knucklehead
11:13
behavior out there. And the people that
11:15
trashed,
11:17
you know,
11:18
police vehicles or taxi cabs or Five
11:21
Guys restaurants or punched Spurs
11:24
jersey-wearing fans, all those people
11:26
are complete heathens and
11:29
gross.
11:31
But that was the small minority of what
11:34
was really happening, which was a city
11:37
that came together when it's
11:39
really a very bipolar city. There's a
11:44
lot of wealth
11:45
and then there's a lot of working class.
11:49
There is a lot of glitz and glamour and
11:51
there is a lot of blue collar.
11:53
There is a lot of a little bit of
11:55
everything in there and international
11:58
and different countries and different
12:00
backgrounds and different languages and
12:02
different sports teams and different
12:04
sports all together
12:05
and everybody came out to just celebrate
12:08
with joy. And in today's day and age of
12:12
division
12:13
the unification was inspirational.
12:16
It was great to see people come together
12:18
just out of pure joy from completely
12:21
different backgrounds and socio-economic
12:22
backgrounds and racial backgrounds or
12:24
religious backgrounds. They all came
12:25
together to celebrate the same thing
12:27
that was just pure joy.
12:30
That that was awesome.
12:32
So yeah, I looked at this early on in
12:35
the playoffs and
12:36
rolled my eyes at the Bing Bong crews
12:39
and the TikTok wanters and all that
12:42
nonsense that was going out and you
12:43
know, the the loud obnoxious Knicks fans
12:46
that just make you roll your eyes.
12:48
And by the end of it, I thought this is
12:50
the best thing that could have happened
12:51
to sports. The best thing.
12:53
They represented so many of the things
12:55
that we absolutely love.
12:58
And Jalen Brunson's the best
12:59
representative of all of that because
13:01
when he got to the podium
13:03
and a chance to shoot down haters and
13:06
people that dismissed him and critics
13:07
alike
13:09
he took that trophy both the NBA Finals
13:11
Larry O'Brien and the
13:12
most valuable player
13:14
and didn't need to say a thing.
13:16
And I thought that was so incredibly
13:18
refreshing.
13:19
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