Some of my friends don’t understand my fascination with the New York Knicks. I mean, they know and understand why I have always rooted for the Knicks but what they can’t fathom is how obsessive I am with the team, especially this year.
I guess unlike most NBA fans in the country - or even in Asia – who tend to follow their favorite players and whichever team he plays for, we Knicks fans are made differently – we live and die with the Knicks.
And we have been “dying” in like forever.
The last time my beloved Knicks made it to the playoffs was in in the 2012-2013 season and we were booted out in the 2nd round by the Pacers. It’s been almost a decade since we qualified for the playoffs, and yet, the Knicks fan, delusional and masochistic that we are, never abandoned the team.
Also, unlike the younger Knicks fans, I am considered luckier as I saw my Knicks compete against the best in the 1990’s. We even reached the NBA Finals twice – in 1994 and in 1999.
Growing up, Bernard King was my hero. In my early teens, Patrick Ewing came in and Knicks fans all over the world were hopeful. But this skinny kid from North Carolina ruined everything for us for decades.
Those who know me enough know how much I adore Michael Jordan, who is, by far, the greatest baller to have ever played the game. (Erwin will disagree, of course, but he is a LeChoke and LeDrama fanboy) His Airness is my all-time favorite player, but I hated him – the only time I didn’t like MJ – for always beating my Knicks.
Anyways, for decades, Knicks fans all over the world have been supporting a team that had been the laughingstock of the Basketball world. While we have reached the playoffs here and there, especially during Melo’s years, we knew we were not good enough to win.
We still aren’t, to be honest. But there is a reason to be hopeful.
As to why I am so invested in the Knicks this year, more so than the decades and decades that I previously was, it’s because in the last year or so, when certain aspects of my personal life seemed hopeless, this New York Knicks team was the only thing – besides my family and friends – that gave me hope that everything will be fine.
So, when we finally got into the playoffs this year, everything in me told me, like my beloved Knicks, I will be fine, InshaAllah.
Merry Christmas, Cody.
PS
Despite sucking for decades, the New York Knicks is still the most valuable NBA team; only the Cowboys and the Yankees – my other favorite team – who is valued more than the Knicks
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