Every year I promise I won’t let the Knicks get me excited about their chances of winning an NBA title.
I swear I won’t let them snatch my emotions and draw me into the false hope that they always seem to give us long-suffering fans.
Yet every year I cause my own heartbreak because I fail to emotionally distance myself from the team that I, along with every true New Yorker who has supported the team for decades, can never stop cheering for, disdain, support, curse out and celebrate.
It’s like being Pookie from the movie New Jack City and the Knicks are the drug that we turn back to every year.
“It just be callin’ me man. Callin’ me man. I just got to go to it.”
And like Pookie, we know our fandom will only hurt us in the end, but we can’t stop taking part in their annual rollercoaster of a season.
This season began with big moves starting in June 2024 that showed us all that the organization was serious about reaching the NBA Finals.
We had superstar Jalen Brunson, All-Star Julius Randle and the Villanova Knicks and were poised to run it back with a team that almost made the Eastern Conference Finals the previous year.
Then management traded away five first-round picks to Brooklyn for Mikal Bridges. A few short days later, the team locked up OG Anunoby with a five-year, $212.5 million deal in June, the largest deal in team history.
Then in October, the biggest stunner hit when the team traded Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns.
While it broke up the Nova Knicks, it gave the team two true offensive threats in Brunson and KAT.
That move reinvigorated the championship dreams for fans who knew they needed more offense to get by the reigning NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics.
The season, as is the norm for the Knicks, was filled with highs and lows, including being swept by the three top teams in the league- the Celtics, Cavaliers and Thunder.
But at the end of the regular season, New York finished third in the East, which meant it would play Boston if they could get through a tough matchup with the young Detroit Pistons.
While nail-biting and rough, the Knicks made it through the Pistons and faced the Celtics, a team that had demolished them in the four regular season games.
Shockingly, the Knicks took the first two games in Boston and eventually won the series in six games, stunning NBA fans and sending the city into a frenzy.
Then it was time to face the Indiana Pacers, another rival steeped in history and a team that was on a roll after taking out the Bucks and Cavaliers with relative ease.
But the Knicks were up to the task and were on the verge of winning Game 1 at home until they suffered a historic collapse which ultimately cost them the series.
They tried to rally, winning Game 5 and pushing the Eastern Conference Finals to Game 6 but were crushed on Saturday night, ending their championship dreams.
For newer Knicks fans, it was time to celebrate a successful season while cursing out the Pacers and their fans.
But for us older fans, it was another year of thrills and frustration that we knew was coming all along but that was confirmed with the Game 1 ECF loss.
We’ve seen it too many times yet we continue to fool ourselves into believing it could be different because of our undying loyalty to the team.
For every thrilling moment, there is an equalizing moment of agony, a pattern that consistently repeats itself.
John Stark’s dunk. Allan Houston’s floater. LJ’s four-point play.
Charles Smith pump faking. John Starks 2-18. Ewing’s finger roll.
Those memories, already seared into our minds, are now joined by Game 1 of the ECF.
Yes, this year’s team did give fans almost everything they craved and shocked the NBA by taking down the Celtics.
And by no means was it a failure for no one would have thought that they would come up two wins short of making the Finals.
But it also left another hole in our hearts by failing to reach the Finals and by losing to a hated rival, one who gave us yet another villain, Tyrese Haliburton, to hate.
It was an exciting playoff run, one that brought us back into the realm of belief in the Orange and Blue.
But it was a frustrating one as well, filled with poor defense, the inability to adjust and horrendous miscommunication at the worst times.
Those of us of a certain age should be used to the duality of emotions that the Knicks invoke and you would think that would make us impervious to the heartbreak that eventually comes.
But it’s not that simple.
When you’re a real Knicks fan, one with the emotional scars to prove it, you can’t explain why you show up and support the team year after year despite the painful ending.
But we do, and we did again this year.
And while we failed to reach and win the Finals, we had another year of excitement and heartbreak, which we have every year. That’s the definition of insanity.
“I need help,” begged Pookie, and despite getting it, he went back to that which he couldn’t give up.
That will be me and every other long-suffering Knicks fan once again next season.
See you then.
