What you should see most are the faces of the children, teenagers, and fans in their early twenties. For them, this is all so new, so fresh, so unexpected. If you’re under 25 and happen to have grown up in New York as a professional basketball fan, if you’ve followed the Knicks, all you know is despair, sometimes sprinkled with deep disappointment.
For those who haven’t seen what we’ve seen in the first five weeks of the new year, the Knicks not only seem to win every time they play, they’re 15-2 since January 1st. heading into Saturday night’s matchup with the Knicks at the Garden. Lakers – But they adopted an old slogan borrowed from the University of Massachusetts swimming coach before John Calipari trademarked it for the University of Massachusetts basketball team.
They refuse to lose.
There are subtle hints of recognition for other demographics of Knicks fans, too. Perhaps the Knicks’ pinnacle in the 1990s was their 15-game winning streak in 1994, which saw them go undefeated in March and into April, helping them advance to the Finals. Of even greater vintage is his 18-game winning streak, which set an NBA record in the late fall of 1969 and propelled him to the 1970 championship, legendary in its own right.
But the record that feels most similar to this one actually predates this one by a year, and seems particularly relevant to what the Knicks have accomplished in recent weeks. It will be done. The Knicks won back-to-back games against the Warriors on December 17, 1968 and against Boston on December 18. The next day, he acquired Dave Debucher from Detroit for Walt Bellamy and Butch Comives.
In his first game, the Knicks defeated the Pistons 135-87. They won the next game. And next. They won all three games in a now-defunct series. The Bulls ended their 10-game winning streak by one point, 102-101 — “We forgot we were allowed to lose,” Clyde Frazier said on the night of Jan. 7.
And they won the next night in Milwaukee and then the next five games after that. Dobshire’s team record was 26-4 before losing to the Lakers at the Garden on February 18, 1969. And the first generation of Knicks fans was officially born.
Many Knicks fans have been reluctant to compare the modern team to the hallowed group of teams that built all the glory the Knicks had during their great era from 1968 to 1973. But even the most ardent defenders of that legacy have come to acknowledge that the comparison between the Knicks’ 1968 introduction of Dobuscher and his 2024 addition has become downright creepy.
And even if you can pick up every minute basketball detail, the general sense that the city is passionate about the team, and that a younger generation of fans will embrace first-hand prominence, is a moot point of discussion. There is no room left. In Dobshire’s first home game, the Knicks tied for a modest 13,998 on Saturday night during the holiday season.
By the end of the 30-game surge, the then sold-out number “19,500” had become a fixture in New York’s numbers lexicon.
The Knicks won easy games and won tough games. On February 1, they defeated the defending (and future) champion Celtics 109-82 in front of an SRO crowd behind Clyde’s 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists. Even more impressively, the next day, the Knicks rolled into the Boston Garden and won again, 95-94.
This game put the Knicks in first place and guaranteed them their first season series victory over the Celtics in 14 years.
Of course, it needs to be mentioned here that the season did not have a happy ending for the Knicks. The Celtics upset the Knicks in the conference finals en route to delivering Bill Russell his 11th and final championship (his second straight as a player). -coach). That dream was postponed for a year.
Logic suggests a similar script awaits this spring, with the same teams likely to dominate, but that’s beside the point. The game is as important this time as it was then. The topic is what matters. You can feel this all over the city.
Wack’s Wack
Presented without comments: Punxsutawney Phil and his ancestors have a 39% accuracy rate going back to 1887. Robert Saleh has a 35% winning percentage with the Jets.
After receiving “meh” new music from the Beatles last year, I’ll admit I was a little nervous about Billy Joel giving us his first pop song in over 30 years. He didn’t need to worry. “Turn the Lights Back On” is a worthy addition to what was already one of his greatest musical catalogs of all time.
Godspeed, Carl Weathers — Former Raiders linebacker, former “Happy Gilmore” putting guru, and the eternal Apollo Creed.
It was 25 years ago when a 4-year-old boy wearing his father’s No. 23 jersey entered the Mets’ clubhouse for the first time. “I think he missed his first game.” [Robin] Ventura hit and caught everything else,” Mike Hampton, one of the boy’s Fleishager buddies, said of young Patrick Mahomes. “I’m not saying we knew this young guy was going to be NFL MVP, but we knew he was going to be special.”
hit back vac
Greg Heinbach: Vac, in your article about Chiefs fatigue, you forgot to mention their ever-present and always-annoying backup QB, Jake from State Farm.
back: Do you think the Chiefs will vote half or all of their playoff money to Jake at State Farm?
Paul Sciortino: It’s refreshing to hear Kevin Durant say, “I’m just a player,” regarding his reluctance to make a tribute video. A man of dignity. Today’s public relations departments are tired of feeling the need to overhype everything.
back: Here’s what I think: If you have to think for more than 10 seconds whether someone deserves a tribute video, don’t have one.
@rprez2012: Mike, did you ever think the day would come in 2024 when the New York Knicks and New York Rangers would be two of the best-run organizations in sports, and James Dolan would still be the owner of both?
@MikeVacc:I lived to see George Steinbrenner publicly vilified and publicly mourned in Yankee Stadium. Sports can be interesting like this.
bill findlay: “When was the last time you rushed home to watch a Knicks game?” you asked. I was in eighth grade when the Knicks won his first title. We skipped the dance if it was on TV the same night as the school dance. please think about it. The 13- or 14-year-old boys slow dance with the cutest girls to see Walt, Dick, Dave, Bill, and the Captain in action.
back: Well then, here you go!
