We sometimes go back to this term. That was the brainchild of Pat Riley, when he was the Knicks coach and had enough time to land on the bestseller list with a self-help book called “The Winner Insion.”
The term in question is “The Innocent Climb,” and if you've had nickel for every coach from 1994 until now, then the person using that phrase… well, I have so many nickel.
Essentially, innocent climbing refers to a team of selfish team members. “When teams act selfishly, trust each other, and devote themselves to combining instinct and boldness, they are ready to achieve something epic,” writes Riley.
The Knicks, which began in 2021, embodied this as anyone else. Over the course of four years they regained much of the credibility they had wasted during the lost 20 years of 2001-20 years, and also recaptured much of the heart of New York City. And there are subtle consequences for this in New York.
