THIS TOWN AIN'T BIG ENOUGH ...

The Knicks are getting close, the Nets are not

The New York Knicks are almost there. Their fans can taste it. The media can taste it. A delicacy they have not enjoyed since 1973: the championship of the NBA.

Many people doubted it would happen. After two straight defeats in the Eastern Conference Finals these last two years, no one knew if the current eleven could get over the top. Tom Thibodeau was fired, replaced by Mike Brown. The Knicks were not overly dominant in the regular season, gaining the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference. They were down 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks, and the doubts grew louder. Well, those doubters are silent for now: the Knicks have now won seven straight in the post-season, defeating the Hawks in six and sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers in four. They now wait the winner between the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is now 2-1 in favor of Detroit, but will probably go the whole seven. In Detroit, you have an up-and-coming team that the Knicks handled last year at this time. In Cleveland, you have a perennial underachiever in their current iteration.

In other words, the path to the NBA Finals, has, well, never been this clear for the Knicks, and I’m including the teams of the 90s in that. Those teams faced legit hardship, or simply lost to better teams, or shot themselves in the foot (Game 5 of the Miami series in ‘97 comes to mind). The current Knicks squad has no such obstacles, and are playing at a level few could imagine, even if their opponents have not been stellar so far.

And it you believe the radio personalties and the tv personalities and the online personalities and anyone with a personality who is also a Knicks fan, this quest to get the city its first NBA crown in fifty three years is the holy grail, the event most of them have lived their whole lives for. They believe because there are courts on 4th St and Rucker Park that most have them have never set foot on, that New York is the capital of basketball, and that it is divine right that its team be its champion. Never mind that the money is the same in San Antonio and Milwaukee and Oklahoma City for a player as it is in New York, and never mind that those teams have been champions during this extended drought for New York, it is New York or nothing. Also, add the fact that New York has not won a title in the four major professional sports since 2011, and other cities love to bring that up, and the city is ready. They are ready to forgive James Dolan for decades of questionable ownership and pettiness, if they finally get that title banner. I just hope they let Charles Oakley back in the building if it happens. They are ready for a ticker-tape parade, something the Knicks have NEVER had (the 70 and 73 teams had ceremonies at City Hall, but that’s it.)

Nothing is certain, however; even if the Knicks make the finals, they might have to play an Oklahoma City squad that was the best team in the league this season, and have handled their business as efficiently as the Knicks have. An since they will have dispatched the Lakers in doing so (they are up 3-0 as I write this, no team has ever come back from 3-0 to win a series, so I’m saying OKC will advance), the NBA might get a matchup of Big City versus Dust Bowl, divine right versus wet behind the ears, or at least that is how Knick fans will see it.

But for every Knick … there is a Net. As in the Brooklyn Nets. Remember the halcyon days of 2019, when the Nets were thought to have a brighter future. They were in Brooklyn. They had the brand new arena. They were about to add Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to an up and coming squad that had just been in the post season. Jason Kidd was coming back to coach. The Knicks seemed lost in their own disfunction. What a time to be a Nets fan! Yeah, all that turned into was one postseason series win and a lot of problems with Kyrie being an anti-semite. It collapsed into mediocrity at best, and that wasn't the first time that happened in BROOKLYN Nets history, never mind the history of the entire franchise. Remember the Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trades, because the Knicks had added Carmelo Anthony and the Nets had to keep up? That was the first hole the franchise dug for itself, and when it finally saw daylight … another hole to dig out of.

The Nets have always been second banana, from the moment they had to sell off the best player in the history of the franchise, Julius Erving, in order to pay the fee to join the league. You almost wonder if it would not have been better if Carolina or St. Louis or Kentucky had entered the league instead. In the late 80s. Spy Magazine what asked if the Nets even existed, since they were unable to contact anyone who worked in their offices. They once traded the draft rights to a player, Kyle Korver, for $125,000, and then used the money to buy a copy machine for that office. Korver had a successful 17 year career. And just this week, after successfully tanking their season in order to obtain the number one pick in the upcoming draft, they will end up paying sixth. This after using five first-round picks this past year for … a bunch of mediocre players.

And now, the Nets may be losing the one thing they could hold over the Knicks: the Nets have won a league title sooner that the Knicks. Mind you, it’s the 1975-76 ABA Championship, a league that no longer exists, but the banner still hangs in Barlcays Center. And who knows, if the Knicks do win the championship, maybe that will cause the Nets organization to get off their duffs and compete once again. They’ve already go jerseys inspired by Basquiat and Biggie Smalls, so they’ll always have a cool factor of their own … but the Knicks may take Manhattan, and the Nets will be stuck watching the madness from the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.