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Fighting Doubts and the Long Wait

A Knicks fan who’s waited for over 27 years for this moment

What does it mean to be a “real New Yorker?”

Is it the knowledge of every corner store that has the kind of bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a bagel you’re looking for? Is it the way you carry yourself no matter where you go in terms of wearing Timbs or the latest Nike sneakers?

A few weeks ago on the popular online show “Subway Takes,” host and comedian Kareem Rahma asked native New Yorker and famous pop star/actress Jennifer Lopez what’s her take of the day? Her response is that you actually have to be born in New York to be constituted as a “legitimate New Yorker” and everybody else is essentially trying to claim the city but have to be actually one of the five boroughs. Some folks didn’t like that claim, believing to be disingenuous even though that’s the point of show to say something outlandish to get folks talking. It’s a “take,” not a definitive statement. Hell, someone once said on the show that women should stop wearing bras. It’s not serious, but her comments did accomplish the goal of getting folks to talk to define what is a true New Yorker.

I myself can be constituted as a New Yorker despite living elsewhere. I was born in New York City. I’ve ridden the subway numerous times in my life and know better than to call the Seventh Ave Line the “red line” as if I’m in Chicago. I still have my old MetroCards from the 2000s and 2010s. My relatives — including my mother — still have their old subway tokens. I have family that still live in the city. Even when I left as a kid, the city never quite left me. It’s been a part of my life and that won’t change.

If there’s one thing that every one can agree when it comes to New York, we live and die by our sports teams.

The city is filled with multiple sports teams that every person is a fan of based on their times of regions and fandom history. You have the Yankees, the Mets, the Jets, the Giants, (sometimes) the Bills, the Rangers, the Islanders, (kinda, sorta) the Devils (even though their New Jersey), the Liberty, the Nets, and the Knicks. The last team mentioned is special in particular. New York is often perceived as “the Mecca of basketball.” It was the place where hoops became a national phenom and a celebratory event for sports fans everywhere.

And the New York Knickerbockers were the heart of New York basketball fans everywhere.

For the better half of the century, the Knicks went from a gritty, tough basketball team to a terrible, shitty basketball club, later returning to being a decent, fun basketball team, went right back to being a shitty ball club and then climbed up to become a playoff caliber team, and finally a championship team. I grew up watching the Knicks in the early 90s. I watched basketball thanks to my family and the presence of one Michael Jeffrey Jordan. He was the definitive modern day superstar at the time. I was a fan watching him but wasn’t someone who had particular ties to a specific team. It wasn’t up until the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals when John Starks posterized Michael Jordan and Horace Grant with a powerful one handed dunk that got me being a fan of the New York Knicks. I thought it was the coolest moment I’ve ever seen and it automatically turned me into a Knicks fan like my family.

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The 1994 Knicks went to the NBA Finals to take on the Houston Rockets. I watched every game with my family, thinking that this is the moment that the Knicks could win a championship after watching Jordan win it before them and beat them in the past. After going up 3–2, I thought they might pull it off. The Rockets came back to win Game 6 and finally Game 7 in Houston, ultimately ruining their title aspirations. Whether it was Starks’ poor shooting night, the two way play of Hakeem “the Dream” Olajuwon, either way it was not meant to be for the Knicks.

What ensued after that was even more pain. Patrick Ewing’s missed finger roll in the 1995 Eastern Conference Semi Finals cost the Knicks a chance to return to the Eastern Conference Finals. Pat Riley — who was the then head coach of the Knicks — ditched the team to take his talents to South Beach and faxed his resignation to Madison Square Garden. His assistant Jeff Van Gundy would eventually take over the team and put the Knicks back in title contention once again with a chance to take on the Bulls in 1997. Unfortunately, bad luck would rear its ugly head again with a Charlie Ward throw by PJ Brown, which led to a brawl that had several Knicks players suspended and ruining their best chance to win the NBA title. The Knicks would finally return in 1999 but the “twin towers” of Tim Duncan and David Robinson was too much for a very injured Knicks squad without Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson.

I watched every single heartbreak you can imagine with this team. The 90s would sadly become the pinnacle of watching Knicks basketball. Once the 2000s hit, there wasn’t much to watch with several front offices making terrible decisions that continuously wrecked any possible joy watching the Knicks. Between the Antonio McDyess trade and injury, the loss of picks that became prime Amar’e Stoudemire or prime Joakim Noah, the entirety of the Isiah Thomas Era, just so many decisions lead to misery and heartbreak that I just stopped watching the team for a while because there was nothing to watch or see anything being aimed for because they sure as hell weren’t winning a title anytime soon.

AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano

Then came the 2010s, when Stoudemire came to the Garden, shouted out, “the Knicks are back!” and gave the false hope to fans thinking that they might be able to do it. The “Knickstape” Era with Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, and Jeremy Lin gave the belief that they could win it and fight back. Of course, one Roy Hibbert block on Melo pretty much ended that era in the quickness and more bad front office decisions killed the momentum of the Knicks winning a title. Even with the addition of guys like Langston Galloway and Kristaps Porzingis, who tried their hardest to make it work, couldn’t quell the disappointment of Knicks fans who pretty much knew that this era wouldn’t get it done. I knew it wouldn’t amount to anything and was almost content that the team would suck for the rest of my life until my dying days.

It’s easy to revel in negativity. There’s something comforting about not believing in anything could amount to something worthwhile, fun or rewarding. As Red said in the movie Shawshank Redemption, “hope is a dangerous thing.” You won’t have to feel the pain of disappointment. Everyone wants to rely on pessimism in anything they see. Whether it’s art or sports, history is not kind to those who dare to go against the grain and do something different.

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After Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving spurred the Knicks to sign with the Brooklyn Nets, with KD almost proudly saying with his chest “the Knicks are not cool,” I was under the belief that even if the Knicks don’t win a title and the Nets do, I’d rather at least enjoy the team I’m rooting for and not concern myself with what the opposing teams are doing. The Knicks drafted RJ Barrett with the 3rd overall pick in the 2019 draft and signed Julius Randle as the “consolation prize” in a missed free agency. The season was a disappointment and the world got hit with COVID and the Knicks were lost, lacking direction. Once Steve Mills — the then president of the organization — was fired and replaced with Leon Rose, the former President of CAA Sports, there was very little belief that former super powered agent in the world of sports can somehow turn a franchise around.

Perhaps I should have had more faith than that.

Leon Rose brought in Tom Thibodeau, a former client and a head coach who had ties to the Knicks organization. He transformed the front office into one of the most basketball analytics heavy department in the NBA. He brought in the best team doctors, scouts, and coaching personnel to breathe life into the Knicks. The team was the laughing stock of the NBA for over two decades suddenly became one of the most menacing, skilled teams in the league.

As the team was building, there needed to be a foundational piece to hold the team together. The Knicks desperately needed a lead guard to command the offense. Although they had Immanuel Quickley, the organization felt he was best used as the sixth man on a playoff caliber roster. Rose sought his godson and another NBA player with massive ties to the organization in Jalen Brunson. He was the sixth man on the Dallas Mavericks and played alongside superstar Luka Doncic. Brunson signing was meant to signify that the Knicks had a player who can properly organize the offense and has a skills to get a bucket when they need to. But Rose knew Brunson more than anyone else did. He’s known his family ever since Brunson was a literal baby. Despite his talent, pessimism followed him as soon as he signed with the Knicks because again, it’s easier to be dismissive and not have faith.

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Brunson not only helped get the Knicks offense flowing but he was displaying that he was the superstar on the come up and everyone knew that eventually the team would be his to command. They brought in his best friend and old college roommate Josh Hart as the supporting shooting guard. They traded Quickley and Barrett — two fan favorite players — to bring in OG Annuoby who was one of the more elite two way forwards in the NBA. They gave up five first round picks to their crosstown rival the Brooklyn Nets to bring in another old friend and college teammate from the Villanova days in Mikal Bridges. They sacrificed Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzio, two elite players who helped the turnaround of the Knicks franchise, to bring in Karl Anthony Towns, one of the best centers in the NBA and another former client of Leon Rose.

The Knicks were no longer a plucky playoff caliber team that was fun to watch in the postseason. The Knicks were legitimate contenders and a threat to the wider NBA teams. The team knew it. New York City knew it. The NBA knew it. The Knicks were coming and they were dangerous.

After being unceremoniously bounced after six games in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals against their old rival the Indiana Pacers, the Knicks organization knew that more was needed from the coaching staff. Tom Thibodeau was fired after five seasons with the Knicks and Rose hired Mike Brown to coach the team. Brown was an understudy of great NBA head coaches in Gregg Popovich when he was with the San Antonio Spurs and with Steve Kerr when he was with the Golden State Warriors. He’s coached playoff teams and NBA Finals teams. To quote sports personality Bomani Jones, “Mike Brown was never fired for a good reason.” He was let go by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Los Angeles Lakers, and most recently the Sacramento Kings. Each of the organizations he was let go from had winning records of him as a head coach. Again, massive doubt from the public about a coach brought in to suddenly get the Knicks into the NBA Finals.

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You can’t help but notice a pattern here.

One thing about New York life is that it can chew you up and spit you out. It can be cruel, indifferent, and at times “kill your spirit.” Doubt is everywhere and no matter how much you fight through it all, it can be never enough. But you keep fighting. You find a way through the bullshit and remain resilient. And maybe, just maybe, you survive it all.

I can’t tell you the amount of times I went through heartbreak and disappointment in this life. The moments I failed, watched loved ones pass away and leave me, losing finances, declining health, suffered defeat after defeat. It gets tiring you know. You don’t know whether or not if things will be okay in the end. But through it all, I persevere and keep going. That’s not necessarily the New Yorker in me. That’s the life experience in me. As for New Yorkers, they know that nobody will care about their pain. They keep grinding it out and fighting.

That’s why they’ve grown to love this Knicks team and even some former players. They are emblematic of that fighting spirit through the bullshit of it all. Every player — current and former — left blood on the Madison Square Garden floor to fight for a win and a chance for glory. The doubters continuously kept picking against the Knicks team and used their struggles as a fuel to justify their beliefs that this team can’t get it done. It didn’t matter to any of them. In fact, they welcomed the doubts. Throughout the 2026 NBA Playoffs run, the Knicks made sure to send a message to every opponent they faced. The Cavs, the 76ers, and the Hawks were all told “they’re not in the Knicks class of talent and aren’t worth the trouble.” The Knicks had the highest win percentage total in the playoffs not seen since the 2001 Lakers playoff run with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

In the end, it finally paid off.

The Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs, the last team they faced in the 1999 NBA Finals, in a five game series, capping off a poetic run of basketball. Jalen Brunson earned both the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and the NBA Finals MVP. Players who were deemed as cast offs proved a lot of naysayers wrong and brought home the gold. The Knicks ended a 53 year title drought and won it all.

I waited 27 years for the Knicks to return to the NBA Finals. I waited 27 years for them to right the wrongs of past mistakes. I waited 27 years for this Knicks team to remove the ghosts of failures past after losing to the Spurs all those years ago on their own home floor. They finally accomplished their goal after I waited 27 years.

No more disappointment. No more self-loathing. No more doubt. The Knicks are world champions and I can finally say that with enthusiastic joy.