The Knicks Winning Means You Can Too

"We have a horse that's too small, a jockey that's too big, a trainer that's too old, and an owner that's too dumb to know the difference!"
- Charles Howard Seabiscuit (2003)  

It was the summer of 1994. The New York Knicks were playing in Game 7 of the NBA playoffs. I was 12. Why was this LA Native rooting for the Knicks? Well, because Pat Riley, the Godfather, was their coach. Raised an LA Laker fan through my early 1980's childhood, my father decided if the Lakers couldn't win the title, at least the man who lead them a few years ago could. So I rooted for the Knicks. They lost. But thus began my obsession with New York, both the city and the mythological qualities of the NBA team that embodied the soul of the city's people. I rooted for them through the 1990's, not as a bandwagon follower, but as a legitimate fan. And they broke my heart for years. But on June 13, 27 years since last making the finals, and 53 years since winning their last NBA title, the team finally did the impossible - they won the NBA Championship - resembling a Hollywood movie ending - proving that anything is possible in this crazy world.

Symbolically, the Knicks winning a title was a hybrid of Ted Lasso, Rocky, Seabiscuit, and Space Jam. The ultimate underdog story. An undersized guard, a discarded coach, a group of second round draft picks, and a team that hasn't been to the finals in 27 years or won a title in 53 years. They played against a literal giant in the 7'5" Victor Wembanyama, who just took out the defending world champions Oklahoma City Thunder. No one had New York winning this series except for a few broadcasters who felt like they were plants to argue on ESPN and Fox Sports.

They were like a second version of Seabiscuit, the wounded horse that inspired the world during The Great Depression. 

Yet, here we are with the Knicks having won in a 5-1 series where they were down double digit points each game. In Game 4 they were down 29 points, eventually winning, in the single greatest comeback in NBA Finals history. Disney couldn't write a better script. 

Somehow this Knicks victory hit me in ways no other title ever has. I graduated high school in 1999. It was a transformative year for me. My father and I became estranged. I graduated high school. I quit my first job. I started coaching wrestling. I asked out my first date (she stood me up). I started college. And I watched Fight Club that summer. And I watched the Knicks become the first 8 seed upset the 1 seed (Miami Heat) and run the table to the finals, only to get pummelled by the San Antonio Spurs. Somehow the thing that really stuck with me, all those years later, was that Knicks run.

For 27 years I watched them come up short, lose players, change coaches, and eventually end up in a desert full of dreadful, awful, no good, back luck - missing the playoffs for years at a time. 
Yet, despite their bad management and uninspiring play, the team never tanked. They just were bad. Like a real life Mighty Ducks. They just needed some coaching and a little luck. The last three seasons a new uptick in their post-season play began. Once Jalen Brunson showed up they made it out of the first round. They beat Boston in 2025, in one of the biggest upsets ever, only to lose to their greatest antagonist - The Indiana Pacers. Like the poem Casey at the Bat, "there is no joy in Madison Square Garden, the mighty Knicks have struck out." 

But little did they know that the basketball gods had a few tricks up their sleeves. When Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton went down all season, the Pacers were out for a year. The Boston Celtics had to release quality players due to salary cap restrictions. And last year's darlings, the Cleveland Cavs, took a big step back, panicked, and brought in team cancer spreader James Harden. Suddenly, fate and desire met at the right time. Like the last season of Ted Lasso, they figured out team ball on a level that can only be described as a symphony of the divine, going on a 16-3 run in the post season, scoring +283 points over their opponents, including a 13-0 run.       

As the final seconds of Game 5 played out, the last 27 years of my life flashed before my eyes. The heartbreaks, the rejection, the sadness, the injuries, the heart failure, the diabetic attacks, the endless job cycle, the stand up journey...everything that felt unfair and undeserved left my body. A resurrection of my soul began to form, like a cocoon opening up and a butterfly of reformation was released. I can't really explain it, except it felt like something out of Tolkien's mythology. My life restarted. A certain "stuckness" became "unstuck." It was like anything could happen now. 

Let me stress this point, so you can get the magnitude of this moment. The Knicks have been the laughing stock of the league for so many years. The Clippers of the Eastern Conference. One way to describe them is how Billy Bean in Moneyball described the Oakland A's, "The problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there's fifty feet of crap, and then there's us." New Yorker Knick fans could not fear hell - they lived it season after season.  

So if the New York Knicks can win the NBA Title in an epic historic run, defeat Goliath, and raise a banner, then just maybe I can get the gig, win the heart of the girl, buy the house, and become the man I was destine to be. The New York Knicks winning the title isn't just about basketball, it's about closing the chapter on a life I want to forget and walking into a door I can't wait to explore.   
Since much of my life is connected to my relationship to popular culture, I want to share a TV show scene that I was reminded of while watching the Knicks win the championship. 

I fully understand the clip I'm attaching to this article may seem odd, but hear me out. In The People v. OJ Simpson, Courtney B. Vance as Johnny Cochran gives an amazing speech to OJ Simpson (Cuba Gooding, Jr) about how his play one day gave him hope at a dark time in his life. Below is the clip. Understand that this seems to be the emotional journey of many men. They see themselves in their sports gods. Gene Hackman in Hoosiers says it best, "You know, most people would kill... to be treated like a god, just for a few moments" when the other school teacher criticized how men love sports.      

​And that is the beauty of sports. That in the end, we can still find a way to win. Because if the New York Knicks can win a world title, then you, my friend, can do anything too. Never forget that. Let the summer of 2026 be a life lived in the glorious reflection of this moment. I truly believe on a spiritual level, the New York Knicks won so we can run.