I’m a lifelong Bulls fan who had the privilege of seeing Michael Jordan play in person from standing-room-only-level seats, where I literally had to use binoculars. Because of that, it was ingrained from an early start that you hated the Knicks from those epic battles with Ewing, Mason, and Starks. I even remember watching them play against a young Spurs team that featured a veteran center, David Robinson, passing the torch to the rookie Tim Duncan.
However, this year, I couldn’t help but root for them.
The city in general seems so rejuvenated.
"My mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, my Christian Dior, Knicks in four!"
This became the rallying cry that got the whole nation on their side.
Also, my son’s favorite professional wrestler, Danhausen, rose to fame outside the wrestling ring when he "uncursed" the New York Knicks. After doing so, the Knicks went on an incredible 15-1 run right to the championship, leading up to the meteoric rise and the thrilling conclusion to one of the most memorable NBA championships in a long time when the New York Knicks won the championship last night.
Maybe my favorite meme-worthy saying that came out of this was the comparison between these two teams:
The San Antonio Spurs: Someone would mention that the Spurs have the freakiest athlete of our time, that they had five first-round picks in the past three seasons (one of them being Wembanyama), and that they were the Western Conference juggernaut that couldn’t be beat.
The New York Knicks: Boasted "the power of friendship."
While this is a hilarious take, the Knicks did indeed have some great players, but there was something else to them. The way the team banded together, especially through the tough times when it seemed impossible to pull off a win, is worth noting: how? There is a core of college teammates from Villanova, so they had a huge head start in building the chemistry a team needs to make a deep run. There are stories of Brunson taking far less money to ensure that they could re-sign core players. The fact that Brunson got to share this moment with his dad is also something special and worth its own biopic.
But in general, this Knicks win, for me, really drove home the point that team chemistry is one of the most important factors to a team's success. Individual stars can take a team far, but they must be able to work together. Jordan never won titles without Pippen, and they both admitted they couldn’t have won the second three without Rodman.
If you coach youth sports, you know the difficulties of having that one star player who can carry the team, but does so even when they don’t want them to. The classic ball hog. It’s tricky to honor that player's abilities while not diminishing the other players' abilities in the process. And if that star player is unrelenting on teammates who can’t keep up with them, there goes the team chemistry.
There is no way the Knicks could have come back from down 29 points if they were laying into each other. Instead, they lifted each other with an unshakable belief that they could win, together.
I’m so happy for New York and for the Knicks. Before, my best example of an outmatched sports team that had no business winning was the "Miracle on Ice" when the US men's hockey team defeated Russia. However, this reference would do better to inspire fifty-year-olds than five-year-olds. Now, as a youth sports coach, I have a brand new, modern example of how "the power of friendship" and team chemistry can make all the difference in the world.