Money can't buy happiness, and it seems money plus an NBA title doesn't necessarily buy charisma. The New York Knicks held their championship parade and rally in Manhattan on Thursday, and although not everyone could get in to see the actual procession, there were plenty of fans celebrating in the area. Last week's good vibes kept rolling; Jerome "Junkyard Dog" Williams was in attendance. But for…
SAN ANTONIO — "Wow … more Knicks fans?" said a local child, dejectedly, as he rounded a corner on the River Walk, only to encounter a cheerful man wearing a "Nueva York" edition David Lee jersey. Saturday morning, before Game 5 of the NBA Finals, this child's Spurs team still had life in it yet. But from the tone of his voice, it was clear that he had lost some emotional battle…
The New York Knicks are NBA champions. That meant Harry and I had to bring back regular guest Giri Nathan onto _Nothing But Respect_ to talk about what it felt like to watch his team win a championship, Jalen Brunson's big-ass head, and James Dolan's performance on the championship podium. Unlike last time around, his power did not cut out at the last second, so this was a real success! Everyone…
It's hard to explain what it's been like walking around New York City over the past two weeks. Even if the Knicks don't specifically come up, the spirits are high. Knicks gear and colors are everywhere, the people are smiling, the mayor is Muslim, the bagels are Jewish, etc. During the actual Finals games, every establishment with a TV was completely packed out, full of people losing their minds…
Victor Wembanyama is maybe just kind of a corny guy. I think we are all going to have to get accustomed to that. His taste in reading material could scarcely be more embarrassing shy of, like, pickup-artist instruction manuals. He seems to go out of his way to cultivate a public Man of Sophistication image, which is among other things hilariously at odds with what he's reading. He can be…
Days of humidity had finally broken with a thunderstorm the night before. Brazilians were all over midtown, getting ready for their World Cup game. Puerto Rican and Pride flags were everywhere. "Knicks in five" was no longer a shibboleth or even a prediction; it was now the city's standard greeting. It was a glorious Saturday to be out in New York.
The watch parties had started organically.…
Gotham's true heroes, its sanitation brigades, are still sweeping up the dazed, delirious, and confused bodies from the streets of the city, and the clean-up will take them well into this evening. Then they'll have to do it all over again Thursday after the obligatory semi-violent boozer disguised as a parade. _These_ New York Knicks are finally done with being the Knicks of yore, and the city…
With a 94-90 win in Game 5, yet another doughty comeback and superlative Jalen Brunson takeover, the New York Knicks are NBA champions. This is an unsettling and unusual thing to say, because they are the New York Knicks.
Knicks fandom has, historically, been about feeling bad. But feeling bad together is still a communal experience. Much of the conversation in New York these past two months has…
Knicks mania is in the air, but how does that affect local businesses beyond the obvious cases, like bars packed out on random weeknights? Beer is a constant, but what about print media? To find out, I stopped by Casa Magazines, a well-loved corner store in the West Village where you can procure pretty much anything printed, from the daily tabloids to esoteric small-batch fare. I spoke to Casa…
The sounds coming out of me were causing the sleeping baby to stir, so I had to remove myself from the premises. But I had just seen the hand of god steal Game 4 in the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history, giving the New York Knicks a 3-1 series lead, and I was in a city full of fellow witnesses making similarly feral sounds.
Earlier in the fourth quarter, while the San Antonio Spurs' lead…
If OG Anunoby's miraculous putback of Jalen Brunson's long three is the Hand of God, maybe the play before it was the Brain of Squirrel. It was San Antonio Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox, currently finishing up his ninth year in the NBA, who made a pre-rookie mistake that allowed the New York Knicks the chance to take the 3-1 series lead.
With under 20 seconds to go and the Spurs up one, a Brunson…
Some games get you thinking about a higher power. Not because it seems like some cosmic force has put a thumb on the scale in favor of one side or the other, but because the game in question produces a result so unlikely, so ornately designed, that it can only have occurred exactly as it did.
Game 4 of the NBA Finals has me feeling like one of those Kansas creationists who point to a bacterial…
Nobody wants to think about officiating, much less talk about it. Joyce Carol Oates knows it. The NBA Finals are no occasion for rational nonpartisanship. The middle ground is out of reach.
If I want to say something straightforwardly true about the officiating, like, "Referees are still sorting out how to protect Victor Wembanyama from a kind of mauling that only he faces," unless I surround…
As of publication, the New York Knicks maintain a 2-1 edge in the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. It's been an entertaining, nervous, and extremely high-level series, and this week on _Nothing But Respect_ , Harry and I sought out two returning champions. Devon Walker, comedian and podcaster and generally very funny internet person, is a big Spurs fan; he expressed his loathing for the…
Blocks of "frozen zones" established by NYPD barricades. Roaming cops and security forces corralling people onto the sidewalk or standing around like an unspoken threat. Leaders' allusions to potential danger so they can justify the militarized spectacle they have set up on the street. The husk of the community that was building up where the police now stand. Game 3 of the NBA Finals really took…
Sometime around the end of the second quarter was the first time I thought that the San Antonio Spurs could not win Game 2 of the NBA Finals. The Knicks had ended the half up four after being down as much as 12 to the Spurs. Stephon Castle had been taken off the court in the middle of the second quarter after three dumb fouls. The threes had stopped falling and Victor Wembanyama, who tends to…
The New York Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of the NBA Finals tonight, and there is a very real possibility that the Knicks will head into the weekend up 2-0 in the series as they prepare to play their first Finals home game since 1999 on Monday. Can you imagine how good the vibes in New York City would be? Is it even possible to comprehend how electric the crowd inside and out of…
Even a Knicks fan would concede that Karl-Anthony Towns has his demons. They all stem from the whistle. During the regular season, the Knicks center was among the NBA's most foul-prone players, racking up 3.4 per game. He led the league outright with 65 total offensive fouls. I don't think this is all his fault. Officials seem to assume the worst intentions on his part, and overlook when he…
That photo up there is of Jalen Brunson, who hit some huge shots down the stretch of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, led all players on both sides in scoring, and was talked up by his head coach as the hero of a game the underdog Knicks won, 105–95. "He did what MVP candidates are supposed to do," said a glowing Mike Brown, who pushed every correct button Wednesday night. "In the biggest moments, he…
The great Hanif Abdurraqib joined us this week on _Nothing But Respect_. You are probably familiar with Abdurraqib's work as a poet, author, journalist, and subject of a Giri Nathan profile, which was timed to the release of Abdurraqib's 2024 book, _There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension_.
We talked a bit about the book, a good amount about his beloved Minnesota Timberwolves, and…
Three years after making the playoffs together and contesting a beautiful, ultimately futile first-round series against the defending champs, Mike Brown and De'Aaron Fox are going to the NBA Finals. All they had to do was flee Sacramento.
As the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks gear up for what should be a thriller of a Finals, the world will dissect the two team's strengths and flaws,…
The New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals. The way the team's been playing lately, that means fans have only a little time to make a big decision: Are they gonna cheer or jeer when James Dolan holds up the Larry O’Brien Trophy?
It’s been a long time since the Knicks have gotten this close to a ring. An awful long time, with an awful lot of awful teams. And Dolan, who has controlled day-to-day…
Every spring, as the flowers open and the days warm, Knicks merchandise bursts out of closets in New York City. Hats, T-shirts, and jackets adorn eager New Yorkers across the five boroughs. I wish I were a mature enough person to handle this particular bandwagoning with grace, and I do arrive there eventually. But there's always an initial tingle of irritation at the stolen valor.
Hey,…