Knicks, New York gets ready for the party

The party can finally begin. The epilogue that seemed obvious after the most incredible of comebacks achieved in game 4 in front of a shocked and ecstatic Garden promptly arrived at Wemby’s home, in that San Antonio that knows a lot about NBA titles. The Knicks are NBA champions, something that a fan base that has been subject to disappointment for the last 27 years now finds it difficult to even dream of. The first title since 1973 therefore comes thanks to a truly particular group put together by a puppeteer with a pedigree certainly less noble than some of his illustrious predecessors, such as Isaiah Thomas and Phil Jackson, who however had failed disastrously, but who turned practically every move he made into gold. There is therefore a lot of Leon Rose in the victory of the most loved team in the Big Apple, a city that knows a lot about sport at the highest level, and has collected many successes. However, not in the sport that all New Yorkers have in common who perhaps divide themselves between the Jets and Giants or Yankees and Mets, but not even the arrival of the Nets in the city after moving from New Jersey has damaged the faith of the Big Apple’s basketball fans. New York viscerally loves the Knicks and just when the fans had already lost all hope, the most “anti-star” star in the entire NBA, due to his physique, his personal history (picked in the second round by the Mavericks who then let him leave as a free agent because Mark Cuban considered a four-year, $55 million contract too generous) and his approach to work in the gym brought the greatest joy to the city. Jalen Brunson deserves a statue in front of Madison Square Garden and has probably become the greatest Knickerbocker in history, with all due respect to legends like Willis Reed, Clyde Thanks or Patrick Ewing. Around the player taken from the Mavericks in 2022, Rose created a truly rock-solid group with risky, and often even criticized, operations, but which in the end paid extraordinary dividends. From Towns to Bridges, from the choice not to put all the chips on Giannis, to the trade of OG Anunoby, who became perhaps the best “two way player” in the entire NBA, up to the dismissal last offseason of the coach who had achieved the best result in the last 25 years to rely on a coach fresh from being fired with the disastrous Kings. Mike Brown, however, proved to be the perfect coach for a talented group that needed a voice different from the perhaps too “old school” one of Tom Thibodeau and in the postseason he did nothing wrong, also showing courage in reneging on some of his ideas shown during the regular season. A true masterpiece that will now be celebrated, in a city that is already going crazy with joy, with what will inevitably become the most impressive parade in the history of the NBA. The municipal administration will have to find the right date for the official celebration of the Knicks which will send a metropolis into overdrive dealing with several events, as well as the World Cup matches, with a parade that will bring three to four million people through the city streets, according to forecasts. The city that never sleeps therefore has one more reason to stay awake.