This cheerless club was grouchily owned, poorly assembled, haphazardly managed, chronically undermanned, and, worst of all, dull. And that was during the couple of good years they had. The rest of the time, it was rotten.
This cheerless club was grouchily owned, poorly assembled, haphazardly managed, chronically undermanned, and, worst of all, dull. And that was during the couple of good years they had. The rest of the time, it was rotten. From the 2000-01 campaign through 2020, the Knicks suffered through 16 losing seasons, a handful of winning ones and produced one lonely playoff series win. Trust me when I say it was even bleaker than that sounds. With hubris and no direction, New York churned through players, coaches and GMs, replacing old problems with new problems. They flirted with free agent saviors like LeBron James and got ignored. Phil Jackson moped in and moped out. Outside of flickers like Carmelo Anthony’s homecoming and Linsanity, Madison Square Garden was funereal. A treasured franchise had frazzled into a bitter mood. Two decades of gloom all but wiped out the gauzy memories of the gutty mid-90s teams and the Nixon-era titles with Clyde, Pearl, DeBusschere and Willis Reed hobbling out from the tunnel. The Knicks weren’t just a punchline. They were irrelevant. Mostly it felt like a wasted opportunity: A once-beloved team, in a basketball mecca, sinking its future and alienating its fan base with contentious leadership, murky vision and somnambulant play. The elders knew: There is nothing like the vibe in New York City when the Knicks get going. And yet a generation grew up in Gotham with no idea. The Knicks had done the unthinkable, throwing away a proud thing. That’s over now. The proud thing—it’s very back. Read more from columnist Jason Gay (free link): https://www.wsj.com/sports/basketball/new-york-knicks-nba-finals-215b0522?st=5ia4Nn&mod=wsjreddit submitted by /u/wsj [link] [comments]
