The Knicks had luck, but they also made plenty of their own. It was beautiful to watch.
I still can’t believe it.
I barely slept last night as I digested the Knicks’ win. I kept rewatching the scenes over and over again as if waiting for the part when I wake up and learn it was all just a very vivid dream.
Throughout the Knicks incredible 16–3 playoff run, whenever things were going right, I was haunted by ghosts from the past and bracing for something to go wrong. My fellow long-sufferers will remember many moments over the course of the 53 disappointing years. But during my formative years, I think to Charles Smith’s missed layups, the John Starks’s 2–18 game 7, Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds, and the Patrick Ewing finger roll. Even after watching Jalen Brunson and the rest of the squad hug the championship trophy through the wee hours of the morning, I’m still waiting for another shoe to drop.
But it won’t. This time, a Knicks championship was meant to be.
The concept of destiny can be an overused cliché in sports, but it is undeniable that there are certain moments during successful campaigns when things that could go one way or the other seem to tip in the direction of one team.
I think back to 1996, the start of the Yankees dynasty, when the twelve-year-old Jeffrey Maier pulled Derek Jeter’s ball over the wall for a pivotal home run in the ALCS. Or, conversely, I felt the sinking feeling of the Yankees’ 3–0 ALCS lead slipping away in game 5 in 2004, when what could have been a go-ahead hit by Tony Clark bounced and then sailed over the short Fenway fence for a ground rule double, holding the runner at third.
This year, though the Knicks had already been on a heater, the moment when it really felt like destiny was on their side was during their 22-point comeback against the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals. With about 47 seconds left, Landry Shamet, who had to fight to make the roster in preseason, launched a three that hit the side of the rim, then the top part of the backboard, and then the front of the rim before going in.
Though I didn’t want to jinx it, that was the moment when I started to feel that things could be different this year. And by the time I was stunned by OG Anunoby’s instantly iconic tip, with a second to go in the legendary 29-point comeback in game 4 of the finals, it seemed inevitable.
The Knicks won with great clutch shooting, tenacity, and the ability to maintain their composure in the face of some of the most lopsided officiating in a major sports championship. But more than anything, they played as a team.
The Knicks’ captain and series MVP Brunson deserves all the accolades, especially with his game 4 heroics, leading another comeback by scoring nearly half of the team’s points. But this was as much a team effort as you will ever see in sports — throughout the run, it seemed as if every game had multiple players making key contributions. They all had their roles and played them for the good of the team, with no egos.
“You have to have a little luck in life,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said he told his team at halftime during that game. “You’ve got to have a little luck in sports. But you can also make your luck too. So you’ve got to have some natural luck and some luck where you’re going to make your own luck, and that was probably the biggest message.”
And so it was. The Knicks had luck, but they also made plenty of their own. It was beautiful to watch.