{"id":202994,"date":"2025-09-05T18:37:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T18:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202994\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T18:37:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T18:37:22","slug":"a-new-york-knicks-site-guaranteed-to-make-em-jump-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/202994\/","title":{"rendered":"A New York Knicks Site Guaranteed To Make ‘Em Jump"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Jordan retired in 1993, the news was not unanimously welcomed by Knicks fans. Captain Ahab hearing Moby Dick decided to call it quits doesn\u2019t quiet the fire in Ahab\u2019s belly any. You chase that white whale long enough, the only endgame you\u2019re interested in is the one at the business end of the harpoon you stick in his carcass.\u00a0Plus, with MJ gone, allllll the pressure shifted to New York. If they won the East, it\u2019d be seen as a given, the direct result of Jordan\u2019s absence. If they didn\u2019t? The only thing worse than losing to Jordan again would\u2019ve been losing to anybody else. <\/p>\n

The East ended up being really weird that year.\u00a0The number-one seed? Atlanta, who\u2019d won a middling 38-43 games the four years prior; the Hawks doubled-down on the weird, trading their franchise legend and best player midseason, Dominique Wilkins, for Danny Manning, a player they promptly lost in free agency. (If you\u2019re keeping score at home, the 2025-26 Hawks have won 36-43 games the past four years, and are frequently mentioned as a team that could look to move its best player sooner than later in Trae Young. Symmetry!)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

By 1994, Cleveland had been a pseudo-contender for years, joining the Knicks as the consensus biggest beneficiaries of Jordan\u2019s retirement, and yet a year after being swept by MJ\u2019s Bulls in the ECF they were swept by the MJ-less Bulls in the first round. Those MJ-less Bulls finished just two games behind the Hawks and Knicks for the best record in the East. Indiana was the plucky, pugilistic Midwest wannabes who\u2019d given the big-city ballers all they wanted in \u201893\u2019s opening round and were looking to knock the Knicks off their f***ing perch in \u201894.<\/p>\n

Could history be repeating? Detroit now is Indiana then, having fought a valiant first-round fight last spring and fancying 2026 as the year they take the next step, hopefully right on New York\u2019s face. I could see next year\u2019s Pacers or Celtics exceeding expectations the way the Bulls did back in the day; everyone seems certain they\u2019ll regress, but those are proud, well-run organizations. Both seemed in a mad rush to deplete their frontcourts, in particular, but would you be surprised if either goes 43-39 and is giving the Knicks hell in round one? Guess where all the pressure would be? Keep Boston and Indiana as far away as possible, I say.<\/p>\n

The weirdness of the \u201894 standings should give one pause before assuming the Knicks, Cavs or anybody else are shoe-ins for anything in \u201826. Cleveland is already down two starters come opening night, with Max Strus out the first few months after foot surgery and Darius Garland recovering from offseason surgery on a big toe that wreaked havoc with the Cavs in the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And though Tom Thibodeau was fired over three months ago, the potential of the Thibs tax looms: last year\u2019s Knicks were only the 10th team in NBA history to have five players play 35-plus minutes a game, followed by 18 playoff games where four played even heavier minutes (Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 average held at 35.5). There\u2019s likely to be turmoil atop the East; the more there is, the greater the capacity for chaos everywhere else.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

In retrospect, 1994 is a dream year in franchise history. That\u2019s not how it was portrayed or processed in real time. Anthony Mason was suspended indefinitely with two games left in the regular season, after he publicly questioned<\/a> both Riley benching him for Charles Smith and the coach\u2019s definition of \u201coffense.\u201d John Starks had knee surgery in mid-March. The Knicks nearly blew 2-0 and 3-2 series leads against the Bulls, nearly blew a 2-0 lead in the ECF against the Pacers before falling behind 2-3, then blew a 3-2 lead in the Finals. The highs of that run were heavenly but brief; the lows were overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Riley used to say, \u201cThere\u2019s winning, and then there\u2019s misery.\u201d In 1994, it was hard sometimes knowing the difference. Too many of us were entirely focused on title or bust. Don\u2019t be.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enjoy the joy before you! I don\u2019t look back on the \u201890s and lament all the gruesome, season-ending defeats \u2013 and there were many! (The Charles Smith Game; Houston Game 7; the Ewing Game 7 finger-roll; P.J. Brown; Avery Johnson). What I do remember: Ewing\u2019s baseline fadeaways splashing. Him racing over from the weakside to swat a shot into the fourth row. Starks curling around a screen, so small but so springy exploding behind the arc for a 3-point try. Harper\u2019s deft hands. Davis\u2019 sweet stroke. Mason\u2019s inner shine. Oakley\u2019s rugged roots.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Knicks probably won\u2019t win a championship. But they\u2019ll likely feature more of Brunson cooking the league like it\u2019s his job \u2013 which it is \u2013 but also like his passion \u2013 which it is. KAT is the most gifted scoring big the franchise has seen since Bob McAdoo. Josh Hart is beloved. OG Anunoby, too. Mikal Bridges could be, someday. Mitchell Robinson is a closeted franchise legend. Clarkson will have ignoramuses claiming Deuce is surplus to needs before we hit Christmas. If you, like me, were a big fan of Precious Achiuwa, you\u2019ll likely be worshipping Yabusele by the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro When Jordan retired in 1993, the news was not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-202994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115153145014187780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}