Go Knicks!

Go Knicks! 

While the NBA tournament is long gone…well everything feels long gone in the insane news cycle the world lives in…I’m still kvelling! I think for the rest of my life I will remember these games.

Game 4 of the Finals. OMG!

Is OG Anunoby real? I think he is a Star Wars character come to life. Apparently, so does everyone else.

Seriously, I can’t stop. I’m obsessed with the Knicks once again. The fifty-year sleeping giant has been awakened and I’m going nuts. In the best possible way. I forgot I ever liked sports. Where have I been?!!

Ever since I left NYC and the Knicks and, (yes, The Mets), over thirty years ago, I just gave up and left the sports world behind. 

And then, last week. What the what was that?!!! 

To top it off, I happened to be up in NYC for the first two games of the finals. It was impossible to not get swept up in the wave and roars of the entire city across the five boroughs with the screams of excitement heard across the river, heard even in stinking New Jersey, as the Knicks thrillingly secured the first two games. Sorry, Jersey. But the NJ turnpike always stunk like rotten eggs. Childhood memories still linger.

And then, of course, the fifth game! What?!!!?!?!! Again. Coming from behind to conquering it all with seconds on the clock. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.

There were so many life lessons to be had from these finals. I always look for the life lessons in everything. It gives the suffering meaning. Here’s a few I gathered this week from the Knicks:

Never give up even when it all looks hopeless…that one was obvious. Always be prepared and present and in the moment, that’s when luck can tap its magic wand. Never listen to people say you are not good enough…hello…Jalen Brunson. Money is not everything…hello Jalen Brunson. Dads are important…hello Jalen Brunson.  And most important, always marry a nice Jewish girl…hello Jalen Brunson.

That’s just the tip of the basketball rim! Ha ha…get it?! Game 4!

And then of course for me there are the memories of growing up in NYC in the seventies when the Knicks were King. NYC = NY Knicks. You just can't separate the two. And who would want to.

And to watch New York City go crazy in the best possible way, I couldn’t have asked for anything more or for a better way to start the summer. And of course, for the biggest NYC/Knicks life lesson of all. 

When the heat could make life feel ornery and cranky, this hot win is the heat NYC needed to remind itself and the world that there’s no place like those five boroughs in the entire world. As diverse, as varied, as heterogeneous, multifarious, and disparate as that city is, when push comes to shove, or more appropriate, when the Knicks turned a 53 year wait into a victorious comeback, it was the clearest reminder that people of every possible background, religion, belief, have the ability to live together, come together, celebrate together and cheer in one unifying glorious sound. 

While I haven’t lived in NYC for 33 years, the city is in my DNA, and for that I am as proud as it gets. All I can say is thank you….and oh wait…Go Knicks!