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Photograph by Aristide Economopoulos / Redux
Austin Elias-de Jesus
Newsletter editor
A Knicks team for the ages. The ascendance of a young superstar in San Antonio. The redemption of a scorned team owner? Ahead of Game 1, here’s what our colleagues have to say about some of the biggest story lines from this year’s finals.
The Knicks are on a historically great playoff run—and it’s hard to understand.
“Just reaching the Finals has befuddled most of my friends. We’ve been texting and calling one another, scant emotion in our voices, numbly narrating the truth: four more wins. Success after so much failure—gut-wrenching letdowns after episodes of Odyssean temptation to fleeting belief, too many to count—is almost an ordeal. What do you do with so much feeling? I’ve taken to acting like I’m the one out there playing the games, lashing my excitement to the mast of a self-imposed restraint, stoic as a sailor, repeating the mental mantra that the job isn’t done and there’s no reason to go crazy just yet. Watching my team hoist the Eastern Conference Finals trophy, I popped open a beer, my first and last of the night, and, after a big glug, buried my head in my hands. My stomach was on fire. Oh, God, what now?”
— Vinson Cunningham, a staff writer who’s written about his Knicks fanhood, and lending his emotional well-being to this team.
Mark Ulriksen’s “Kings of New York”
Jalen Brunson could earn a spot in the pantheon of Knicks greats.
“As a San Franciscan, my team is the Golden State Warriors and my main man is Steph Curry (big surprise). For the Knicks, Jalen Brunson is his equivalent, a once-in-a-generation star who raises everyone’s game. The Knicks have been so abysmal for so long that their current success can largely be attributed to him. Should they come out on top, he’ll go down in history along with Reed, Frazier, DeBusschere, Bradley, Monroe, as an all-time-great Knick. Even if the team doesn’t prevail, he’ll still be a king of New York for taking them to the precipice.”
— Mark Ulriksen, the artist behind our recent viral Knicks cover.
Can Knicks fans finally forgive the team owner James Dolan?
“Dolan succumbed to the temptation of thinking that he knew better than people who’d devoted their lives to the game. He had the wisdom, belatedly acquired, to realize his error and he boldly and accurately corrected it. The passion for sports is a matter of its unrealities—its past is more myth than history. With a team one loves, even losses develop a patina of epic grandeur. In other words, I don’t look back at the Knicks’ woeful past with blame and therefore have nothing to forgive. On the other hand, I’m a film critic, and I’m still waiting for Dolan to allow the release of the late Frederick Wiseman’s documentary ‘The Garden.’ There’s no legend to its absence.”
— Richard Brody, a film critic and a lifelong Knicks fan.
The San Antonio Spurs’ big man Victor Wembanyama could shape a generation of basketball.
“More than sixty years ago, the physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn described the abrupt transformations in explanatory frameworks which characterized scientific revolutions as “paradigm shifts.” In his view, the discovery of phenomena that challenged existing models of the universe—or ‘normal science’—required new theories, new understandings, new paradigms. He called periods of scientific exploration “extraordinary research.” And to think, Kuhn never even saw Victor Wembanyama on a basketball court! The revolution enters a new stage tonight. It does not take an analytics nerd to see just how anomalous Wembanyama is. (He towers over other N.B.A. players—and can swish half-court threes.)
“My best guess—my working hypothesis, if you will—is that this series will go to seven games, too. Who will win? I have no idea—but, either way, it will be extraordinary.”
— Louisa Thomas, a staff writer and the author of The Sporting Scene column.
For more: Join David Remnick, Vinson Cunningham, and Louisa Thomas right after the game for a live conversation about the big plays, the pivotal moments, and what might happen next.
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