FanPost

A Very Special Knicks Tanksgiving

First off, I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday with all your loved ones and got to spend some quality time with family and friends. Personally, I’ve always loved this time of year where we get to reflect back and be thankful for all the great things we have in our lives, and of course that includes another NBA season. With 20 or so games played, we’re roughly a quarter of the way through the 2018-19 campaign and boy has it been a doozy already. We saw the Rockets say sayonara to our beloved Melo (Once a Knick, Always a Knick) after a measly 10-game experiment. Jimmy Bulter played the Wolves more than he played ball, shoutout to D-Rose though (OAKAAK). Draymond Green and Kevin Durant engaged in one of the most over-the-top internal feuds since Shaq v. Kobe, all because KD said "how could you commit a turnover like that?" and Green hitting KD back (not literally, or in the nuts) back with "speaking of turnover, let’s talk about your upcoming off-season decision." (I don’t know if those were the actual words between the two, but they may as well have been).

With all the drama and craziness this season has seen so far, the New York Knicks nearly faded into the background there while quietly enjoying their never-ending tankathon and waiting for our beloved Unicorn to return. Oh and speaking of the Unicorn, I guess there was the whole Fizdale saying KP can’t sprint yet and then KP going on Instagram and going "OH WORD?!". But seriously, compared to say the latest Markelle Fultz shoulder-news I’d say we got off pretty easy. By the way, let it be known that I motion that we coin this chapter in the Philadelphia 76ers ‘18-19 season as "The Fultz in our Stars". Copyright pending.

OK, so let’s talk Knicks. They had just beaten the Memphis Grizzlies on the road. It was the first game that Coach Fiz returned to Memphis after having an alleged fallout with All-Star Spaniard Marc Gasol. As for the game, it was a gritty one to say the least, one where the Knicks fell behind early but rallied back in the second half behind a monstrous effort from Enes Kanter and punctuated with an dare I say, electrifying dunk by Emmanuel Mudiay. Afterwards, the young Knicks said that they wanted to get this W for their coach (take that for data!). When asked about how much his team's effort meant to him, Coach Fiz responded in a post-game interview that’ll just pull at your heartstrings. In any case, this now makes 3-wins in a row for the Knickerbockers and giving them their longest win-streak of the young season. What’s even more impressive is that all 3 wins came against playoff-caliber teams, starting with the New Orleans Pelicans, Boston Celtics, and now the aforementioned grit-and-grind Grizzlies (by the way, 2 of the 3 games were on the road too so that's gotta count for something.)

Now I know what some of you might be thinking – WHY ON EARTH ARE WE WINNING GAMES THOUGH?! WHAT HAPPENED TO TANKING AND YOUTH CULTURE?! WE WERE DOING SO WELL TOO! Look, I don’t blame you for thinking that, for I was once like you. The road to Zion seemed ever so reachable, and then the Knicks go and do something stupid like win 3 games in a row. But you know what, now that I had some time to digest these wins like the Tanksgiving feast it was (see what I did there?), I get it. I get why the Knicks started playing like an actual NBA basketball team instead of the guys at the YMCA who swear they played D-1 ball but never made it the pros because of a season ending ankle/achilles/knee/shoulder injury. I get why Kanter got inserted back into the starting lineup (BOOM! CALLED IT!) I get that the Knicks are trying to make a point, a point to us fans, a point to upcoming free-agents, and probably most importantly, a point to Porzingis.

Now it’s no mystery that KP wasn’t exactly happy with how the Knicks’ 17-18 season ended. He was even less happy with how the 16-17 season ended. And let’s face it, there’s only so much losing a young stud can take before he starts second-guessing whether this is the place to be. I actually met KP recently at an Adidas event in NYC to celebrate the release of his new kicks (btdubbs – FIYAH!). When I asked him about how he felt about the new squad and the direction of the team, he told me he was happy with everything and that rehab was going well. And then he looked deep into my eyes and uttered the 4-words that made my heart flutter like it was the first time I heard the Beatles – "we gotta f**king win."

Now I know that all players have to say that, but I truly felt like there was something in his voice and that it wasn’t just lip service. He was genuinely adamant about the prospect of getting this franchise back on track, and that starts with getting some Ws. I know, I know – what good are wins going to do for us this year? We’re not good enough to compete without KP. And even if he does come back, and somehow we pull off some miracle and go on a 26-8 run like the Utah Jazz did last year and sneak into the playoffs, we’d probably just end up getting our ass handed to us like, well the Utah Jazz last year. And then we’d just wind up in the middle of the draft, losing out on the Duke prospects whom some NBA "experts" are claiming together can beat some NBA teams. And you’re probably right to feel that way - knowing the Knicks’ history, that seems to be the fate that inevitably awaits our beloved franchise every year – a less than impressive regular season resulting in missing the playoffs, but not a bad enough record to get the top-5 pick. So we end right back up in this vicious cycle of losing and disappointment, cursing Dolan until we're blue (and orange) in the face.

But look, I'll be honest – as much as I would like to see us go 0-82 ensuring our spot at the #1 draft pick next year (or possibly getting demoted to the G- League), that simply just can’t happen. The team has got to show that it has potential to be a formidable force when things are clicking, and that’s exactly what has happened the past few games. Guys like Trey Burke, Mudiay, and Noah Vonleh are finally playing up to their lottery pick statures. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Kanter are showing that they can be leaders of a young team. And the young guys – Frank, Trier, Robinson, and Knox – they’re learning and getting better every game.

This is the optimism that Scott Perry and Steve Mills was cramming down us Knicks fans’ throats at the beginning of the season. And now it’s becoming more and more apparent that we’re heading in the right direction, we’re just missing a few more pieces. You guys, at the risk of sounding like a broken record - I think we're almost there. So with that said, I say let them win a few games and hopefully our missing pieces are out there watching and seeing the potential that is the Knicks’ future. It is the holidays after all, who knows maybe we’ll get another Miracle on 34th Street soon enough.