Yes, it was the best Knicks team in a very long time, but it’s still tough to view the 2023-24 season as a success.
The front page headline in Monday’s New York Post said, “All guts, no glory” with the subheading “Shorthanded Knicks play their hearts out but fall in Game 7.” WFAN’s Brandon Tierney and several colleagues thanked the Knicks for a courageous season.
Really? The Pacers walloped the Knicks at the Garden last Sunday afternoon, knocking NY out of the playoffs and a long-anticipated Eastern finals clash against the rival Celtics.
Have we reached a new low?
As a kid growing up, I recalled Knicks fans and the media getting on the Knicks for not finding a way to win a championship in the 90s. Charles Smith was ostracized for not putting the ball in the basket against the Chicago Bulls to the point that he had to be traded. How about John Starks not hearing the end of it on a 2-of-18 shooting performance in Game 7 of the NBA Finals?
We’re soft now, and shame on us.
I know the Knicks have been so bad for a long time that we should appreciate the rare good times they’ve given us, but let’s have some standards here. I can see where we’d be grateful if the Knicks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals despite Josh Hart (abdomen) and OG Anunoby (hamstring) playing through various injuries and Julius Randle (shoulder) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle) being out for the season. But that wasn’t the case. They bowed out in seven conference semifinal games and lost by 21 at home in an elimination game.
Thankfully, Jalen Brunson was the voice of reason when he answered no when asked if this season was a success. He gets it. He knows this is about winning championships. He understands the Knicks haven’t won it since 1973. He’d love to get one in his prime.
It’s not like the Knicks did themselves proud; they played awful on Sunday and at the worst possible time. They didn’t play defense, they were inept on offense for most of the game, and Brunson didn’t play like the best player on the court, which he was.
Whether they ran out of steam is irrelevant. They didn’t play well when it mattered on their home court, and they shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. They should have finished off the Pacers in Game 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and won Game 3 at Indiana, which could have made this series short.
In the end, the Knicks did more to lose the series than win, and it’s hard to have pride in that. It’s ridiculous we have to be thankful for losing Game 7 in the second round. Spare me with that nonsense.
For anyone that said injuries compromised the Knicks, well, blame Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau for overworking his players. It was foolish of him to play Julius Randle with his injured shoulder in the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ 125-109 blowout victory over the Miami Heat on January 27. Thibodeau knows Anuonby and Robinson are injury-prone, so he should treat them cautiously rather than overworking them at games and practice.
While the Knicks head coach earned his extension, he must consider how he will approach his players properly. There’s no reason to overwork players in blowout games.
We can be thankful and proud all we want, but the reality is that this was a blown opportunity. There’s no guarantee the Knicks will be in the Eastern Conference Finals anytime soon. After all, they haven’t been there since 2000. Remember, Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein are free agents, and there are teams that can pay much more than the Knicks think they’re worth.
The Knicks need to get a star to play with Brunson, but there’s no guarantee they can get that guy. For starters, it’s hard to believe the Cleveland Cavaliers will do favors for the Knicks by trading Donovan Mitchell. Also, don’t expect the Nets to hand Mikal Bridges to the Knicks. Finally, there’s no way the Minnesota Timberwolves will be trading Karl-Anthony Towns after he willed them to the Western Conference Finals with a 23-point/12 rebound performance in the Wolves’ 98-90 Game 7 victory over the NBA defending champion Denver Nuggets.
So, maybe this was as good as it gets for the best Knicks team we had seen since 1997, a season when everyone played as a team by playing for each other.
Still, it’s hard to be thankful when fans thought this was the year the Knicks could have ended a 50-year drought. It will be 51 years (and counting) when the 2024-25 season starts in October. That’s what we should remember about this season: dreams being denied and a season of what-ifs.
That doesn’t make this season a success.
