HOW THE CHIP WAS WON (GO KNICKS!)

In the past twenty-five years, the Nets, Mets, and Jets couldn’t do it. The Giants did it twice but they play home games in New Jersey along with the aforementioned Jets. The Yankees did it, too, to close out a horrific decade, but they had been shut out from a World Series for the entire twenty-teens ever since that time. It marked the first decade in close to ninety years since they never clinched at least one championship in a ten-year span. The Islanders and the Rangers have not been able to do it, either. Salute to the New York Liberty for their efforts, but it’s just not the same. The NYC FC couldn’t do it either.

But the New York Knickerbockers, who have had their own history, their own struggles, and down but not out spirits, they prevailed. From seasons where they only won twenty-seven games to multiple coaching and front office changes, “Orange and Blue Skies Forever” is now the rallying cry for a city that needed to celebrate something in these topsy turvy times.

The heroics, the hunger, the might and will power all showed up on the courts home and away. Maybe it’s better the Knicks won in San Antonio, to put the nail in the coffin of their opposition in their hometown. But they couldn’t silence the Frost Bank Center. There were too many Knicks fans! And the boos that usually go up when the interviews of the players, coaches, and the team owner, shouts of praise sprang up like mist from sewer systems in Manhattan.

There remained a constant in this past series with the Spurs. The Knicks fell to double digit leads in every single game. Maybe it was a rope a dope strategy; it may have been like lulling them in a comfort zone and then taking over and taking hold of the lead like a strap on a train going into Brooklyn, winning within a few points at the end.

The magnificent display of the individual players seemed phenomenal. Though this is a team sport, there is no Most Valuable Team award. At least the sports world sometimes identifies the individualism that still is the very nature of these games.

Brunson Burner deserved his honor as MVP. Ogugua “OG” Anunoby should get honorable mention for pulling a reverse Patrick Ewing with his previous theatrics at the end of Game Four. Hart, Bridges, Shamet, and of course KAT should be lauded and applauded for their deft playmaking and superior skills.

What this means to the number one financial district in the world; to the number one media center in the United States; to the mecca and number one entertainment destination on the planet is all the glory and jubilance that comes with winning a simple game.

In reality, it’s just a bunch of guys running up and down the hardwood trying to put an orange orb in a net. But it’s so much more than that. The spectacle allows for the viewer to place all of their energies and focus on watching two great teams battle to the gristle.

You can say it's just some millionaires making billionaires more money and gamblers throwing their fortunes to digital betting services. This may be true but it’s way more than that.

It’s the idea of someone who was on the hundred and fourth floor of the South Tower who was a lifelong season ticket holder and anticipated going to see their Knicks play another season. It’s about the children born after the calamity in September of 2001 who will never know what that gutwrenching day was like, to actually live through it and remember the smells and tastes that only those within proximity could sense directly.

So, people invest their time and money into these teams and especially the Knicks who won after a fifty-three-year drought.

That’s why you see so many Knicks with joy in their smiles and faces streaked with tears. They know that COVID-19 also claimed a large percentage of supporters, too. They know that this win is gigantic for the city. It gives a boost to a town beleaguered by terrorist attacks, economic downturns, and pandemics.

It shows the resolve of the city that is famous for being famous. It would be nearly impossible for anyone over the age of ten to claim they never heard of New York City.

This is for the town that has persevered through all of the hellishness and strife to find themselves enraptured in the euphoria of victory.

Wait until Spike Lee makes the documentary or maybe feature film that will put on digital screens the drama, comedy, screams, shouts, and great ballplay surrounding what had taken place in late spring 2026.

Though it may seem to be a meaningless sporting event, it carries the most weight. With ears and eyeballs trained on the floor and screens large and small, the business is what drives it, as well. Madison Avenue knows exactly how to sell the game.

And people know that it takes grit, muscle, and hustle to buy into a sport so caught up with advertising and making money. The soul of the sports world and turning a coin don’t have to be mutually exclusive. They can commingle and extend into a harmonious relationship built on making a buck and rooting for the best team. That best team just happened to be the New York City Knickerbockers. And if there was any doubt as to whether greed was a good thing, ask a Knicks fan if they want to go back-to-back. And then go for a threepeat. Also “four is more; “Five would be to stay alive;” six would be great, but seven would be heaven.” That’s the beauty of greed. It’s not about exploitation or denigrating others. It is the insatiable desire to achieve and to keep more.

That’s why this Knicks win hits home the most. The rapacious nature of wanting to win showed in full display by this team and they should always lust for another ring.