Published: November 26, 2008
After the brilliant moves orchestrated by Donnie Walsh last weekend, every basketball pundit and fan around the globe is abuzz with excitement. Hoopheads everywhere can’t stop talking about the potential ramifications those maneuvers will have. While there are many messages and memorandums in the ether because of those trades, I, New York City, the basketball capital of the world, felt obligated to say something.
Thank you.
Thank you for bringing hope back to the Garden. It was long ago that joyful basketball fans walked my streets. I am the home of more aficionados of the game than anywhere on Earth, yet those followers have spent nearly a decade watching a team committed more to wasteful spending than transition defense.
While many would suggest that did not change until last Friday’s trades, I know better. I know that it was your signing this summer that signaled change to the hoops addicts that are my tenants.
You brought a commitment to playing the game with splendor: the ‘Seven-Seconds-or-Less’ offense is a promise fulfilled towards fans everywhere. It is a promise that the game can be as beautiful as we all imagine and remember.
The magnificence of your offense removed the tarnish that had taken my team’s luster. That you have been able to get results with a roster that is not wholly different from the one that struggled so mightily last season is a testament to your coaching mastery.
Yes, you have brought exhilarating, break-neck basketball back for my fans. But moreover, you are doing it while managing to win ball games. Given recent history, that is no small feat in New York.
For too long, New Yorkers have suffered. My people have had to support a mediocre team that played a joyless and unmoving brand of basketball. I felt their anguish: 20,000 miserable devotees that felt used and exploited.
The fans’ disconnect came not just from the fact that the team wasn’t winning: It stemmed from the attitude the team carried with it. Under previous leadership the team had become sullen, morose, and disagreeable.
It was not always that way. The Ewing-Riley era saw my team project confidence and impose their defensive will on command. Those teams connected with my population because they reflected my sensibility as a city. Those Knicks were made of equal parts hustle and swagger, grit and boastfulness. They were a franchise I was proud to call my own, and so were my inhabitants.
You have brought that back. The mecca that is Madison Square Garden means something again.
The strut you often exhibit on the sideline speaks volumes. It shows that you belong here with us, that you understand what it means to represent me, to call New York City your own.
There have been speed bumps in your path as you try to resurrect my Knicks. The most obvious is the on-going Stephon Marbury saga. The drama Marbury has created will be a reminder to you Coach that nothing comes easy here. I will give you nothing and demand from you everything. Then so long as you can accept that and rise to my challenge, I will offer you my full support and my people will provide whatever you should need.
Yes, Donnie Walsh created the cap space to make it realistically possible to sign LeBron James and another superstar in the summer of 2010. But just as important was the move Walsh made to bring you here.
Without you, there is no reason to hope for James. Without you, there is no reason to believe the team could end up making the Playoffs. Without you, there is no attitude amongst the fans that says “We believe and we belong.”
So, from the bottom of my sewers and the depth of my heart, I thank you Coach. You have given me back the Garden as it once was and always should be. You have made it so that Rucker Park and the Cage are not the only places in the city one can witness basketball played the right way.
You have given us the game back.
You have given me the Knicks, my soul, back.
Thank you Coach. Now all you have to do is get LeBron and Dwyane Wade signed up next summer so this thing can really take flight…
Always,
New York City
Photo Credit: Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos
One Comment on "From New York City, With Love"
Hoops Addict Article - From New York With Love | The On Deck Circle on Sat, 31st Jan 2009 12:40 pm
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