We Made It – NYK to The NBA Finals

So this is what it’s like, huh? Making an NBA Finals? While the 90s Ewing teams did make it twice within 6 years, but that was almost 30 years ago!

As a Knicks fan who lived through those 90s runs, and had to suffer all the way through the 2000s enduring the horrendous post seasons of the Carmelo Era, to now reach the NBA Finals, the way this team did it? It’s pretty unthinkable.

The Knicks have officially arrived.

And this Knicks group is not like the typical Knicks teams of the past we’ve all had to suffer watching over the last 20+ years. At some point it honestly started to feel like this team was cursed.

I’m not even saying they are going to actually win the Finals. But just getting there? Unheard of.

Knicks fans are conditioned for heartbreak. We’re used to losing to Indiana. Getting cooked by Trey Young. Running into the Heat and Celtics. Round 1 for sure, possibly round 2 in a good year. But all the way? – Doesn’t happen. Cannot compute.

Back in 94 – the year MJ played baseball – the Knicks finally broke through and represented the East, only to lose a brutal seven-game series to Hakeem the Dream and the Rockets.

Then they make it back again in another improbable run in ’99 as an 8 seed (MJs first year retired, coincidence?) but get smoked in 5 games against the Twin Towers dynasty and Popovich.

And that’s basically it. Those are the only two Finals appearances this franchise had since the 1970s.

So unless you’re over 50 years old, Knicks basketball has mostly been known for – disappointment.

The countless Carmelo-era collapses. The nobody filled starting-5’s they rolled out. Multiple year playoff droughts. Amare punching a fire extinguisher? Phil Jackson. Isiah Thomas. David Fizdale? The list of embarrassing endings goes on forever.

Before Jalen Brunson arrived, the Knicks had just seven playoff wins across 19 seasons. Since Brunson got here? Thirty-two playoff wins and counting.

Unbelievable.

He’s already a Knicks great. If he somehow delivers a championship, he becomes a legend forever in New York.

And Brunson taking less money to help the organization build a contender? That almost never happens in today’s NBA.

Gotta give the front office credit for this team too. Acquired this entire starting 5. Even that terrible Bridges deal (Five #1’s??) could be saved with a ring. Bridges is playing well I can’t deny that. This team is rolling like never before. Give credit for the coaching change as well. This team’s offense would have never existed under the slow paced Thibbs teams. The 2026 Knicks can run and gun with the best of them. But they have combined that with the Thibbs taught defense from last year. That’s why it’s working and it seems the front office made the right coaching call after last year.

Knicks fans almost don’t know how to act. Uncharted territory

The NBA Finals. For real.

We finally made it.