I started playing basketball when I was 6 years old. The last time I stepped on a basketball court was senior year of high school. Needless to say, a great majority of my childhood and adolescence revolved around the game of basketball. My winters were spent playing in my township’s rec league on Saturdays and traveling around the state with my travel team on Sundays. My springs were spent watching the New York Knicks religiously.
Believe it or not, I lived and died with the New York Knicks in the 90′s. They were my team. I didn’t get their channel on the 19-inch television in my room, so every night I would fall asleep with a Sony handheld radio under my pillow and I would listen to the soothing voices of Gus Johnson and Walt Frazier call the Knicks games on WFAN. I can’t tell you how many nights I was woken up by one of Gus Johnson’s frenzied calls when John Starks hit a game-winning three or Charles Oakley dove into the press row to save a loose ball. If I dozed off before the game was over, the first thing I would do before I brushed my teeth for school the next morning was turn the radio back on and try to catch the final score.
Although I wasn’t even 7 years old at the time, I can vaguely remember the 1994 Finals against Houston. Luckily, they made it back again in the spring of 1999. After a season shortened by the lock-out, my Knicks made an improbable run to the NBA Finals as the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. It was one of the best springs of my life. From Allan Houston’s runner in the lane to win Game 5 against Pat Riley and the Heat, to Larry Johnson’s 4-point play in Game 4 of the Conference Finals against the Pacers. I watched that play on my knees with my hands clasped together in front of the TV in my parents bedroom. When Johnson hit that shot over Dale Davis, I jumped so high that I came dangerously close to hitting my head on the ceiling fan. My parents thought that someone dropped a piano through the floor.
In the Finals, we were swept away in five games by a Spurs team that was at the beginning of a run that would bring them 4 titles in the next 7 years. As for us, it was the beginning of the end. After the 1999 Finals, we made one more run the following season, taking the Miami Heat to 7 games in another classic May battle before falling to the Pacers in the Conference Finals. Patrick Ewing was shipped off to Seattle the following offseason and the Knicks have made the playoffs only twice more since then and only posted a winning record once.
Over the next 6 years, I watched an incompetent front office and even more incompetent ownership run a once proud franchise into the ground. The decline of the New York Knicks this past decade has been such an epic disaster that it makes the Titanic look like a bath toy. Something else happened during that time though, something happened between the Knicks and I. We began to grow apart. Like they had done to so many fans, their organization had alienated me. The World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden, a place that had seen NBA Championships and countless legends now houses a failing franchise and the laughingstock of the NBA. The mecca of basketball, a building that never stopped rocking in the city that never sleeps, now struggles to fill its seats.
This where you come in, Mr. James. I, along with just about every other person that still calls themselves a New York Knicks fan, desperately want you to come to New York next summer. In fact, it’s more than that — we need you to come to New York next summer. I know we haven’t won a championship in 36 years and that we haven’t even made the playoffs since 2003, but believe me when I say that New Yorkers are passionate about their basketball. You might not be able to tell at first glance, but we still love our Knicks. We still love our Knicks even if this past decade was like the sports equivalent of going through a messy divorce. Maybe we’re a little more distant now, but we’re still here. Maybe we aren’t as loud as we used to be, but it was them who took away our voice. It was the Jim Dolans and Scott Laydens and Isiah Thomases that took this team away from us, and now we want it back. We want it all back. If you want it too, this is where you’re going to find it. If you want to win a title, we are your best shot. We have cleared enough cap space for 2010 to put an actual supporting cast around you, not just Shaquille O’Neal. If you want to become the biggest superstar the NBA has ever seen, New York is the city that will let you become just that. Come on, I mean Spike Lee is even wearing a #23 Knicks jersey already. And it’s not Toney Douglas.
We need you to save our team, LeBron. We need you to bring basketball back to New York, back to where it belongs, back to Madison Square Garden. We need you to make us matter again. The days of intense April and May playoff battles against the Heat and Pacers are long gone now. Long gone is Patrick Ewing dunking over Alonzo Mourning to win Game 7. Long gone is Allan Houston hitting a jumper over Reggie Miller to ice a Game 6 in Indiana. Long gone is John Starks dunking over Michael Jordan, Jeff Van Gundy swinging on Mourning’s legs and Chris Childs taking a swing at P.J. Brown. It’s all a distant memory now.
LeBron, you can help us remember again. There’s so much history that’s been lost among the wreckage of this decade. With your help, we can start rewriting that history. Adding pages to the legends, and adding banners to the rafters. LeBron James, deep down inside you want to be New York Knickerbocker. So when we send you that invitation next July, come on in and make yourself at home.
Sincerely,
Every New York Knicks Fan Ever
*Because of the short week and the holiday weekend, no picks column for Week 12, but here are my picks:
Green Bay (-11.5) over DETROIT
Oakland (+13.5) over DALLAS
DENVER (+5) over NY Giants
Indianapolis (-3.5) over HOUSTON
CINCINNATI (-14) over Cleveland
MINNESOTA (-11) over Chicago
Washington (+9) over PHILADELPHIA
Miami (-3) over BUFFALO
Arizona (+3) over TENNESSEE
Seattle (-3) over ST. LOUIS
Tampa Bay (+12.5) over ATLANTA
Carolina (+3) over NY JETS
SAN FRANCISCO (-3) over Jacksonville
SAN DIEGO (-13.5) over Kansas City
BALTIMORE (-2.5) over Pittsburgh
New England (+2.5) over NEW ORLEANS
Last Week: 8-7
Season Total: 90-70
