That’s right. I’m going there!
Last night the New York Knicks ended a 53-year drought and won the NBA championship, winning the series 4-1 over the incredibly talented but young and inexperienced San Antonio Spurs.
A few quick stats:
Every game in the finals was within 4 points in the final minutes
The Knicks were down by double digits (over ten points) in the first qurter of every single game in the series
On average, San Antonio’s shooting percentage got lower in every single quarter as the games wore on (i.e., the Knicks slowly wore them down over the course fo each game)
It was the first time on decades that the team that won the championship did not have any player on its roster who had ever been voted All-NBA (i.e., they had no recognized superstars)
The series MVP - Jalen Brunson (pictured above) is 6’1” tall. In the NBA, that’s considered semi-diminutive. No one thought a “small” player could lead a team to the championship in a league of towering giants (including the freakishly gifted and talented Frenchman Victor Wembanyama on the Spurs - all 7’4” of him)
It was a stunning show of hard work, tenacity, perseverance, teamwork and belief.
A few non-sports takeaways related to this unforeseen event (no one thought the Knicks had any chance to win the NBA championship when the playoffs started):
The joy in NYC is palpable. One of my sons who lives on the Lower East Side in Manhattan sent a short video of people happily wandering the streets of 6th Avenue. Sheer joy. Sports can be a uniter. The following video is courtesy of Kevin Kruse:
Our cities are sources of our greatest strength. There is a reason that metro areas vote more liberal as they grow larger. Living together in dense populations forces people to become more tolerant of each other, gives people a better understanding of the need to work together and highlights the importance of banding together to make things work (i.e., the importance of government and good governance). To Kruse’s point, we need to push back on this view that the only “real” Americans live in rural areas.
Diversity creates strength, not weakness. The corollary to my first point above is that our urban areas succeed because of diversity, not despite it. Different cultures bring different viewpoints, different ideas and, yes, different proposed solutions to policy problems/issues. Not all proposed solutions will work. But openness to differing views leads to ore creativity and probabilities of success.
The common culture of the United States is not White and Christian. It is the view that anyone can succeed with hard work, tenacity, perseverance, teamwork and belief. Our common culture is not based on race or religion; it’s based on ideals and ideas.
Mayor Mamdani is the real deal. He showed what political leadership connected to sports can look like. When Knicks owner and Trump supporter James Dolan (an owner reviled by most in NYC) cancelled the popular “watch party” (for those who couldn’t afford the obscene ticket prices) outside Madison Square Garden for Game 4 of the Series, Mamdani immediately had the City organize one in Bryant Park for everyday fans. Thousands showed up.
What works in sports can work in politics. Perhaps the Knicks have showed us that - against all odds - hard work, tenacity, perseverance, teamwork and belief can prevail. The battle against authoritarianism, Trump, his sycophantic cronies and cult-like followers is exhausting and at times seemingly futile. It is not. But it will take all of our focus and lots of our collective energy to prevail.
Compare and contrast. Just compare the classiness of the Knicks/Spurs and the excitement/diversity of the football World Cup to the crassness and garishness of tonight’s Trumpian UFC carnival on the lawn of the People’s House in DC. We shouldn’t be afraid to point it out for what it is: a debasement of who we are to salve the wounded ego of one weak and mentally ill person.
‘Nuff said. Today is a day of celebration for long-suffering Knicks fans. Tomorrow, the fight to reclaim our country goes on…
Queen - we are the Champions
