Long ago, the New York Knicks were an esteemed franchise.
They hadn’t won an NBA title since 1973, but the Knicks nevertheless went to two championships during the 1990s. Yet in a city that has a perpetually short-term memory, that was a long, long time ago. And it was also long before swingman Carmelo Anthony came to town.
Now that he’s there, the city is abuzz: After years of idling, could this be the organization’s Great Anthony Awakening? As with everything, only time will tell.
After all, New York isn’t far removed from its ever-present past.
It was more recently that the Knicks, a self-contained ecosystem of constant drama and chronic underachievement, discovered a way to put the city that never sleeps into a deep, bear-like slumber. They became the excuse that New Yorkers needed to indulge in the city’s endless entertainment district.
Madison Square Garden became the last enduring symbol of a forgotten empire — a historic time capsule for New Yorkers to remember when once upon a time Allan Houston lobbed a Game 5 running dagger into the Miami Heat’s swollen chests at their arena to help propel the Knicks to the NBA Finals; the building where, for the longest time, Reggie Miller couldn’t win a playoff game.
Washington, D.C., might have the West Wing, but New York had the Ewing — for better or worse. Then there was John Starks and the unforgettable 1998 playoffs series footage of the ostentatious Jeff Van Gundy clinging to Alonzo Mourning’s leg while he was involved in a spat with Larry Johnson.
Once upon a time, Gotham City had tradition. Once upon a time, Gotham City had a successful basketball team. Once upon a time, Gotham City had heroes. And then they left — Houston lost to retirement and Ewing and Starks traded elsewhere.
Years passed, and Manhattan, the basketball borough, quickly devolved into a land more lost than the City of Atlantis. The Knicks’ organization desperately grasped at relevancy only to come up empty-handed.
Between the nostalgic years and now, the Knicks became the poster child for overzealous buyers in a sellers market, snatching up thought-to-be prime-estate players only to find out later they weren’t even worth half their market value.
Led by the now-departed, out-of-control general manager Isiah Thomas, the Knicks handed bloated contracts to Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford, to name a few. Needless to say the investment didn’t pay off: They had the highest payroll and the fewest wins at the end of the 2005-06 season.
Never mind that the Knicks haven’t won a postseason contest since 2001. Playoffs? If we’re talking about playoffs, the last time New York made them was in 2004, and the Knicks were promptly dispatched by the New Jersey Nets.
Except the recent Anthony trade has rekindled hopes that New York is on the verge of a long-overdue renaissance. With a prolific scorer (Anthony), a paint presence (Amare Stoudemire), a reliable point guard who has played in 96 postseason games (Chauncey Billups) and an up-and-coming rookie (Landry Fields) at its disposal, the Knicks seem poised to make a playoff push, with some mad-hatter aficionados claiming they will go as far as the Eastern Conference finals.
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Is this just trite nostalgia, a doesn’t-come-often chance for New Yorkers to relive the Houston-Ewing glory days? Can Anthony and Co. truly lead the Knicks out of their postseason hibernation?
The Thomas-Auncha Browne Saunders sexual harassment case might have long ago concluded, but the jury’s still out on the Knicks, who are just 3-2 since the Anthony trade.
Fans have supporting evidence to make the contender-pretender argument: The Knicks lost to the historically bad LeBron James-less Cleveland Cavaliers but also upended South Beach Sidekick’s current team, the Miami Heat, in a two-day span.
No one’s questioning the Knicks’ prodigious ability to burn up the nets: They’re second in the NBA in scoring, averaging 106.2 points per game.
But it’s hard to neglect the fact that they’re also giving up 105.5 points per game, which checks in at 27th. This aversion to defense doesn’t bode well for the Knicks. And Anthony has never been accused of playing defense, something that frustrated his Denver coach, George Karl.
What’s more, come playoff time — if the Knicks hold out long enough to make — they’ll face a challenging gauntlet, thanks to the East’s recent talent re-up. Undoubtedly, Boston, Chicago, Orlando and Miami will be a part of the mix — each presenting their own unique matchup problems.
But for now, the ride has been refreshing.
Still, it’s hard to say whether the Great Anthony Awakening will lead to a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. In the short term, at least for the foreseeable future, we can be assured that the once-esteemed franchise will no longer be a present-day punching bag. But it’s too soon to conclude that the empire will strike back.
