The NBA Finals between the Spurs and the Knicks seemed like a lose-lose for me. Either the Knicks and the worst fan base in the NBA wins a title and I have to hear about it for the rest of my natural life (we all will), or the Spurs win the NBA title and everyone who crowned Wemby the Greatest Of All Time before he deserved it would double and triple down on this for the foreseeable future.
As it turns out, just like there is a thin line between love and hate, there is also a thin line between something being a lose-lose and a win-win.
It is admittedly terrible thinking about the Knicks winning the title, which looks incredibly likely now. To be clear, we will never escape this. I despise Knicks fans, but in a lot of ways because I know the type (they are remarkably similar to Eagles fans). Whatever the version of a group of 3,000 Phillies fans going to Citi Field and chanting “E-A-G-L-E-S” during the 6th inning of the game is for Knicks fans, we’re going to find out. It’s going to be worse than you think.
But I also get to watch everyone who crowned Wemby not only the best player in the NBA, but maybe the greatest player of all time before he had won an MVP, or a title, or even became one of the best 20 offensive players in the NBA, have to take a breather for the next six months. Maybe we should wait to see if someone gets obviously outplayed by Karl-Anthony Towns, gets muscled by Landry Shamet or boxed out by Jose Alvarado even though he’s 8 feet tall before they take the crown of current best player, or all-time best player.
Wemby is clearly a great player, and often times terrifying on defense. He is super tall and remarkably skilled and athletic for his height. But his rush up the ranks and more annoyingly, turning everything he does and says into some urban legend or “we just don’t see this stuff in current athletes now” has been irritating and more notably, just wrong. Players dunk all the time, players react emotionally when they win all the time.
You may say I’m being a contrarian (that is part of my personality, I’m not doing it to annoy you), but I’m also right. Sometimes when everyone thinks something at once, it’s wrong.
Just let him earn it. It won’t kill you.
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Totally agree. The Knicks fans will bandwagon a title as annoyingly as any NYC title in our lifetime. And this is in part because there has been a dry spell for the city in terms of recent titles in a major sport. Giants haven't won a Super Bowl since 2012. Rangers haven't won a Stanley Cup since '94. Mets, of course, last won in '86 and the Yankees in 2009. So that city is going to lose their shit with the Knicks and brag about it for multiple years to come.
As for Wemby, the way the media fawned over him after that overtime win in game 1 against the Thunder was like a trigger for his early crowning as the "King of the NBA." Since then, his play has been typical of a young player. Just totally uneven and unsure. NY is serving him a big portion of humble pie right now. He's a very good, young player...but he's also a guy who seems to disappear on the court for longer stretches than you'd think, against top teams. Still appears unsure of where and how he has real advantages on offense on the court.
If I had to offer "Sixers Silver Lining" to a Knicks title in the coming days it's this. Of the two teams in the finals, the Knicks roster seems pretty set for this offseason. If they were to lose the series against the Spurs, I doubt they do anything but run it all back with the same core, veteran rotation. The Spurs losing is perhaps different. They're a young team with guys still on rookie deals for next season. Aside from De'Aaron Fox (whose now in only his SECOND career playoff run and has only played seven more playoff games than his young teammates), they don't really have a guy on the floor at the end of games who is a playoff vet to settle the young kids a bit. Maybe they decide to pay for another veteran with deep playoff experience this offseason to sort of supercharge their more immediate title window for 2026-27? Maybe a guy like Paul George is worth paying for one season to see what happens? Unlike a lot of teams, San Antonio has 18 picks over the next five drafts, including 5 first rounders. If they took on Paul George for a year and it didn't work out or they needed to get off the contract to pay other guys, then they could afford to add-in some picks for another team to take him off their hands for the 2027-28 season. Adding an expensive, veteran guy like Paul George is not an unusual move for a young team that's maybe a little ahead of schedule and falls just short in an unexpected title run. Gives the franchise "big eyes" for getting better, faster. Maybe. And in an offseason where the Sixers benefit from MORE teams POTENTIALLY being in the rumor mill for PG or, hopefully, Embiid...San Antonio being a possibility (however distant) is better than NOT for our rookie President of Basketball Operations. So there's maybe that...
I’ve been making that Eagles-Knicks fan analogy to my friends who are Knicks fans. At first, they were in denial, but the more that they thought about it, they conceded that it was true which was hard because they’re all Giants fans too.