Watching the Knicks punch their ticket to the NBA Finals has, in my opinion, sucked.

Yes, they’ve waited 27 years to return to this stage, endured truly awful stretches of basketball spanning decades, and maybe deserve it on some level. Still, it’s New York. It’s Knicks fans. It’s “bing bong” and Timothée Chalamet clips that will infiltrate your timelines for the next two weeks.

But spending this much time looking at the Knicks has made me appreciate how different Boston’s story has been.

The Knicks built their team from the outside in. They deserve…credit for it, as physically painful as that sentence is to type. They made trades, found the right veterans, identified the right fits, bet big on a team identity, and kept pushing until they finally broke through.

Boston’s path has looked very different.

The Celtics’ best era since the Big Three started with two draft cards.

Jaylen Brown, third overall in 2016. Jayson Tatum, third overall in 2017. Two swings near the top of the draft, both connected cleanly enough to change the next decade of Celtics basketball.

It’s a story we’re all familiar with, and one that feels simple and obvious in retrospect. It wasn’t. Brown was booed on Draft Night. Tatum arrived after Boston traded out of the No. 1 pick and trusted its board, going as far as to preemptively protect themselves from criticism for doing so. There were years of debates about whether they could play together, whether they liked each other enough, whether one had to go, whether the partnership had a ceiling, whether the Celtics were being too patient or not patient enough.

Then, they won the title.

And somehow, two years later, we’re back to asking whether the Jays era has underachieved.

The standard is still the standard

The Celtics are and should be held to a ridiculous standard. That’s part of the deal here in Boston.

This franchise is strictly focused on banners, not vibes, which is why a first-round exit after blowing a 3-1 lead to Philadelphia was and is awful. It should still bother people. I know it still bothers me.

Noa Dalzell, Senior Writer here at CelticsBlog, put it well on her latest episode of You Got Boston. She said she is “not excusing their loss this past season,” adding, “They should not have blown a 3-1 lead.” That is the correct baseline. The Celtics were too good and too well-positioned to lose that series, even in a season that plenty of people spent months calling a gap year.

The issue is what happens after the disappointment settles in. A bad ending has a way of walking backward through time and staining everything before it. Suddenly a decade of contention becomes a decade of missed chances. A title becomes “only one.” Deep playoff runs become evidence for prosecution.

Noa pushed back on that framing too, saying, “If you say that they underachieved, then everybody has underachieved except for the Golden State Warriors since 2015.”

She’s right. Since 2015, the Warriors are the only franchise to win multiple titles.

Granted, not every team should be graded the same way. Some cores are better positioned for sustained excellence, like the modern-day Thunder or the aforementioned Warriors. Some titles feel more like the product of having the right pieces in the right place for one magical run, like the Kawhi-led Raptors or the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks. 

But the larger point holds. Ever since the Warriors dynasty ended, no one has been able to stack chips.

If the argument is that every great player or duo who fails to become a dynasty has failed, then nearly the entire league has spent the last decade failing.

That’s a pretty miserable way to watch basketball.

The résumé grew quickly and quietly

One strange thing about the Tatum-Brown era is how quickly winning became background noise in their larger story.

By the time they broke through in 2024, the Celtics had already been to four conference finals with Tatum and Brown together, plus the 2022 NBA Finals. They had made the playoffs every year of Tatum’s career. They had never finished below .500 with both of them on the roster. Tatum had already made five All-Star teams and four All-NBA teams, while Brown had three All-Star selections, and an All-NBA nod.

Even this season, which started under the shadow of Tatum’s Achilles tear, somehow became another reminder of how high this group’s floor has been. Brown stepped into the heaviest version of his role yet and led the Celtics to a 56-win season. That is not normal. Most teams lose a player like Tatum and spend the season looking like someone unplugged the router. Instead, Boston stayed in the mix to the point where it felt like just another normal season of winning in a very abnormal year.

Boston has gotten so used to deep runs that fans sometimes treat them like table stakes. The conference finals became a place the Celtics were supposed to be every year, like it was some recurring calendar invite. That is an absurd privilege.

There are fanbases that spend decades hoping to draft one player as good as Brown or Tatum. Boston got both in back-to-back years. Then, they both stayed. Then, they improved. Then, they won it all, together.

A lot of Celtics fans are old enough to remember when the present felt bad and the future looked worse.

The late 90s were ugly. The early 2000s had Paul Pierce trying to drag half-built rosters into relevance while the rest of us tried to convince ourselves that maybe this was the year everything finally clicked for Mark Blount. Before Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen arrived, plenty of seasons felt like they were over before Thanksgiving. There’s a different kind of frustration that comes with watching a contender fall short, but at least that frustration comes from proximity to something real.

The Tatum-Brown era has offered a level of annual belief that younger fans may not realize is rare. In the words of Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.

The Celtics nailed the picks that mattered

The draft-history context makes this point even clearer.

Over the last twelve drafts, Boston has had plenty of misses. James Young. Guerschon Yabusele. Romeo Langford. The Desmond Bane trade. Plenty of second-rounders who barely created a ripple in the fabric of Celtics history. Boston has taken a lot of bites at the apple, and some of those bites were just teeth hitting the core.

But they nailed the picks that could end up defining an era of the most storied franchise in NBA history.

Brown at No. 3. Tatum at No. 3. Marcus Smart at No. 6 before them. Payton Pritchard at No. 26. Robert Williams at No. 27. More recently, Boston has been trying to squeeze value out of late picks like Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, and Hugo Gonzalez.

That’s a different kind of roster-building than what we’re seeing from the Knicks right now. New York’s current Finals team was largely assembled via trades and free agency. Again, credit to them. Building a winner through trades and targeted additions is still hard, even if being based in New York City probably helps more than being based in a place where the free-agent pitch begins with, “Hear me out.” Ask the Suns how easy it is to just put expensive names together and hope the basketball gods carry you to the promised land.

Boston’s identity, though they’ve lost key pillars like Smart and Williams over the years, still runs through the two guys it drafted and developed.

There should be a specific satisfaction in that. How great has it been to watch Brown’s handle tighten over the years, even after it became the internet’s favorite easy joke? What about watching Tatum go from smooth, unassuming scorer to an all-around forward who can defend, rebound, pass and carry like one of the league’s best? Don’t you remember that feeling of people saying the partnership had run its course, then seeing those same two players standing on a parade duck boat together?

The Celtics didn’t rent this era. They raised it.

Maybe that’s why the frustration can hit so hard in seasons like this. Fans remember the whole thing. The early flashes. The blown leads. The Kyrie mess. The bubble. The 2022 Finals. The 2023 faceplant against Miami. The Porzingis and Jrue trades. The breakthrough. The latest playoff collapse. It all lives in the same folder.

But the folder is still mostly full of winning.

Boston drafted the stars everyone wants. Then we got used to them.

If a time traveler had explained this era to Celtics fans the night Pierce and Garnett were traded to Brooklyn, nobody would have complained.

Five conference finals appearances together, two NBA Finals appearances, one championship, no seasons finishing worse than .500? Every Celtics fan would have signed up immediately. Some probably would have asked if the person delivering this prophecy needed a ride to Logan and whether the Harlem Shake was still prospering.

Living through success changes how it feels. The wins stop surprising you. The conference finals start feeling like your right versus your reward. The flaws become more irritating because the stakes are higher. The losses feel like theft.

That is what Tatum and Brown have done to us. They made winning feel normal.

The Celtics should keep chasing more because this era deserves that urgency. This season showed how much Brown can shoulder without Tatum, but it also showed how fragile any title path becomes when one of the two pillars is missing. Tatum and Brown are expensive now. The cap is tighter. The roster needs work. The center spot needs clarity. The East is not waiting around for Boston to feel sentimental.

Still, any conversation about what comes next should start from an honest place.

The Jays era has not been perfect. There are fair arguments that more than one banner should have been raised by now. Still, this era has given Celtics fans one of the best homegrown runs in modern franchise history.

Someday down the road, the Celtics will be searching for the next version of this. That’s probably when we’ll understand how much fun this era really was.

The Spurs and Thunder are still in the midst of the Western Conference Finals, but the East has a Finals participant. While the New York Knicks are awaiting an opponent, there was television time available to air The Pat McAfee Show. Appropriately, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made a visit to talk about the state of the league.

The first order of business was Silver’s mention that the Spurs and Thunder were receiving the highest conference finals ratings in the history of the NBA. Considering that San Antonio and Oklahoma City are small market teams, this is quite a feat. It lends itself to the popularity of the marquee players. Two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama, the face of the NBA, have introduced new legions of fans to the sport. SGA, who is from Canada, and French phenom Wemby draw international interest to the sport which has continued outreach and expanded over the decades.

Silver spoke about the league’s plans for squashing tanking, which are still in development.

“We actually have a board meeting tomorrow to discuss a proposal which will in essence flatten the odds among the non-playoff teams in terms of getting top draft picks, will increase the penalties that the league office has for those teams that may participate in that type of behavior,” Silver stated.

McAfee gave the mention is due before switching gears to flopping.

Silver started the response with, “There’s a difference between selling the car, exaggeration, and a true flop.”

Of course the commissioner of basketball isn’t step into a spotlight at the height of postseason and say there is parity in the way games are called, but he admitted there are some ways to improve.

He was transparent that players are conditioned to “sell calls” and supported the idea that officiating can always get better.

Silver even responded to the missed call in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals when the ball clearly went of Chet Holmgren’s foot, but the Thunder were awarded the ball.

“In terms of replay we’re going to get to the point fairly quickly…we’re going to move to a whole system…calls will be automatic…those calls will be done by AI, automated system with cameras line around the court…it will be instantaneous, automatic.”

With technology as the focus of the future, the pace and accuracy will be enhanced. Silver believes this will also enhance the fan experience.

While most of what Silver spoke of was larval, there’s a lot on the horizon for the NBA.

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Caleb Wilson was the obvious star at North Carolina this past season, but the offense may not have flowed well without Henri Veesaar as well. The 7’0 center is your typical stretch big, but offers more than just his shooting on the perimeter. In Hubert Davis’ offense, Veesaar showed his ability to operate out of the mid-range while also showing solid defensive skills in several areas.

On offense (17 points per game), Veesaar’s 3-point shooting stood out the most, and he connected on 43% of those shots. Most of them came from above the break, which is where he had the most success, but also in the pick-and-pop. There were times when Veesaar was wide open at the top of the key, and he wasn’t afraid of taking the shot. As a stretch big in the NBA, that’s the shot teams will be expecting him to make.

Veesaar also showed the ability to knock down shots in the midrange, but that most likely won’t be a point of emphasis in his game at the next level.

As we get closer to the rim, Veesaar has a nice hook shot that was very effective, and his size allowed him to shoot over most defenders. Efficiency around the rim will be important as well in the NBA, but the one area where Veesaar fell short was his physicality at times. He has sort of a finesse when attacking the basket, which won’t work all the time, especially against bigger bodies than his.

Other areas where Veesaar has shown some promise are his cutting and passing out of the midpost, which are two good qualities to have as a center.

On defense, Veesaar does some good things in drop coverage. He knows how to take up space, what area he needs to be in whether it’s closer or farther back from the ball handler, and he recovers back to his man effectively. It may be a struggle for him to get back if his opponent pops out to the 3-point line, and that’s where his lack of mobility comes into play.

As a help defender, Veesaar is able to use his length as a disruptor, and he’s also good at challenging shots at the rim. Just like most young centers, he’ll have to clean up fouling in certain situations, but for the most part, he knows how to stay disciplined and on his feet when playing defense. His rebounding was another big part of his game, as he averaged 8.7 per game this past season.

For the Hawks, they’ll be looking for ways to improve their frontcourt this offseason, more specifically at the center position. When looking at what Veesaar does on both sides of the ball, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he were someone they would target with the No. 23 pick. He has a lot of similarities to what Jock Landale did for the team in the second half of the season, and if they don’t re-sign him, they’ll definitely need to fill a void at backup center.

If the Hawks are looking for more depth at the position later in the first round, Veesaar should be under consideration.

Last summer, there wasn’t much to expect from Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens approaching the 2025 NBA Draft. Boston entered the night with three late selections — No. 28, 46, and 57 — yet still managed to reel in a little-known prospect with the potential to impact winning more than most rookies in his class: Hugo González.

Stevens took González at No. 28 in a move that wasn’t regarded as noteworthy at the time, considering the organization had just traded away Kristaps Porziņģis to begin their roster overhaul. But Stevens had a vision for González from day one.

“He’s tough, he’s hard-playing, he cuts, he goes after the ball, he competes,” Stevens told reporters the following day after the first round. “He’s got all the intangibles of a winning basketball player. There’s things he can get better at, just like everybody else at that age, but competitiveness is at a high level.”

González was a unique case, joining the Celtics with more professional experience than most entering the NBA. Coming from Spain, fresh off three seasons with Real Madrid, González had already played alongside former NBA pros, including Serge Ibaka, Facundo Campazzo, Dennis Smith Jr., and Bruno Fernando. During his run in the Liga ACB, he rarely got minutes off the bench, buried behind Real Madrid’s veteran-loaded roster, which nearly slid González’s draft stock down to the second round.

It had nothing to do with his potential and everything to do with his limited sample size in Spain.

Stevens saw González as a spark plug capable of providing the Celtics with valuable minutes off the bench to maintain their intensity while starters rested. Stevens recognized González’s ability to make Real Madrid’s roster as a valuable prerequisite, speaking to the then-19-year-old’s ability to become a major rotation piece down the line if placed in the right development system.

Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla and his staff already checked off that box.

González, like many on the 2025-26 roster, was thrust into the spotlight. No Jayson Tatum for the first 62 games of the regular season meant it was up to everyone else to keep Boston’s ship from sinking. González had only logged 10.2 minutes through 69 games the previous year for Real Madrid, so there was an immediate pressure to perform whenever his open mic opportunities arrived.

On Oct. 24 against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, González made his NBA debut and showed flashes, scoring six points with four rebounds, two steals, and one assist as Boston’s leader in plus-minus (+7). Teammate Jaylen Brown took notice of González’s motor and its ability to flip off and on at any moment, and suggested the Celtics “(needed) more of that.”

It wasn’t long before González earned the fan base’s approval, too.

The upside revealed itself from the start. González, unlike most rookies, didn’t need to score to keep himself on the floor. Mazzulla knew that through his defensive pressure to corner opposing offenses into compromising positions, possession after possession, González was a piece that needed time on the floor to flourish and develop. He earned that.

On Jan. 24 against the Nets, González committed a major defensive miscue, allowing Brooklyn’s Michael Porter Jr. to drain a wide-open 3-pointer. Immediately, Mazzulla sat González on the bench, which the young guard admitted was deserved. Later that same night, with 2.5 seconds left in overtime, González came off the bench in a desperation possession and nailed a clutch, game-tying corner 3-pointer to help secure a road victory in double overtime.

Little by little, González made it known that he wasn’t only a piece for the future, but also a piece ready to make a difference in real-time. He didn’t squander the opportunity to play in over 14 minutes across 74 appearances — including three starts — for the Celtics in his rookie campaign. Instead, González did everything to reward the team every chance he could.

On March 2, he accepted the challenge of guarding 6-foot-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo in just his third career start.

González rose to the occasion, with Brown and Neemias Queta sidelined, and set career-highs in points (18), rebounds (16), blocks (three), and steals (two). Tasked with the daunting defensive assignment of covering Antetokounmpo, he overcame the size mismatch and held his own — limiting the two-time MVP to just one made basket across five possessions.

Mazzulla recognized the performance as proof positive for both González and Stevens.

“This was them,” Mazzulla told reporters in Milwaukee. “I think Brad does a great job of finding guys with high competitive character. When you come into the locker room, you want to play for the guy next to you. You look for nights to create ownership and responsibility.”

González never obsessed over shot attempts or minutes. Even though the Celtics needed contributions wherever they could find them, he naturally let the game come to him. If a shot needed to be taken, he’d take it — only if necessary. If someone needed to rest, González was ready to carry the load. Everyone in the locker room and throughout the organization saw his potential from the start of Summer League, and watched as González used the regular season to build on that trust and solidify it.

González averaged 3.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, and shot 47.6 percent from the field in his rookie season. Defensively, he validated his upside. González averaged 0.6 steals and 0.3 blocks, registering a plus-minus that ranked third among rookies behind Kon Knueppel and Dylan Harper, netting González five second-place votes in the NBA’s All-Rookie Team.

In the playoffs, González didn’t get a chance to do anything — and that’s perfectly fine.

Boston is at a point where the coaching staff, locker room, and front office all have an idea of what they have in González. That’s critical. He’s graduated past the evaluation phase, as the Celtics no longer need to gauge his potential moving forward. González has obvious areas to refine this offseason, but his foundation is strong.

That’s more than most rookies can say, especially coming from Spain as a teenager, again rummaging for minutes behind proven professionals.

González belongs, and the C’s now know it.

“The reality is Hugo had a great rookie year and is, I think, a critical part of us moving forward because his athleticism can meet the moment in the big games,” Stevens told reporters during his end-of-season press conference. “That’s a real thing. You can see it. You know it. His strength is off the charts. He’s one of the strongest guys on our team now, pound-for-pound for a 20-year-old, so he’s got a bright future.”

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MIRAMAR BEACH, FL – He’s been David, and he’s been Goliath.

He knows fans remember David more.

They remember Goliath best when he loses to David in March Madness — like when Saint Peter’s toppled John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats.

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“No one remembers the wins (Goliath gets),” Calipari said during an interview with USA TODAY Sports and a few other media outlets at SEC spring meetings. “If you said, 'Who did we beat in the national championship?' They would not know. You know what they know? Saint Peter’s beat us. That’s what they know.

“That’s what makes this tournament. Don’t take that away.”

The most stunning part about the Knicks snapping their 27-year NBA finals drought isn’t the 22½-point average margin of victory they posted over an 11-game playoff winning streak, or New Yorkers somehow resisting the urge to tear the city apart in celebration, or even the fact that neither the iPhone nor Facebook existed back in 1999.

No, the most surprising aspect when they sealed the Eastern Conference finals on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ home court was the Knicks’ star guard, Jalen Brunson, talking about his pride in a winning culture that “starts with Mr Dolan”.

It’s one thing to shout out the boss when cornered in public, but placing Knicks owner James Dolan at the very top of the list of people responsible for the team’s dramatic turnaround feels like thanking the iceberg for the movie Titanic. The Knicks’ redemption arc doesn’t hit as hard, or quite deliver the same catharsis, without Dolan’s special blend of chaos and dysfunction.

Related: Victor Wembanyama’s half-court buzzer beater showcased a master in complete control

This may come as a shock to fans boarding the Knicks bandwagon, but before Kylie Jenner and the influencer set started turning up courtside, Dolan had spent decades in a race with Dan Snyder (formerly of the NFL’s Washington Commanders) and Bob Nutting (of MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates) for the title of worst owner in US sports.

In 2018, Bleacher Report described him as “masterful at destroying two beloved franchises”, the second being the NHL’s Rangers, who haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1994. In a lengthy interview with ESPN’s Ian O’Connor in 2018, Dolan said Knicks fans who spotted him around town would “shout something horrible and run away. It’s not fun.” In another digression about selling the team, an idea he has long insisted is well off the table, Dolan spoke more urgently about his responsibility to shareholders than to fans.

At the turn of the century, Dolan was a New York nepo baby poster boy – a recovering addict who inherited a multibillion-dollar cable TV and sports empire and ran it with a rumpled authority that carried through even to his personal presentation: he painted himself as the Long Island boy who owns Madison Square Garden and once had his blues-rock band, JD & The Straight Shot, open for the Eagles. For Knicks fans, he was a byword for chronic mismanagement more commonly known as “Jim Fucking Dolan”. He traded away franchise cornerstone Patrick Ewing in 2000 and signed Allan Houston to a $100m extension that prompted a league exemption for teams buried under bad contracts. Under Dolan’s ownership, the Knicks found themselves in salary-cap purgatory time and again, something that left them too constrained to pursue top free agents and too mediocre to rebuild through the draft.

There’s more. Under Dolan, the Knicks traded for middling center Eddy Curry despite his documented heart condition, hired Phil Jackson a decade too late for the wrong job, and reportedly benched the cheerleading squad during a grim loss to Charlotte (a team source later denied the story was true). Rather than attend the 2017 draft, which took place in New York, Dolan chose to play a JD & The Straight Shot gig across town. While we’re on the subject of his music endeavors, in 2018 he wrote a song about not knowing his former friend Harvey Weinstein was a sexual predator.

Then there’s the treatment of the fans themselves. Knicks fans who voice frustration with Dolan – whether on picket lines outside Madison Square Garden or during in-game “sell the team” chants – risk permanent banishment. Famously, MSG security denied Spike Lee entry to the Garden on a whim in 2020 when he arrived through a gate reserved for Garden employees and media – as had been his custom for nearly 30 years.

Beat writers are careful not to be too critical of Dolan or the team, as MSG staff hawkishly manage access. In a recent interview with investigative reporter Pablo Torre, one Knicks beat reporter, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested the team’s media workroom may be bugged. Even former players tread lightly: Charles Oakley has been a ghost at MSG since he was hauled out of the arena for heckling Dolan at a 2017 game.

Dolan’s abiding loyalty to Detroit Pistons great Isiah Thomas was another staggering low point. In 2007, Dolan’s Madison Square Garden company was ordered to pay $11.6m to settle a lawsuit brought by a female team executive who had alleged sexual harassment by Thomas; Dolan, who had reportedly fired the woman, personally contributed $3.5m to the settlement. In 2015, Dolan brought Thomas on to the New York Liberty – his WNBA franchise. Former NBA commissioner David Stern, noting both the controversy and the Knicks’ lack of success during Dolan’s tenure, described him as “not a model of intelligent management”. (Dolan sold the Liberty to billionaires Joe and Clara Wu Tsai in 2019).

Only the tools Dolan uses to indulge his worst instincts have become more intelligent. Last month, a damning report in Wired revealed the extent to which Dolan has transformed his vast entertainment empire into a surveillance state, one that uses biometric surveillance technology to track perceived enemies in real time – from Oakley to a graphic designer who sold “Ban Dolan” T-shirts years ago to a fan whom Dolan personally deemed a security risk, monitoring her movements down to drink orders and bathroom trips before banning her from the Garden. MSG dismissed the Wired report, which stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a former member of the company’s security team, as “reckless”.

It is hard to look at Dolan’s digitally driven paranoia without being reminded of another New York nepo baby poster boy. Sure enough, it was only a matter of time before Donald Trump climbed back aboard the Knicks bandwagon, confirming reports that he plans to attend the finals at the Garden next week – another instance of a major sporting event being conscripted for his presidential stagecraft. Of course Trump made sure to add that the Knicks “have really suffered for years”, and that he was “invited by numerous people” including Dolan. Incidentally, Dolan, who married his second wife at Mar-a-Lago, remains a fierce Trump supporter despite the president undercutting his grand plans to redevelop Madison Square Garden.

So how does one of the worst owners in sports wind up not only riding herd on the NBA’s hottest team, but drawing credit for the turnaround? Well, Dolan may have his faults, but cheapskating the Knicks is not one of them. After burning through one basketball executive after another – from Thomas to Jackson to Indiana Pacers architect Donnie Walsh – Dolan turned to Leon Rose, a former agent who had closed a number of client-favorable deals with the Knicks, Curry’s albatross contract among them. Dolan then largely stayed out of the way as Rose reshaped the roster: trading for Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns, drafting the rangy center Mitchell Robinson, and ponying up to bring in Brunson from the Dallas Mavericks in an above-market deal that, in retrospect, looks like one of the NBA’s biggest bargains. Broken clock and all that.

It’s to the point now where any fantasy about this Knicks team winning the NBA title has to reconcile with the jarring reality of the Larry O’Brien trophy being handed to Dolan – a truly strange image to consider. And while some fans now politely applaud Dolan for finally getting the Knicks on the right track and may even endure a JD & The Straight Shot performance to mark the occasion, most are not inclined to excuse the years of emotional punishment it took to get here. After the Knicks came back to beat the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the East finals, Dolan gave away an Anunoby-signed game ball to a young fan waiting for him outside MSG afterward. Lucky kid can hardly fathom the Knicks’ misery Trump speaks of so authoritatively.

In the 2018 ESPN interview, Dolan said he didn’t think he would take part in a parade if the Knicks ever won a championship. Some free advice: stick with that plan. It’s one thing to thank the boss after a game in Cleveland – which, to be fair, coach Mike Brown (another brilliant Rose addition) did as well. But in New York, celebration and grievance can’t help but ride the same subway car. True blue Knicks fans can forgive, but they shouldn’t soon forget.

You know what’s poppin’?

The Spurs and the Thunder are five deep going seven.

Pause.

Mike Brown

On Jalen Brunson’s work ethic and leadership after yet another sweep:

“His work ethic is second to none. On top of that, he’s pretty even-keeled. Never gets too high, never gets too low. And when your leader is that way — which you need to have, especially when you hit adversity — it’s easy to get everybody else to follow.”

On the identity and sacrifice behind the Knicks’ Finals run:

“Our identity lies in our intangibles. And I go back to what our standard is. Guys on [the Spurs and Warriors], they all sacrificed. They all had a competitive spirit that was unmatched. They all stayed connected through tough times. They all believed in each other and the process while holding each other accountable. Those intangibles are what I’m starting to see with our group as being what our identity is, which is similar to some of the other teams I’ve been fortunate, blessed and lucky to be a part of that have made it that far.”

Jalen Brunson

On the team’s collective sacrifice during the Finals run:

“We have good character guys in there. We have guys that want to win. We have guys that are willing to sacrifice. It’s a team effort.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

On keeping the ECF celebrations muted and getting back to work:

“The celebrations were minimal. We really wanna get back to work. We know what happened last time we had the long layoff, so we already talked after the game right away about preparing, getting to practice, back to the work. That’s what’s made us special and it’s what’s gonna give us a chance to win the next series.”

On adjusting to yet another long break before the Finals’ Game 1:

“We’ll do a better job this time around of just preparing for that kind of situation to happen. I think obviously the coaches have done an amazing job getting us ready for Game 1, but obviously we didn’t go out there and shoot well. I think I looked up at one point and we were at four percent from three. So we just got to figure out a way to get those kinds of game-like reps. I think the coaching staff heard us loud and clear: We want to get back to work to keep the rhythm and maybe change up the philosophy of how we have those scrimmages that we didn’t do last time. I think we’ll be better prepared. But at the end of the day, it’s all about execution, desperation, energy. We got to bring it Game 1. This team’s hungry, and that’s the most important thing. Even with an amazing, historic win we had tonight, the celebrations were at a minimum. We really want to get to work. We asked Coach [Mike Brown], can we get back to work quick. We know what happened last time we had a long layoff, so we already talked after the game right away about preparing, getting to practice, getting back to the work. It’s what made us special and it’s what’s going to give us a chance to win the next series.”

On reviving hope in New York as a lifelong Knicks fan:

“When I was growing up, watching the Knicks, it was just hoping one day you could just put the jersey on. [I] Never knew I’d be in this position at this mic talking about us going to the Finals and the city believing in us. There’s nowhere better in the world when [Madison Square] Garden has hope.”

On the collective effort behind the Finals run:

“We got to this point because we worked together. We’ve been a team. We unified. The collective group has shown up in spots when we need to.”

On acknowledging fans’ celebrations but recognizing there’s still work to do:

“Experience teaches you a lot. This is my third conference finals in a row, and I finally got over the hump, finally got to the Finals. I’m gonna enjoy this moment. It’s OK for New York, the fans, us, our fan base to enjoy this moment and be jubilant about this. But for us as the players, we understand that the job’s not done, we’ve got to get back to work.”

On Brunson’s commitment to the work behind the scenes:

“The magic’s in the work; he’s a testament of that. He believes in that. He showcases that every single day to all of us and drives us all to be better.”

On his own willingness to sacrifice for winning:

“I’ve always said I’m willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes to impact winning and help this team win. That’s the blessing of our group.”

Josh Hart

On the chicken-wing man:

“You got chicken wings. You supposed to be asking questions, and you went and got chicken wings. Hell no. You don’t get nothing. Then wings are hitting though.”

On keeping a selfless mindset through the Knicks’ 11-game win streak:

“I don’t think a switch flipped per se. This is a selfless team. Being unselfish, I think that’s the biggest thing. And where we’re at right now, everyone is unselfish. We’re willing to sacrifice numbers and stats for the betterment of the team. And I think when we do that, we’re playing our best basketball.”

On the surreal journey from Villanova to the NBA Finals:

“Yeah, it’s something that is surreal. When you’re in college and you’re in that locker room, you always kind of — you know, the goal is the NBA. And you know the percent chance that you guys are gonna be on the same team is very slim, if not none. And it’s always something you talk about and dream about, but you know the reality is almost impossible. So the fact that it actually came to fruition is super cool, because I know the time that these guys put in. I know where their hearts are. We already share a bond and a brotherhood for life, and this is just another step there. Obviously, this is not the ultimate goal. But, you know, you just keep adding memories to that, and these are memories that we’ll have for a lifetime.”

Miles McBride

On whether self-doubt crept in during his journey from joining the Knicks in 2021 to making the Finals:

“For sure. For sure. It was some tough, long nights.”

On the ups and downs of his role this season:

“Shout out to God for keeping my head right. Been a lot of ups and downs individually. From not playing to getting thrust into a rotation. High minutes, low minutes. It’s been a lot. But it’s all worth it in the end.”

Mikal Bridges

On embracing his role after the Eastern Conference clincher:

“Everybody out there is trying to do just one thing: win. All trying to play hard, at the end of the day, just trying to get a Knicks win.”

On being grateful to be part of the Knicks’ core:

“I think it’s definitely a blessing to be a piece of the puzzle, especially in this organization. You know, like JB was saying, just grateful to be in this position, the organization believing in me personally, you know, bringing me over here. But there’s no other player, no other guard that I wanna be alongside besides JB. So I’m just very grateful to be in this position, and you know, I just gotta keep it going.”

Walt Frazier

On his message to Jalen Brunson after the ECF title:

“I just told the maestro to keep doing it. He’s very level-headed, always wants to do team-oriented things. He’s very focused.”

On the Knicks’ pride and momentum during the Finals run:

“They have a lot of pride in there. A lot of pride. Let’s see what happens. They’re on a roll.”

On how the Knicks have elevated their pace and performance:

“The last 11 games, the way they’re getting up and down the court, everyone is moving and grooving. Every game they seem to get better and better (with) movement, defense. I think the pace is what’s really changed. They can go on runs now, 10 or 15 points, and just blow the game right open. And they weren’t doing that during the regular season.”

On sharing history if the Knicks win a title:

“It’s good for me. It’s a resurrection. They’re talking about me more now than then. It’s the same thing now with these guys. When they start winning, they got to bring us up. That’s what we’re comparing. They’re saying Brunson is better than Clyde or he’s better than [Patrick] Ewing, [that] he’s the greatest Knick.”

On adjusting to life after being traded to Cleveland:

“I was preparing myself for my retirement. I was reading self-help books, something I would have never done if I stayed in New York. It turned out to be a blessing, but I was devastated when I got traded.”

On how long it took to forgive the Knicks for trading him:

“It took me about seven or eight years. I didn’t follow the game after I retired. I was trying to adjust to life. The biggest thing I found was that I had to control my ego. My phone isn’t ringing off the hook no more and the Knicks had moved on to the next Clyde.”

John Starks

On his advice to the Knicks entering the Finals:

“Just enjoy the moment, the most important thing that these guys do. You never know when you’re gonna get back. When we lost the Finals in ’94, I thought we’d be back a couple of times, [which] didn’t happen for me and my teammates, for some of us. Just enjoy the moment.”

On why this roster understands what it takes to win:

“A lot of these guys have been through a championship in college with the Villanova guys. They understand what it takes. We’ve got a great leader in Jalen [Brunson] and Karl-Anthony Towns. I’m excited about it. These are such even-keeled individuals. All those guys. I think Leon [Rose] and [William Wesley] did a great job putting together like-minded individuals. And that’s what it takes. Guys that are not gonna get too high, get too low, and they cheer for one another and they like one another. That’s what it takes, to have that togetherness, because things can get tough. You got to know who’s in the same boat as you. You don’t want to see guys jumping ship. And these guys don’t jump ship. If the boat’s gonna go down, they’re gonna go down together.”

On the Knicks’ historic 11-game run and two-way dominance:

“I haven’t seen nothing like this. You probably have to go back to the 76ers, when Moses [Malone] said, ‘Fo,’ Fo,’ Fo.’ ’ … We’re rolling right now. The team should feel good, and all the work that they put in over the year has culminated into what you see. In order to do what you’re doing, both sides of the ball have to be played very well. And those guys are playing both sides of the ball very well — defensively, offensively. They’re executing, cutting down on the turnovers, just enjoying one another. The atmosphere that’s in this arena, wherever we go — on the road, at home — New York is just representing. They understand the moment.”

On seeing franchise legends hand out the 2026 Eastern Conference trophy:

“That’s legacy there. Those two guys was pillars of this organization for so many years. To be able to see them hand out the trophy, it means a lot.”

On celebrating the Knicks’ return to the Finals:

“Just a special moment. I’m happy for those guys because they did it together.”

Mark Messier

On what it takes to end a championship drought:

“It’s a selfless endeavor trying to win a championship. And the Knicks have figured out a way to play together and sacrifice themselves for the team, and it’s being led by a warrior in Brunson.”

On the city rallying around the Knicks:

“It’s just great to see. Everybody is caught up in it.”

On staying relaxed under pressure and trusting yourself in championship moments:

“If you’re thinking about consequences, that’s when things are not going to flow for you. You have to trust yourself. You have to do what you’ve done 1,000 times and not let the moment and pressure tighten your instincts, your natural motion that you’ve done thousands of times. Jalen has shown that he’s not afraid to fail. And I think, because of it, he’s able to get himself in that relaxed state under the most pressurized moments. And you see that when you’re talking about Jordan or Kobe or Larry Bird or any of the great players who’ve played the game. Magic Johnson. They trusted themselves implicitly in those moments because they’ve done it so many times and they’re able to stay in that flow state. And they’re not afraid.”

On embracing the weight of ending a long championship drought:

“Trying to do something that hadn’t been done at that time in 54 years was an amazing opportunity for me. It was something I really leaned into and felt the enormity of it. Generations of fans who have been waiting to see a Stanley Cup on the Madison Square Garden ice. And then to win it at home in a Game 7 [against the Canucks] was just incredible.”

On why the Knicks are easy to root for during this run:

“They’re an easy team to root for when you watch them. They’re celebrating each other. They’re seemingly devoid of ego, which sometimes can be a problem. And then it has to be coached and taught and mentored to the team, to the culture, and it seems like Brunson is doing that. And of course he can always lead by example. And nobody is playing harder on the court or wants to win more than him.”