I don’t get to say this very often. I’ve lived through Eddy Curry, Jerome James, and entire Bleacher Report slideshows dedicated to “New York Knicks: The 10 Worst Draft Picks of the Past Decade,” which imply that there has been (on average) a terrible draft pick every year for 10 straight years.
But maybe things are turning around, and that’s why I get to say: I’m excited. I’m happy. Knicks basketball is fun again. And I have Dallas to thanks for that, mostly.
“It really feels like that, with the depth, the chemistry, the veteran leadership, the shooters,” Tyson Chandler told CBS Sportsline, about the similarities between the 2010-2011 Mavericks and the 2012-2013 Knicks. “And we have to really believe. The moment I signed [in Dallas], I promise you, I told my family, ‘We’re going to win a championship, and at minimum, we’re going to make it to the Western Conference finals.’ And I felt the same way once this group came together. With that team in Dallas, we started to believe as the season went along. The moment I walked in, I told all of them: ‘Prepare for a long season. We’re going all the way, and we have to have a mindset to do it, no matter what obstacles get in our way.’ And it’s the same thing with this team.”
Jason Kidd chimed in, too.
“The star players, Dirk and Melo, tops in the world. The pieces are very similar,” he said. “When we played defense to start the season off that year, we started to believe that we could win that way and it just snowballed. Hopefully, it’s the same thing here.”
So maybe cheer for the Knicks with me? Thanks.
