THE KNICKS DO NOT LOSE ANYMORE, HEADING TO THEIR FIRST NBA TITLE IN 53 YEARS
Wembanyama had chances to win but committed a turnover and missed the final shot, meaning the Spurs weren’t ready for the Finals as New York prepares for a wild party — be very careful — next week
If we are watching a magnificent run in sports history, consider the riveting moment of Game 2. Victor Wembanyama was screaming at his teammates, allowing his eyes to wig out and his hands to fly recklessly. The media have called him the “next global superstar athlete,” but unless circumstances somehow change in New York — and why would they? — let’s ask why His Eminence missed a killer midrange shot and let the Knicks continue a streak that began April 23.
What is left of the NBA Finals? The Spurs have lost the first two games at home when no other team has responded from such a rut. A sweep means the Knicks will finish with 15 straight wins, the best concluding act ever. At least Wembanyama’s anger resulted in a 12-0 run, but as Jalen Brunson made shots, the Spurs needed a game-winner. Instead, he threw the ball off Stephon Castle in a wicked turnover, which led to a Brunson free throw with 9.5 seconds remaining. And in the final ticks, Wemby missed his open jumper. Were the nuns weeping in the front row of Frost Bank Center after a 105-104 loss?
He won’t live down the errant pass to Castle. “I threw that one away. I messed up. We needed to win that game,” Wembanyama said. “This game was ours. But at this point, it’s done. Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course. Am I going to use that to fuel me and to fuel us next game? Absolutely.”
Seems he hasn’t recovered from the thrill of beating the Thunder in seven games. “I think I could have been better recovering from the high of the conference finals. But here we are now,” he said. “The past is the past. We can’t change the past. … I’m still very blurry, and that’s the whole problem. I need to have more poise, more control over the game. That’s the general image.”
In Manhattan, by Madison Square Garden and throughout a rocking place, crazies are beginning to celebrate their team’s first championship since 1973. It reached the point where De’Aaron Fox was left to jaw with Brunson and his father, Rick, an assistant coach. It didn’t matter because the Knicks kept receiving scoring waves on an evening when Brunson hit only 7 of 25 shots — Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, Landry Shamet.
“Zero-zero man. F— em. Keep playing desperate, man,” Bridges said of the trip home. “Sorry, excuse my language. Desperate. That’s the only thing we got to worry about. Take this break, we got two days, take a break, do whatever we gotta do to get ready. Keep going out there and don’t stop. Keep pushing. Leave everything on that court.”
Only the fools aren’t paying attention. Game 1 had a peak audience of 19.63 million viewers, the biggest Finals number in seven years and 90 percent higher than the opener of last year’s Thunder-Pacers series. Those who favor baseball, in sad markets, should realize the Knicks-Spurs wiped out Game 1 in 15 of the last 16 World Series. Wait until President Trump — oh, what will he do? — tries to shut down Wembanyama on Monday night. The 13 straight wins have come by 273 points, which is 31 more than the Warriors needed amid 15 consecutive wins in 2017.
Forget the Nova Knicks. Brunson, Bridges and Josh Hart are the pride of New York, in a flurry described as more fun than three recent championships by the Yankees and two by the Giants. Pat Ambrose, Brunson’s coach at Stevenson High in Illinois, compares the Finals to “The Shawshank Redemption.” He watches every game. He knows Brunson will win his fourth title — NBA, college, high school — in 11 years. “Everybody is better than Jalen Brunson until it’s time to be better than Jalen Brunson,” Hart said. “He’s still underrated in the league. He keeps proving people wrong.”
Towns again was an early factor on offense and defense, jamming the ball and yelling in Wembanyama’s face. “As for us, we’re kind of like spoiled kids. For some of us, it’s our first season — or one of our first seasons — and we’re already in the Finals,” Wemby said. “We don’t fully realize it yet. And to me, the team that appreciates the position we’re in the most will be the one that wins.” See the Knicks. Ignore the Spurs.
No one is certain what happens next to Ben Stiller and Timothee Chalamet. They are delirious and won’t come down the rest of their lives. Said coach Mike Brown of the fans: “To have them come and take over a town, take over a hotel, take over an arena and hear them chant ‘Let’s Go Knicks’ — or Jalen shooting a free throw, ‘MVP’ — that definitely gives you a boost.”
The players needed it as they gassed out. “The reason we won this game is because we gave ourselves a lead. Something we’ve done so well in these playoffs is, we got leads, and we held the lead,” Towns said. “Today, the Spurs fought. They got themselves back into the game, put themselves in a chance to win. The grit, the resiliency of New York City showed up. The fans showed up. The energy showed up. And we found a way to get it done.”
Again, he noticed his late mother. Will Towns be the MVP? “You go through life, if you lose a parent, anyone who’s listening, you just look for signs,” he said. “I’ll take any sign I could get, and I prayed to her strong before (the final) possession. A great player got a great shot, it just didn’t go in. I take it as a sign that my mom was here for me.”
For 53 years, no one was there for the Knicks.
Next week, they will have millions.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host.