Darelle Banks has been watching the New York Knicks since the 1990s. He remembers the heartbreaking playoff losses to the Pacers, Bulls, Spurs and Rockets. Despite clinching a playoff spot 14 years in a row and appearing in the NBA Finals twice during that span, the Knicks couldn’t get it done.
Maybe, following New York’s collapse Wednesday night against their nemesis Pacers in their first Conference Final appearance since 2000, some of those feelings were re-lived. But hours before Aaron Nesmith hit a trio of three-pointers and Tyrese Haliburton’s game-tying buzzer beater helped Indiana erase the Knicks’ nine-point lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter, hours before the Knicks came up short in a back-and-forth overtime, Banks was one of many longtime Knicks fans who felt that this year’s team might just be good enough.
“In the ‘90s, you had the cloud of Michael Jordan over the city of New York,” he said. “It felt like they just couldn’t win. But now, there’s a lot of hope. You can feel it walking down the street. Everybody’s really excited about this team.”
Banks had stopped following the Knicks as closely as the team from the 1990s disbanded and the club missed the playoffs in eight of the next nine seasons. But when his son, Dallas, recently started getting into basketball, Banks wanted to show him what it was like to be “a real New York fan.”
The duo sat on the right side of Radio City Music Hall’s first level on Wednesday for the Knicks’ Game 1 watch party, Banks in an off-white “New York or Nowhere” hoodie. They try to get to a few games every season. They flew to Detroit for the last regular season game against the Pistons. Last year, they went to Philadelphia for a playoff game. Banks said that the price of playoff tickets at Madison Square Garden — admission for Game 2 on Friday starts at $577 per ticket, according to Ticketmaster at the time of writing — partly drew him to the watch party, where tickets cost $10 each and the venue, which saw an estimated 5,000 for Game 1, was full of fans.
Andrew Royce, who strolled through the lobby before the game, similarly grew up watching the Knicks in the mid-to-late 1990s. His expectations were heavily influenced by the success of the New York teams during that period, he said. The Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994. The Yankees won the World Series four times in five years. The Knicks were similarly expected to win.
But the Knicks’ shortcomings of the past 25 years have made this run sweeter.
“I took the ‘90s a bit for granted,” said Royce. “Obviously went through all the tough and challenging years in the 2000s … To be here right now in Radio City Music Hall watching the Knicks play for a chance to be in the Finals, for me, it’s a dream come true.”
The same could be said for Omar Hegazy and Lanre Badmus, who stood nearby.
Hegazy started watching the Knicks in the early-2010s, when “Knickstape” was trending and Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire joined the team. That core managed one series win, before seven straight seasons without playoff basketball in Manhattan led to the foundation of the current Knicks’ squad.
“This run is one of one,” said Hegazy. “I’ve seen a lot of great moments throughout my time as a Knicks fan, but nothing like this. This is the first time in my life as a Knicks fan where I feel like we have a shot to go all the way.
“There’s nothing else for me to do but bask in the moment. I got to embrace it. I got to enjoy the run while I can. I never expected, growing up a Knicks fan, to ever be in a place like this.”
Badmus became a Knicks fan in the summer of 2010 after the Stoudemire acquisition, despite casually watching the games growing up in New Jersey in the early-2000s. He said the current team is the best Knicks team he’s seen.
Like most of the fans interviewed for this article, Badmus said the energy and passion for the Knicks around the city have made this run memorable.
“There’s nothing like a New York Knicks playoff run,” he said.
The significance of a Conference Final appearance is not lost on the younger generation of fans.
Arlo Zamorefrankel said her favorite memory of the season was when her family had people over to watch Game 6 of the Celtics series.
“Everybody at my house went wild when they won,” she said.
Charles Geller had a lot of confidence in the Knicks, and though Game 1 didn’t end the way he predicted, he said the Knicks’ series wins against the Celtics and the Pistons were his favorite memories of the season.
“Just the joy everyone brings to the team, how everyone’s inclusive,” Geller said about the excitement around the city. “No one’s going over the top, but no one’s going just below. Everyone’s doing great.”
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