Everyone who lives and dies with the Knicks can remember Amar’e Stoudemire smiling with her new $ 100 million smile and proclaiming, “The Knicks are back.”
The Knicks weren’t there then, and 11 years later, they’re not back now.
But after so many quick breaks to break his heart over the years, after Derek Fisher and Phil Jackson and the offense of the triangle, after David Fizdale, after the extinction of Kristaps Porzingis, Tom Thibodeau called for a timeout for the mess and on the eve of All-Star break, Knicks fans this time are not relieved that the season is halfway through.
I can begin to believe again.
Their Knicks, 114-104 winners over the Pistons, are on their way back. Their Knicks are 19-18, the last over 500 in the last eight years. Their knicks are a team again.
“Looks like something good is happening,” Julius Randle wrote in the Players’ Tribune.
Something good happens when a star coach like Thibodeau arrives and makes his star player buy and everyone else follows.
The versatile, tireless Randle (27 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists) is the first Knicks All-Star from Porzingis and the main lieutenant of Thibodeau’s locker rooms. “MVP”, chanted the crowd of the mini-garden during and after the game.
Randle became a lover of New York, and New York became a lover of him.
“He is an excellent worker and sets an excellent example for the team,” said Thibodeau, “and the impact on winning has been huge. It’s not his individual stats, it’s what he does for the team and that becomes contagious. ”
Something good happens when Barrett (21 points), a rising star in the second year of the year, is a threat from the city center, when he does not collapse down to the circle and regained the boast he displayed at Duke.
“His training gives him a lot of confidence,” Thibodeau said.
Something good happens when Elfrid Payton (20 points), back from a yellow hamster that cost him four games, was the best goalkeeper on the floor, even though Frank Ntilikina drilled three 3s in the second quarter.
Thibodeau is the best thing that has ever happened.
The best Knicks coach from Jeff Van Gundy.
Tom Terrific.
“Culture is how you do everything,” Thibodeau said. “It’s not a specific thing, it’s how you do everything.”
Thibodeau cannot turn Knicks into overnight competitors, but the signs of a growing professionalism and commitment to D-FENSE are unmistakable.
“We seem to have a collective goal,” Randle wrote.
And a hunger. “We’re not happy at all,” Barrett said.
Thibodeau convinced the players who had called for a leader and a teacher that you must win the right to win. He likes to train these players. They like to improve together day in and day out.
“I think we’re all engaged,” Barrett said. “We all think about the same goal and we all work towards that.”
The knicks don’t laugh anymore.
“We’re turning the script over to the reputation of our entire franchise,” Randle wrote.
The legendary Marv Albert, son of Brooklyn and Basket No. 1 at Manhattan Beach, was the voice of the Knicks when they won their NBA championships in 1970 and ’73. Red Holzman’s Willis Reed-Clyde Frazier teams remain the gold standard. That’s what happens when Knicks fans try to scratch a 48-year-old itch.
“He appreciates good defense and he appreciates good passing,” Albert said. “The era was so popular because of the way he threw the ball, which made Golden State in the championship years. Steve Kerr believed in it and so did he [Spurs coach Gregg] Popovich. Those Knick teams were very smart. Red had practically five coaches on the floor. ”
Pat Riley-Van Gundy Knicks were also smart, but their identity was toughness and tenacity.
“Which is also appreciated by Knick fans,” Albert said. “It’s funny, if another team enters the garden and beats the Knicks, the fans complain. But when the Knicks had [Anthony] Mason and [Charles] Oakley and that group would only kill boys – the game was so different – and of course it was applauded. ”
Mike Woodson is the last Knicks coach to win a playoff game. Thibodeau will be next. It may not happen this season. The program in the second half is brutal.
“There are some good things we’ve done, obviously some things we need to improve,” Thibodeau said.
Of course there is. Never forget, the guy is not happy unless he is miserable.
“The challenge will be great,” Thibodeau said, “so it should bring out the best in us, but just don’t change our approach, focus on improvement every day.”
Once Leon Rose and World Wide Wes and Scott Perry bring him more horses, there is every reason to believe that Thibodeau will lead them to the water and make them drink. Marc Berman asked us what he would do during the break and Thibodeau broke: “Turks and Caicos”. Even there, without a team to coach, he wouldn’t be happy unless he was miserable.