Rockin’ Steady

From New York City, this is Rockin’ Steady.

1. The Way We Were.

I remember a time when New York Knicks basketball, in my mind, roughly approximated the above, give or take about ten feet on Patrick Ewing’s range. The quarter-by-quarter score was about right, the games were that physical and the Knicks prettty much had exactly two guys on the floor who could score. Most Knick fans wanted all of the above to change, even as the 50-win seasons flowed like tap water.

You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

This blog will be, as much as anything, a view of the current team as someone who never stopped cherishing the mid-90s festival of elbows and 20-foot jumpers.

2. Miracle on 33rd Street

I never got to see the 1970s Knicks live, having not yet even been an idea at the time. I’ve had them spoonfed to me over time, through Walt Frazier’s anecdotes on TV and radio, through MSG and the Classic Sports Network (later ESPN classic), through DVDs and the best-written sports memoir ever. The steady IV drip has been glorious. The idea of a team of such divergent yet compatible personalities, bound by a mantra of unselfishness and vision, the coincidence of Walt Frazier’s obsession with cool and efficiency, Bill Bradley’s essential preppiness, Dave DeBusschere’s blue collar and Dick Barnett’s mouth overcoming adversity with the purest of basketball philosophies–See the ball. Hit the open man.–must have been corrupted through romanticization at some point. I find it incredibly difficult to imagine a team that fun to watch without the pleasure being at least somewhat guilty–see, e.g., the 1993-1994 team.

This blog will also devote ample consideration to these fellows and their foundational role in establishing the soul of the Garden–a soul that still seethes beneath the facade of Madison Square, waiting to be unleashed anew.

3. 14:59

I list the below films as two of the highlights of my life, guarantees of some dubious immortality few grasp in their lifetimes and, admittedly, few desire. There will be some things about these, and about things even less relevant to the Knicks, every now and then. Bear with me.