00:00The New York Knicks are NBA champions again and this is not something that's ever really been said on a
00:05podcast before this year or anything like that because there weren't podcasts the last time that the Knicks won the
00:10NBA title all the way back in 1973. It's an amazing story. It's a huge one for the NBA. Let's
00:15break it all down.
00:25So yes, an incredible moment for the NBA and for Knicks fans as this incredibly dedicated fan base finally has
00:33a championship team and you can see all the sights and sounds from New York. This was a spectacular happening
00:40for the Knicks to get to this point and really like an incredible turnaround.
00:44When you think about like they were a laughing stock for a really long time. I remember I would pick
00:49the Knicks on NBA Live to try to turn them around because they were always one of the worst overall
00:55teams and it was fun to try to do the rebuild thing with them and they tried a bunch of
01:00different ways.
01:00They tried to save up a lot of cap space that they brought in Carmelo Anthony, but they tried to
01:04save up a bunch of cap space so they could get LeBron and then later it was KD and Kyrie
01:09Irving and when that didn't work, they tried the tanking thing, right?
01:12Like they tried to bring in Zion and John Morant and they ended up getting third, which got them RJ
01:17Barrett, which got them OG, which got them a title, but they tried to do it that way and it
01:22didn't really work.
01:23And then they just kind of pieced this team together with a series of really, really solid moves, starting with
01:29the Brunson acquisition and then building a great team around him with heart.
01:33And the Carl Anthony Towns trade was not a gimme at all.
01:39Even the Thibodeau firing, there's podcasts out there of me saying, I think it's a mistake that the Knicks made
01:45that move, but all of it was piece by piece building together this special franchise and getting it to this
01:52point is, again, the only word I can say is incredible.
01:55It's a phenomenal turnaround. And the thing that I love about it is that it shows there was more than
02:01just one way to win in the NBA.
02:03You don't need to go out and get the three max guys and load up. I mean, that helps, but
02:07doesn't get you all the way sometimes.
02:09You don't just need to tank a bunch and bring in those guys. Helps, but doesn't always work out.
02:15So it is just, it's another way. It's not an easy way, but none of them are, right?
02:20Like you have to win 16 playoff games and that's not as easy as this Knicks team made it look.
02:24So it's just, it's nice to see that there is another way of building a title team.
02:30And I'm, I'm really appreciative of being able to see that.
02:33But the thing that's crazy about all of this is how none of it you could really see coming this
02:40to this level, right?
02:42Like a lot of people figured that the Knicks could be the best team in the East with Boston still
02:47kind of figuring out where Tatum fits in, in their rotation this year, coming off of an injury.
02:51The, the Pistons maybe being a year away, the Halliburton injury and all of that.
02:55There was a lot that could point you to the Knicks being the best team in the East, but this
02:58was pure dominance from a team that was 50 or had 53 wins, right?
03:03Like they won 16 playoff games. They won 16 games in a month once. And that was in March.
03:08Like there was just never this, okay, this is the dominant team. Here they go.
03:12And then down two to one, they make an adjustment. They get Townsmore involved in the offense.
03:16And from there, everything just flies. This was such an amazing example of just pure team basketball.
03:24And I guess there is a little bit of irony that the Spurs got beat by a team that kind
03:28of feels like they out Spurs to them, you know, with just solid defense, with a very unselfish approach on
03:36offense.
03:37This was a very Spurs-y way of beating the San Antonio Spurs.
03:42And the, the fun part about it is like, it's, everyone gets theirs, everyone gets an opportunity, but then in
03:47the fourth quarter when it's winning time, which is kind of ironic again, that using that when it's the documentary
03:52about how Reggie Miller beat the Knicks.
03:54But when it came to winning time, it was Jalen Brunson who would step up, or OG Ananobi, who would
03:59step up in the fourth quarters of these games.
04:00But there was always like, okay, it's all team stuff, but we know that we got this guy who can
04:05bail us out.
04:06And then Brunson has his all-time moment in game five, where he scores almost half of his team's points
04:12in a brilliant closeout performance.
04:15And you could just see, like, as this game was going on, as this series was going on, if the
04:20Spurs won game five, it just felt like we were delaying the inevitable.
04:24Like, there was no, oh, the Spurs have figured this out.
04:27It's like, the Spurs were able to hang on, but this is the Knicks series.
04:30They were just the better team.
04:31And then Brunson finally put his forever stamp on this with that performance in game five.
04:37And he, he just felt so in control.
04:40He felt in control of the moment.
04:41He felt in control of the basketball game.
04:43And just the way that he was mixing up the pace with which he would shoot and how he would
04:49attack and everything like that.
04:51Great stuff from Brunson.
04:53And I thought a very good strategy here from the Knicks.
04:56I've seen a few people point out that maybe they were trying to rope-a-dope a little bit, this
04:59Spurs team that clearly just ran out of gas.
05:01I don't know if it was that, but they attacked Wemby in a way no one else did.
05:06Like, they, you would avoid them, right?
05:08You would drive into the paint and, oh, well, no, there's a building in front of me.
05:11Let me pass it away.
05:12But they never, they never played like they were fully scared of Victor Wemby in Yama.
05:17And I think that's an interesting thing.
05:20And now we will see if other teams are going to try to do that same thing going into next
05:27season.
05:27But for Brunson, it's an all-time moment.
05:31He is now automatically top three in greatest Knicks of all time.
05:37It's Ewing, Frazier, him.
05:38And you can make an argument he's one.
05:40You can make an argument Frazier's one.
05:42You can make an argument that Patrick Ewing is number one.
05:45But he is in that conversation now.
05:49And he is the king of New York at this particular time.
05:52What a run for the New York Knicks.
05:54On the Spurs side, this is the adversity that young teams need to go through.
05:59It's the adversity the Knicks went through, right?
06:01Like there was a lot of questions about this team after how last season went, where they
06:05were the favorites going up against the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Final.
06:08Halliburton hits this crazy shot and they have this wild comeback to win game one and
06:13end up putting the Knicks away.
06:15There were questions.
06:16They fired the coach.
06:17If Giannis wanted to go to the Knicks, Cat was probably out of town.
06:21They faced all of this adversity and they were able to battle through it.
06:25But this is the adversity now that the Spurs have to battle through.
06:28There's a lot of talk about a potential Fox move.
06:33I don't know if that's going to happen.
06:35I could see them just running it back.
06:36The one thing I think is absolutely clear is that Harper needs to be more involved in
06:41the offense.
06:42He was so explosive.
06:43He was the only one who had legs left at the end of this series.
06:45And now part of that is he was coming off of the bench and just wasn't playing as
06:48much, but he was the only one who had any gas left in the tank for the San Antonio
06:53Spurs.
06:53And I don't think you have to trade Fox, but I think you are going to get to a point
07:00soon where that move becomes just the obvious one to make.
07:05It wasn't a good playoff for him.
07:07He did have the ankle injury and was dealing with quite a few things in that time.
07:11But I do think that there needs to be something that gets figured out here and a way to kind
07:22of make everything fit because it just, it didn't really.
07:25So I do think they're going to run it back.
07:27The thing I'm really interested in now for the Spurs is how do they handle next year with
07:32Wemby?
07:33Because again, he obviously ran out of gas here at the end.
07:36Like he just, it wasn't, and it's not like a full, he wasn't me out there, but it's just,
07:41it's that half second that it just takes a little bit extra time to get there.
07:45And so now he knows what it takes.
07:46This guy has done a very good job of recognizing what it takes to take that step forward and
07:51then taking two of them because he's huge the next year.
07:54But now how do you keep him healthy?
07:56How do you keep him fresh?
07:57But then how do you build him up to be able to play 40 minutes in a playoff game?
08:01All of that is going to be really, really interesting to see.
08:04So a very, it's about as entertaining as a five game series can be.
08:09The Spurs led for just over 70% of this series.
08:13Very, very interested to see now how all of these teams involved kind of counterpunch it.
08:18And we're going to go through, we're going to have our season, our off-season preview
08:22here throughout the week that I know I've promised things before and haven't really been able
08:26to deliver, but I promise you this, we will have our off-season previews throughout the
08:29week.
08:30That is for sure.
08:31Um, and we'll, we'll see how everything plays out.
08:35It's going to be a very fascinating off-season in the NBA.
08:38So, um, what did you guys think?
08:39Well, great series, Knicks, Fluke, Spurs, whatever.
08:43Let me know what you guys thought of this series and we can keep the conversation going down
08:47in the comments.
08:48Also, if you're watching this on YouTube, uh, Couch Potato Diary is a podcast.
08:52Just search Couch Potato Diary on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
