BROOKLYN, New York — “It’s like being allergic to pine nuts but still eating the pesto sauce from [sleek Italian restaurant] Il Mulino,” says Harlem native Nick Mitchell, 31. “You’re just hoping it gets better before it gets worse.” He’s talking about what it feels like to be a lifelong New York Knicks fan.
The Knicks have won a grand total of seven playoff games in the past 18 seasons — this includes just one series victory. They’ve missed the playoffs 13 times in that span. And Knicks fans have dealt with a slew of questionable (at best) and outright hideous (at worst) front-office decisions. The mere mention of owner James Dolan is enough to make fans’ blood pressure skyrocket. Yet the faithful fans piled into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday evening. A sea of Kristaps Porzingis jerseys populated the crowd, along with the jerseys of Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Carmelo Anthony and Stephon Marbury too.
The climate was cautiously optimistic about 30 minutes before the Knicks’ ninth overall selection. But the common understanding among anyone wearing blue and orange last night — no matter race, age or gender — was that this moment wasn’t about becoming better immediately. Porzingis, the franchise cornerstone, will miss perhaps the first half of the season recovering from an ACL tear he suffered shortly before the All-Star break in February. Thursday’s draft was the first piece in a long-term play for relevancy — an aroma many young Knicks fans have never smelled.
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