Ep. 1: The Collapse of the 90's Knicks
Shattered: Hope, Heartbreak and the New York Knicks
The Athletic
4.4 • 573 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2021
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The 90's Knicks were tough, talented and always in contention. Episode one of Shattered looks at what made those Knicks teams special, the internal issues that broke the team apart, and the early signs inside the organization that would lead to two decades of dysfunction at the Garden. Voices in episode one include Patrick Ewing, Jeff Van Gundy, Dave Checketts and more.
Shattered is an eight-part podcast series from The Athletic, hosted by hip-hop legend Chuck D. The series looks at the past 20 years of the Knicks franchise. A new episode of Shattered will be released every Tuesday. To get ad-free episodes and early episode releases, go to theathletic.com/shattered to get a special offer on a subscription to The Athletic.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You know, I think a lot of my adult life has been, like, built around never letting the Knicks hurt me like that again. |
| 0:16.7 | If they suck, they suck. If Jim Dolan does something absolutely idiotic, he did it again. |
| 0:22.2 | Of course he did. |
| 0:23.2 | The saddest moment as a Knicks fan was undoubtedly a legend. |
| 0:27.8 | Charles Oakley. |
| 0:28.6 | They dragged him out of there like he was a piece of garbage. |
| 0:35.1 | And that was the first time where I started to think, like, this isn't the team that I grew up loving. This isn't worth it. Dolan's ownership. I mean, it's been 20 years of chaos and mayhem. Inept, does that work? Clown show? Embarrassment. Sad, pathetic. There's a generation of fans that have become very apathetic. You know what I'm saying? It's like the cool thing right now is not the Knicks. |
| 0:56.0 | Yes, I believe New York City is the mecca of basketball. |
| 0:58.8 | I didn't know how much we could continue to include the Knicks necessarily in that conversation |
| 1:03.2 | because how long do you get to live on what a team used to be? |
| 1:06.5 | You're really going to bring a Pat Riley to two New York Knicks fans. |
| 1:09.5 | Listen, that's the last time y'all were good. You should say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With Dolan as the owner, many players just don't want to play for him. I think we're going to have a very successful offseason when it comes to free agents. I say New York is where legends go to die. That can't all be blamed on James Dolan, but it certainly has happened under his |
| 1:29.5 | watch. |
| 1:29.9 | Sell the team! |
| 1:31.3 | Do you think I should sell the team? |
| 1:33.3 | James Dolan, he has incredibly thin skin and the emotional maturity of a young child. |
| 1:40.3 | With Dolan, it felt like babysitting. |
| 1:43.3 | It felt like everybody was aware that there was this |
| 1:46.3 | man-child that had reckless emotional reactions to things. They've been fucked up for 20 years. |
| 1:53.7 | 20 fucking years. That's crazy to say. Look, I know this will sound crazy to people, but I'll believe it till the day I die. |
| 2:02.1 | The New York Knicks organization has pissed off the basketball gods one too many times. |
| 2:06.7 | They are feeling the effects of that now. |
... |
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