Last night the Knicks won a basketball game. I went into the game realizing it does not matter all that much.

I thought it was a mental health game for Nick fans.

Beat the Celtics, you'll feel good. Even without Jalen Brown, you'll feel good.

What I find fascinating about the Knicks, and Nick fans, you tell me if I'm wrong on this.

You are about to complete a regular season in which you will have one more games than

you won last year. A regular season in which your offensive rating is higher than it was last

year. You were fifth in the NBA this year. Your third. You're going to complete a season in which

your defensive rating jump from 14th to 8th. So statistically, you're a better basketball team.

Win-lost record, you're a better basketball team.

And then, oh, do you beat good teams?

Well, against teams with winning records this season, you're 28 and 22.

Last year, you were 12 and 22.

So no matter what you want to look at, the New York Knicks are going into the postseason

as a better team than they were last year.

And yet, I'm not sure if every Nick fan feels that way.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

No, first of all, I don't mean to rein on the numbers, but I'm glad you brought up the

versus winning teams because the offensive and defensive efficiencies, I think everybody collectively just watched an NBA season where it felt like a third of the league did not try. You think that's a factor in that? I think it's a factor in certain numbers that you bring up. But the important number there is the winning teams thing. Now, it also felt like the Knicks to start the year, all the vibes were rolling good, they go win the in-season tournament. And it felt like from that point after that, up until basically they had that seven-game win streak a month ago, nothing felt right again, Evan. And I think it's just more of a feel thing. And I think it's how it looks. You could have all the efficiency numbers you won, but it became... That's not what it is. I'm going to diagnose it. And I come from a unique place. You're half there. I'm fully there. All right. I can look at the New York Knicks with an eye of, I'm not a fan. Right. But I can also look at another team in this town with that same view. your New York Yankees. All right. No matter what the Yankees do in the regular season, you're going to look at your team and say, that doesn't matter until October. Yeah. And I think the Nick fan has officially graduated to that. They've arrived to that point where they knew they were going to the postseason, and it's about what you do then. And probably even more so because of the coaching change. Because they made a change at head coach with the clear line of, hey, we better get to an NBA finals. We fired our head coach after losing in the Eastern Conference finals. And so I think the Nick fan in a lot of ways has morphed into the Yankee fan where you're more critical of your team and you're more impatient. Like, you're saying go win in the postseason. And what I'm trying to tell you is you can't win in the postseason during the regular season. There's nothing you can do. Look at the Yankees and we're going to get into them later. There's nothing they can do. Nothing that they can do in April, May, June, July, August, and September that's going to make the non-believer believe. And so I kind of think it runs the same way with the Knicks. If you don't believe in this team, whether it's Captain Jalen Brunson who have looked very different on the floor together over the last few games, or it's their defense or whatever it is, There's nothing that's going to change that in the

regular season. So I think the Nick fan in a lot of ways, and I say this with an I-I, an I-I, an independent eye. You guys are like the same now. Yankee and Nick fans are the same. I think you're on to something. You like that, right? I do, because you knew they were going to the playoffs all year. You knew before the balls got

tipped in the year to start the year that they were going to the playoffs.

But this is where it's a You like that, right? I do. Because you knew they were going to the playoffs all year. You knew before the balls got tipped in the year to start the year that they were going to the

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