Good morning! First of all, thank you for subscribing. I’m going to start with some Knicks content. I also threw in a solid TV recommendation, an update on an old Knick, and my take on a canceled TV show.
I won’t be writing about the Knicks in every newsletter (as I said yesterday, Macri’s got that covered), but today, I’m going to write about my team.
🏀 Being A Knicks Fan 🏀
My teams were (and still are) the Knicks, Yankees, and Jets. I rooted for the Yankees and Jets because my dad did. How I fell into being a Knicks fan is different. It’s never simple with the Knicks.
I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life, and my dad used to get tickets to Nets games. I didn’t start rooting for the Knicks until I got a friend who was a Knicks fan. He had an Allan Houston poster in his room and a bunch of other Knicks gear. I think he was rich. I don’t know I was ten.
The first jersey I ever owned was Houston’s No. 20. I wore the crap out of that blue and orange uni. Still have it to this day.
At that point, I barely knew anything about pro sports outside of the three teams I liked.
I do vaguely remember having a conversation about Latrell Sprewell. I’m sorry. Do the Knicks have a guy on their team who choked his coach? I’m sure my reaction was something along the lines of, yeah, that guy sounds awesome.
One of the earliest sports memories I have was as a ten-year-old when the Knicks made the Finals in 1999. I remember watching one of the games on a small TV at my Aunt’s giant house, and my dad telling me to go to sleep because the Knicks were going to get killed. He wasn’t wrong.
I had no idea what I was getting into with this team.
The list of current and future Hall of Famers that have tried and failed to fix things in New York is long enough to make Chris Jericho jealous.
The infamous player-coach-executive trio of Stephon Marbury, Larry Brown, and Isiah Thomas represented the drama, dysfunction, and mismanagement that was the franchise signature in New York for the last two decades.
I’ll never forget the image of Larry Brown trying to get his team to push the ball up the court by frantically windmilling his arm and his entire team just ignoring him.
Channing Frye told KnicksFanTV Larry Brown’s Knicks were the most dysfunctional team he’s ever played on. Yikes.
Driven to full-blown cynicism by years of failure, it was hard for me to believe anything good will happen to this team. The Melo trade changed that.
Carmelo Anthony is special in my family because of their love for Syracuse basketball. My dad and brother are die-hard fans, my sister is a graduate of the university, and my aunt and uncle live five minutes away from the Carrier Dome.
When I was in elementary school, I spent a week every summer with a couple of friends at Jim Boeheim's basketball camp. I couldn't dribble, pass, or play defense, but it was still worth the long drive from North Jersey to be able to write about it two decades later.
(I saw Boeheim once in four years when he gave a talk to the entire camp, and he was lame. He asked us who the best walk-on in Syracuse basketball history was. Nobody knew, and he proclaimed it was him. Dude.
But the assistant coaches were memorable. Mike Hopkins — the current head coach at Washington — would throw a basketball at your head if he thought you weren’t paying attention. That dude was absolutely insane.)
So yeah, Melo coming to the Knicks was a big deal in my house.
The starting five during Melo’s debut included Landry Fields and Ronny Turiaf. Fields played a team-leading 43 minutes, and Toney Douglas played 29 off the bench in an ominous preview of what was to come.
The story of Melo’s tenure will always be the franchise’s inability to surround him with talent - for people who know ball anyway. The Knicks had five head coaches and four executives during Anthony’s tenure in New York.
I was always a Knicks fan, but I think the Melo trade is what made the Knicks one of the most important things in my life.
I am 1000% a Melo stan, and I will root for him to win a ring this year, but my Knicks supersede all.
If they went 0-82, I’d still watch the draft lottery to see what pick they got.
I jumped on the Knicks bandwagon at the exact right time. Really, it was the only right time in my life that could be considered a right time to become a Knicks fan until now.
For the first time in my life, I trust in a Knicks front office. I’ve even turned the corner on Scott Perry - if he did have a hand in bringing in Evan Fournier that is. Perry was in Orlando with Evan and Evan is awesome.
Leon Rose is the first Knicks exec who I feel like can actually get things done. How many people have come in here that were allegedly going to land a star free agent? They said Phil Jackson was going to get us a star and he couldn’t even stay awake.
The connections that Rose and World Wide Wes have cultivated during their many years around the league is finally giving people confidence that the Knicks can close the deal.
Consider Julius Randle among the confident. He took a lesser deal this summer to make sure the team had financial flexibility to sign another star in the future.
Kemba Walker may not be the franchise changing star Rose and Wes need but getting Walker to leave money on the table is proof he was eager to be a Knick.
The last notable player that I can remember being so eager to get to New York was Melo. Things are changing.
Summer League Hot Take
I don’t really give a shit about NBA Summer League.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m happy for Immanuel Quickley and Deuce McBride. They look great. But it’s hard to put too much stock into Quickley’s scoring numbers when this tournament causes articles like this to be written.
With that said, I watched the first game, and I’ll probably end up watching all the games at some point. It’s still basketball.
⛳ The Legend Is Back….In School ⛳
J.R. Smith is going to college, and he wants to play on the golf team. What a sentence.
Smith will be attending an HBCU - North Carolina A&T State University - to pursue a degree in Liberal Studies. This is excellent news for J.R.
The fact that his extremely impressive NBA career gets overshadowed by one moment is ridiculous. J.R. is a 2x champion and a 6th man of the year. Guys would kill to have the career J.R. Smith did.
I’m always rooting for J.R. Smith. Let’s hope the NCAA actually does something good for once and lets the legend play college golf.
📺 What To Watch 📺
💰 Dirty Sexy Love 💰
Names you’ll recognize: Donald Sutherland, Peter Krause, William Baldwin, Lucy Liu
Original run: 2 seasons, 23 episodes on ABC (2007-09)
Cliffhanger Ending: Yes
You’ll like this if you like - Succession (HBO), Revenge (ABC)
Synopsis
Family man lawyer Nick George agrees to represent the uber-rich Darling family after his estranged father - their previous lawyer - dies in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances.
The Darlings are a shitshow. Nick has to deal with their problems and juggle his own family while finding out who murdered his father.
Why You Should Watch
Karen and Nick
Karen, the oldest of the two daughters in the Darling clan, is drunk (literally) and in love with Nick. She’s been divorced multiple times and is engaged to marry a new guy.
A significant part of the story is that Nick is married with a young daughter. Young Chloe Grace-Moretz plays just a heads up, Nick’s daughter. If you’re around my age, that’s gonna make you feel old.
The will-they-or-won’t-they storyline between Karen and Nick is one of the most compelling storylines in the series.
The References
The show came out in 2007 so let’s just say that some of it don’t hold up. In the pilot episode, Jeremy, the token spoiled little rich kid, is partying on a yacht with Ethan Hawke.
Paris Hilton was huge back then. Jeremy’s twin sister - Juliet - is basically what we all pictured Paris Hilton was in 2007. There’s even a sex tape storyline at one point.
Did anybody ever party with Ethan Hawke? Well, if they did then, they definitely don’t anymore. Enjoy the Barclays Center after KD’s gone nerd.
✈️ The #SaveManifest Section ✈️
I’m halfway through season two of the recently canceled Manifest. I decided that I will write something about this great show here until someone brings it back. I’m really not looking forward to running out of episodes.
If you haven’t watched Manifest yet, I’ll give you a quick summary.
The show centers around passengers on a plane who suddenly reappear after being presumed dead for more than five years. To me, it’s Lost meets The 4400.
The main characters - teacher Ben and cop Michaela - come home to find their lives completely upended.
Their mother is dead, Michaela’s quasi-fiancee is married to her best friend, and Ben’s wife Grace is hiding something. She’s not exactly a CIA spy about it, though.
Ben’s son Cal, who has leukemia, was also on the plane with Michaela, and he didn’t age a day either. Meanwhile, his twin sister Olive is now five years older than him. Awkward.
Saanvi, another character on the plane, is the most interesting character on the show. She had no previous connection to the Stone family but becomes Cal’s doctor after they return. We learn so much about the other characters, but they keep her backstory intentionally vague. There must be a reason for that.
The passengers also hear voices - they call them callings - to get them to help people, and the government is watching everyone. Because, of course, they are. It’s the government.
The rapid fanbase, of which I guess I’m now part of, started a #SaveManifest campaign. Hopefully, the show is brought back in some capacity.
The first two seasons are on Netflix. Season three is on Hulu.