Some friends know how passionate I am as a fan of the New York Knicks. I would shout out loud even while alone in my room watching their games on my laptop. When I howled in jubilation as OG Anunoby tipped in the ball to give the Knicks the lead for the first time in Game 4, someone passing by in the corridor might have thought I was having an ecstatic dream in midmorning. At crucial junctures of a game, I would pray hard as if the salvation of the world depended on the Knicks' victory.
There is a simple explanation for why I am a rabid Knicks fan. They were the NBA champions in 1970 and 1973, which coincided with the time I started reading newspapers and following the sports page. This also explains why I still follow the Oakland Athletics, World Series champions from 1972 to 1974, and consider Bobby Fischer the greatest chess player of all time after he beat Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972. I studied his past games and was in awe of the human mind when he sacrificed his queen on the 13th move to checkmate on the 41st.
The Early Years of Fandom
Since games were not shown live in the 1970s, I could only imagine the exploits of Willis Reed, who played Game 7 of the 1970 NBA championship series against the Lakers despite a thigh injury. It was mostly downhill after the era of Reed, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Bill Bradley, and Dave DeBusschere. I experienced a long dark night as a fan, with only glimpses of glory during the Patrick Ewing era. He often guaranteed a championship, but the Knicks could not clip the wings of Air Jordan. The only way to win then was for Jordan to retire, which happened, but in Game 7 against the Houston Rockets, John Starks kept misfiring three-point shots.
In 1999, I was in seventh heaven when Allan Houston made a jumper as time expired to beat the Miami Heat, and Larry Johnson made a four-point play to beat the Indiana Pacers. The Knicks fought for the Larry O'Brien trophy, but David Robinson and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs were too good, bringing me back to earth.
A Personal Connection to New York
My devotion as a fan grew with visits to the city. As a doctoral student in Belgium in the 1990s, I spent summer breaks in a parish in New Jersey, translating writings of a Latin American theologian. In my free days, I visited friends in New York, strolled around Manhattan, or studied in the huge city library.
The Long-Awaited Victory
Given this journey, my sheer exhilaration when the Knicks won against the Spurs is understandable. Fifty-three years of waiting finally ended. But beyond autobiography, there are lessons from their victory.
Lesson One: Teamwork
Most things in life are achieved through a team. The Spurs had more individual talent, but the Knicks were more cohesive. The starting five complemented each other beautifully, with defensive liabilities of their two best players covered by the defensive talents of the other three.
Lesson Two: Belief in Oneself
Belief comes not from arrogance but from a strong work ethic. Many wrote off the Knicks because their best player stood only six feet two inches. But Jalen Brunson, a self-confessed gym rat, proved them wrong with a Jordan-like performance in the series-clinching game.
Lesson Three: Resilience
For the first time in NBA history, the champion won four games by overcoming double-digit deficits. No matter how insurmountable the deficits seemed, New York continued to believe the next run would be theirs. It is a lesson not to lose heart despite initial failures.
Sports indeed is a metaphor for life itself.
