The Knicks are bringing hope and title dreams back to New York after years in the doldrums

By Mark Morales, CNN

(CNN) — Jesús Velázquez still has his old John Starks jersey at home. He remembers the New York Knicks going to the NBA Finals in 1994, Patrick Ewing’s infamous “finger roll” in 1995 and all the on-court fights with the Miami Heat. Last Friday night, Velázquez was one of hundreds of fans who waited in the rain to watch Game 2 against the Indiana Pacers in Central Park.

Velázquez has fond memories of the good times in the ’90s but also remembers the bad, which defined the team for most of the last 25 years. As bad as those times were, they don’t compare to watching his team so close to the NBA Finals – even if they did lose on Tuesday night and are now a heartbeat away from elimination.

“I never once put my paper bag on, but it came close,” Velázquez, 56, a long-suffering New York fan from Queens, told CNN Sports.

As heartbreak and desperation faded to failure over an excruciating 25-year period, Knicks fans are now overwhelmed, knowing their team has a chance at winning a championship soon – even as they face a 3-1 series deficit to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.

The return to sustained relevancy –- something that seemed next-to-impossible for over two decades –- is new for younger fans who never saw the beloved ’90s90’s teams. Those teams never won, but coming close became good enough for their older counterparts who clung to the memories of “almost” winning and tightened their grip on nostalgia as the hopelessness increased.

“It’s been a long drought. It’s been a heartbreaking drought because it’s not like we haven’t been close,” Velázquez said. “Last year, it was finally good to hear that song ‘Go NY Go’ because before it was not something you wanted to blast on your radio.”

This is the first time in 25 years that the Knicks have gone this far in the playoffs, but the gut punches the team and their fans have taken dates back further. From Michael Jordan’s three-peats to Reggie Miller scoring eight points in nine seconds, followed by Patrick Ewing’s missed layup in 1995 and the injury-riddled squad willing itself to the Finals in 1999, only to get crushed by the San Antonio Spurs, fans have had hope and then watched it get swatted away.

Those heartbreaking moments led to the slow and steady decline that started in the 2000s. Each move the Knicks made – whether it was bringing in Isiah Thomas as president of basketball operations in late 2003, trading for Brooklyn’s own Stephon Marbury, or then Knicks president Phil Jackson drafting Kristaps Porziņģis – the fleeting hope always gave way to despair.

The consecutive sellout streak of Madison Square Garden was gone and so were the A-list stars.

The Carmelo Anthony-led Knicks had a brief resurgence, even making the second round of the playoffs before they lost in six games to the Indiana Pacers in 2013. Jeremy Lin in 2012 caught fire and famously scored 38 points to beat the Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers as one of the highlights of the short-lived “Linsanity” era.

But from that point, it was quiet at Madison Square Garden – until now. Despite being down 3-1 in the series, the Knicks are playing in the Eastern Conference Finals, something they haven’t done in 25 years.

A call back to the ’90s Knicks

“It’s decades of disappointment coming out. That’s what I hear,” author Paul Knepper told CNN of the cheers coming from Knicks fans.

Knepper, a longtime Knicks supporter, took his fandom several steps further and wrote “The Knicks of the Nineties.” The book chronicles the rise and fall of what could be considered the golden era of Knicks basketball for those who weren’t old enough to see Willis Reed hobble onto the Madison Square Garden hardwood for the championship clinching game against the Lakers in 1970 or the subsequent title in 1973.

Knepper, who grew up on Long Island, was watching Game 1 against the Pacers with his wife in Austin, Texas, where they live. Knepper said she’s not a Knicks fan but roots for them, even though the anxiety and pressure of seeing the historic collapse was almost too painful to watch.

“She’s like, ‘I don’t know how you do this. This is terrible. How do you watch games like this?’ And I said, ‘I’ve felt this pain before,’” Knepper said. “I felt this pain with Reggie Miller. I felt this pain when Charles Smith couldn’t make a layup in 1993 against the Bulls. I’m familiar with this pain.”

Knepper says he hears both joy and relief in the screams and cheers from fans.

“I don’t hear the Carmelo Anthony or the Jeremy Lin era. I hear Phil Jackson and trading Porziņģis and Charles Oakley getting kicked out of the Garden, which, for me, I think, personally, was probably the lowest point in this whole terrible, extended era,” Knepper told CNN Sports. “That’s the kind of stuff that I hear. I hear all of the times there was some degree of hope.”

Images of an army of Knicks fans spilling out into the streets flooded social media after the Knicks beat the defending champion Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the second round. Timothée Chalamet lowered the window of his SUV and dapped up fans as he left the building and Spike Lee was smiling ear to ear as he left the Garden – all while roughly 3,000 fans cheered in the streets. Nothing was damaged and there were only five arrests for disorderly conduct, according to a law enforcement officials.

“Everybody wants more, obviously, but this wasn’t just hope. This was hope fulfilled,” Knepper said. “We did it. We knocked off the defending champion Celtics. We’re in the conference finals. That’s what I hear when I think of it. Finally, after all these years, all these disappointments, finally, we broke through, and we’re in the conference finals, and we’re legitimate championship contenders.”

The vibe around the team wasn’t always so optimistic.

Former New York Daily News reporter Frank Isola covered the Knicks for the hometown newspaper and remembers the slow and excruciating decay at Madison Square Garden.

“We went from covering a team that every year, we held to the standard of winning a championship. Now, it’s like, they’re losing all these games, everyone’s kind of miserable, and we’re writing about it, and everyone’s getting mad,” Isola says. “The players and management are getting mad that we’re writing about how much the team sucks. I always thought that was weird.”

Isola believes the team looks to have finally got it right, making shrewd moves like signing Jalen Brunson as a free agent, who was seen running around on the Garden hardwood as a toddler when his father, now a coach on the team, was the 12th man on the roster. Current Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was also an assistant coach the last time the Knicks went to the NBA Finals in 1999.

“What’s interesting about this team is you do have a connection to the last team that went to the finals, because Thibodeau was an assistant coach under (former coach Jeff) Van Gundy. Brunson was on the team as the 12th man, which is interesting, I guess, since (his son Jalen) is now the first man on the team now,” Isola says. “Having the coach and the star point guard kind of understand the way that it works in New York is important.”

This is the third year in a row New York has made the playoffs and each year the team has added players and improved its regular season record, something fans haven’t experienced since the 1990s. The improvement has led to a raucous crowd both inside MSG and after games on Seventh Avenue.

Madison Square Garden in late spring

“I’ve always cherished the Garden in May. I’ve always thought the Garden in May is the epitome of sports,” iconic sports talk pioneer Mike Francesa told CNN about Knicks playoff basketball.

The legendary New York radio host made the Garden a second home during Knicks playoff runs while he was still doing his afternoon radio show in New York. This was especially true in the 1994 Finals run when he and his partner, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, broadcasted from MSG before playoff games.

Francesa says he’s been courtside to watch iconic moments in Knickerbocker history during that time, like Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds barrage in 1995.

“I think it’s exactly the same,” Francesa said of the energy inside Madison Square Garden. “I don’t think there’s any difference. You close your eyes and you’re there.”

Francesa said he was in the building when the Knicks won Game 4 against Boston this year. The difference between now and then was the expectation of that old team, led by Knicks icon Patrick Ewing and legendary coach Pat Riley.

“That night, to me, it could have been the Riley ’90s,” Francesa said. “That’s how it was, almost exactly the same energy.”

Francesa has seen the Knicks battle the Pacers in very intense and drama-filled matchups. Whether it was the Knicks winning in 1994, which featured Reggie Miller jawing with Spike Lee and taunting everyone by using the choke sign or in 1995 when the Pacers won and Ewing missed a last second layup, known as the infamous “finger roll” to lose the series.

This Knicks-Pacers series has so far been a nostalgia tour, featuring the same intensity, hard fouls and a nod to the old school, with Tyrese Haliburton using that same Miller choke celebration when he sent Game 1 into overtime. It was a shot that left the former Pacers sharpshooter, who was doing color commentary on the TNT national broadcast, giggling and speechless as Haliburton wrapped his hands around his neck and bugged his eyes out at the Garden crowd.

Francesa told CNN the series has taken on a life of its own and so far featured enough drama for both the die-hard fans and those who stopped watching when the team had no chance to win.

“If you were in your 20s then (during the ’90s), and you’re 50 now, I think you have a real good grasp for what this is. And you’ve waited a very long time, and they’ve now drawn you back in, maybe for the first time,” Francesa added. “Maybe they drew you back in last year, and now this year, you were casual about it, and then now, here they come again. And now you’ve been drawn in in a real way. And I think that’s real.”

Francesa is not a Knicks fan, but he rooted for players and coaches he knew well, like current Miami Heat executive Riley. The pair were close friends until Francesa and Russo criticized the then coach for leaving the Knicks following the heartbreaking 1995 season, according to the talk radio personality.

Riley has gone on to win three NBA championships with Miami. Meanwhile, the Knicks never got as close to winning a championship since the legendary coach left. Years later, the two had a poolside sit-down at a Los Angeles hotel to bury the hatchet and the two-hour conversation still wasn’t enough to patch things up, Francesa said.

Still, Francesa, who has missed the excitement of a Knicks playoff run, doesn’t want it to end and may even bring his kids to the NBA Finals – if the Knicks can come back and make it.

“This definitely brought me back to the ’90s, especially to the Riley years,” Francesa says. “I mean, Van Gundy had some real fun days and a lot of wild days, but this really brought me back to the Riley days. And the Riley days, I remember with great affection for the intensity, the energy, how special they were. They were special.”

‘We’re not promised tomorrow’

Meanwhile, fans have been glued to the games, with watch parties in Central Park and inside Madison Square Garden for Game 3, which the Knicks won behind a massive fourth-quarter performance from Karl-Anthony Towns.

“I’m feeling like the new team is giving the same ’90s vibes. This is like an older blue collar Knicks team. It kind of has the same vibe. I hope they pull it off because these games are getting a little crazy,” said Rob Jurman, 46. “This is better than missing the playoffs. They were so bad for so long. This is so much better.”

Scott Caige, 64, is old enough to have seen the last Knicks championship. Caige said he isn’t a Knicks fan, but he’s rooting for them now, especially for star guard Jalen Brunson.

“Just to have a big city with a big market team not win a championship in so long, it feels like a fluke, but this might be the year,” Caige said.

The Pacers lead the series 3-1 after Haliburton had a historic performance in Game 4 to lead Indiana to a 130-121 win in Indianapolis. The Knicks have to win in Game 5 or else they become the latest painful chapter in Knicks history.

Knepper, however, said the fans have already won.

“If the Miami Heat went to the conference finals, there just wouldn’t be the outpouring of joy,” Knepper told CNN. “They’ve had a really nice 25- to 30-year run. Obviously, if you’re the Warriors, when you go to the conference finals, people aren’t celebrating in the streets.

“Any team that has had a decent amount of success over the last couple of decades, the fanbase isn’t going to react that way because it hasn’t been this pent-up disappointment and bottled up enthusiasm just waiting to explode. And now it’s like, ‘OK, we can explode. We can let it out. We can express joy.’”

Velázquez, who also attended the watch party outside of the Garden and found himself as one of the roughly 3,000 fans flooding Seventh Avenue after the Knicks beat the Celtics, agrees.

“I had people telling me on Facebook, ‘You’re acting like you won the championship.’ Well you know what, we did,” Velázquez said with a laugh.

“As New York Knicks fans, we’re not promised tomorrow. We haven’t partied like this in 25 years.”

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