Philc1 wrote:

grillco wrote:Why is there so much negativity and outright hatred for the Knicks?

It’s all over socials as if they were the only competitive team and had won the last 10 chips.

They are the most Everyman team to win a ring in forever. Scrappy underdogs, underrated, unwilling to quit…

Anyway, still feeling so much joy related to this run and win.

20+ years of relentless knick bashing by the media.

We sucked for two decades and Knicks fans themselves pushed the narrative that ownership was clueless and more interested in sniffing Don Henley's undergarments

We had a period of morally defective leadership when Zeke was here. Later, we got the pomp and circumstance of bringing in Phil Jackson, the most decorated coach in recent NBA history, who was close to a complete disaster (though he kept our picks). His bloviating BS and apparent disinterest in actually doing his job certainly didn't help the worn storyline of a dysfunctional franchise.

Heap on top of that NYC's traditional role in the heartland as a meme for the end of American civilization during a two decade swing to the right and you had a perfect recipe to hate the Knicks and its native city.

The media are mostly click whores so they took the easiest path and rode the popular narrative about NYC and its dysfunctional basketball team. The mecca of hoops and the world's greatest arena didn't stand a chance without the Knicks becoming a legit contender.

Americans generally prefer heads-down low-drama winners over peacocks, therefore even winning the championship wouldn't have been enough to turn the Knicks into the world's darlings. It was made possible by the unassuming nature of our key players, particularly Brunson and now OG with his tip-in for the ages rise to fame.

Our dudes are quiet and roll up your sleeves types compared to a media groomed personality like Wemby. Beating him was the perfect storm to completely break the old narrative and make us the good guys, far more than if we had beaten OKC for the chip. This was the perfect setup to make the Knicks an American heroes team.

The irony of all of this is the Knicks have the largest HARDCORE fanbase in the NBA with fans that show up at arenas everywhere. But the national and global perception of a team is not driven as much by its own fanbase as it is by the fickle hand of history which handed the Knicks the perfect scenario to turn themselves into everybody's second favorite team.

Once the media whores saw we were trending during an epic playoff run they started getting behind us, predictably so.