After the Toronto Maple Leafs coughed up a two-games-to-nothing advantage in these NHL Playoffs, losing four of their next five games, and the series, to the Florida Panthers, I thought about contacting some of my Leafs fans friends to see where their lifelong suffering ranks amongst the all-time pro sports franchises. I wanted to offer them a safe place. They didn’t return my calls.
I have other friends who are Browns fans. You gotta figure they rank as well, not having ever won a Super Bowl. After the top-seeded Cavaliers also disappointed their fans, I thought about proposing a Clevelander Q&A but why beat a dead horse?
As soon as I entertained the idea of hosting a town hall conversation of the most beaten down, downtrodden sports fans in America, the New York Knickerbockers collectively said hold my beer.
In Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals, up by 17 points with 6:46 left, up 14 with 2:40 left, up by 9 with 52 seconds left, the Knicks found a way to lose the game.
Recency bias is one hell of a drug but Game One shot to the top of the Historically Devastating Knickerbocker Losses chart with the rattling speed of the A train.
The outcome came as no surprise to Knicks fans who have been there and done that for decades. Their rivalry with the Pacers drags on to their dismay with Indiana’s best player Tyrese Haliburton paying homage to Reggie Miller at the end of regulation, grabbing his neck and forming a choke sign. The gesture reminded Knicks fans of a darker time. Miller, now a TNT broadcaster, was in the Garden that night doing color commentary. He nodded his head at Haliburton with approval, not exactly the most impartial thing for a reporter to do but no player has ever been more synonymous or revered by the Indiana franchise. The nod was indoctrinating. Regardless of where Miller and Haliburton rank on the Knickerbocker Hate Meter (answer: pretty fucking high), New Yorkers went home in disbelief, after drowning their sorrows at every pub and tavern along the way.
I didn’t need to contact Knicks fans about the loss. They were texting me the entire time, bracing for impact. One friend, dear Fibbsy, fully prepared for what might come to pass, placed a live money line wager on the Pacers to come back and win. He’d seen this Broadway show before.
Aaron Nesmith, a name no Knicks fan ever wants to hear again, also channeled his inner Reggie by making eight three-point shots in only nine attempts. He scored 15 points in the final three minutes. Few shooters have ever been as hot. The Pacers scored 51 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. I could go on and on with statistics that will make Knicks fans run to the cutlery drawer for a butter knife, but we all saw it happen. Many knew it would.
In the late 1970s, the name Reggie was immortalized in New York City. In the 1990s, the name Reggie was no longer revered. As of 2025, he continues to haunt.
“I turned it off. Did he do it again? One of the bench Knicks needs to slug him. A hole! I never liked Reggie either,” texted one angered Knicks fan of the Miller-Haliburton parallel.
“F me! Give up a 17-point lead in NY. F!!!” he went on.
“When you know the Knicks are gonna lose you might as well make money on them. We call that an Emotional Hedge,” wrote Fibbsy who, like I said, had seen this all before.
“You know the Knicks aren’t pulling this out. What a choke. How do you blow that lead?” wrote another.
“Unbelievable, no defense down the stretch. Not sure what the hell the Knicks were doing. Terrible loss,” wrote yet another.
“That one stings for sure.”
I could go on, but you get the point. I’m no Knicks fan per se, but I do hail from New York City. The Knicks were one of my first true sports loves so I will always have a soft spot in my heart for them. You can’t help but root for them at this point, their history as proud as any NBA franchise, their last championship teams of the early 70s both historically important and culturally significant. It’s been since then, over fifty years, that the Knicks and their fans have experienced any sort of joy.
The list of also-rans who donned the orange-and-blue unis are New York City icons: Bernard, Ewing, Starks, Sprewell, LJ, Marbury, Stoudemire. They still gather in the Garden as if they’re looking to start a fight against anyone who badmouths the franchise, yet the franchise continues to do that all on its own with the old heads waiting along with everyone else to have the last laugh.
Even 43 points from Jalen Brunson and 35 from KAT who is being his best self in these playoffs were not enough to stave off an utterly demoralizing defeat.
There are losses and then there are losses. And while the professional athletes and coaches in that Knickerbocker locker room will do their best to put that one behind them, only winning this series will effectively exorcise the demons of what happened in the Garden on Wednesday night. It’s the only way to bury the choke sign for good.
While anything is still possible, and this series far from over, Knicks fans, as always, are prepared for the worst. And why wouldn’t they be?
