The New York Knicks haven't won an NBA Championship since 1973, but this hasn't stopped opposing clubs from approaching matchups against them with the same vigor and intensity that they use when preparing for the defending-champion OKC Thunder.
Just ask Isaiah Hartenstein.
After splitting time with each franchise over the last four seasons, it's fair to say the big man has a deep understanding of how rival teams tend to play against both squads.
He acknowledged during a recent media session that the Thunder tend to get "everyone's best game," as there seems to be an added incentive among rival ballers to put their best foot forward to try and take down the game's most recent champs.
The big man would continue on to compare this effect OKC has on the rest of the league to his time spent with the Knicks, saying it's "kind of similar" to when players came to the Garden, for, as he put it, "every player is going to wake up for the game."
Opposing teams opporach Knicks home games like Thunder matchups
They don't just call Madison Square Garden "The World's Most Famous Arena" for nothing.
From the "Fight of the Century" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and Marilyn Monroe's infamous JFK serenade, to Willis Reed limping out of the tunnel in Game 7 to inspire the Knicks' first championship win in 1970, MSG has been the host to some of the most iconic pop-culture moments since being built back in 1968.
With this in mind, it shouldn't come as all that great of a shock to hear Hartenstein say that games played off Eighth Ave are akin to those against the dynasty-pushing Thunder.
Many of the NBA's greatest players have gone on record to admit to heightened levels of determination to rise to the occasion when playing out in New York, with legends like Michael Jordan and LeBron James specifically calling the Garden their favorite arena to play in.
As Hartenstein acknowledged in his media session, facing such intense, high-level competition is a good thing, as it's a way to hone one's craft by facing an opposing player's most intense, locked-in self.
Impressively enough for the Knicks, they have the fourth-best home record in the league this season at 27-9.
Considering the NBA Finals-or-bust mandate that team owner James Dolan made public back in January, getting title-round intensity every time they play a home game in the regular season might actually prove to be quite beneficial for them come playoff time.