Three games into the New York Knicks' most-anticipated playoff run thus far this century, all hope was lost. When the Atlanta Hawks took a 2-1 lead on their home court, a large portion of the Knick fanbase was watching their worst fears play out right in front of them.
In professional sports, however, winning can solve almost any kind of problem. The Knicks have been experiencing that cure-all in recent weeks, with every aforementioned member of their organization receiving a mix of apologies and flowers.
They weren't built like any other NBA contender, or perennial winner in any major American sport. New York is proving with each game they win, and each playoff record they set, that fans should stop expecting them to play like most other contenders. They're heading to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season, and they're doing it their way.
The Knicks are raising their ceiling one playoff game at a time
Had the team truly blown its chance at contention by trading for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns in the same offseason?
Were national analysts right when they swore the buck would stop here for Jalen Brunson's storybook career of defying expectations? Was he simply just too short to lead a team to an NBA Championship?
Was New York foolish to make a coaching change after their best season in 25 years? Was it an example of their owner proving unable to resist the urge to meddle? Or were they right to move on from Tom Thibodeau, but simply just chose the wrong pivot in Mike Brown?
A plethora of Knick fans had at least one, if not several, of those questions in their minds when the team was facing a 2-1 deficit at the talons of CJ McCollum's Hawks. They've been asked by national, and local, media to an inundating extent over the last two years.
But if anything has been consistent about these Knicks this season, it's been that their best basketball comes after moments, stretches, or even entire weeks' worth of adversity. Game 4 in Philadelphia, completing their sweep, will be the seventh-straight playoff game the team has won. That is good.
Brown said repeatedly throughout the season's rough patches, which justifiably pained fans in the moment, that the team needed to face adversity to understand as much as they could about themselves, and how to overcome different kinds of struggles moving forward.
Those words are all ringing incredibly true throughout the 2026 playoffs thus far. The Knicks are heading to their second straight Eastern Conference Finals. The team that made a coaching change after their best season in 25 years just delivered their first back-to-back ECF appearances in just as long.
All they needed was to face a little bit of adversity to get going. Didn't you get the memo?
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