Knicks Fan Rich: NBA Finals Game 4 Exorcised New York's Past Playoffs Demons

Last night was an exorcism. That's how Rich is taking the Knicks' NBA Finals Game 4 win, and he made the case for it with a roll call of every old wound the comeback finally cauterized.

Rich admitted upfront that losing his mind on camera the night before was "part and parcel of being a Nick fan." His throat tightened early, because the first half wore the face of every Knicks playoff failure he can name. Two quick fouls on Karl-Anthony Towns, a flurry of Spurs three-pointers, a total unraveling. Down 37 to 20 in the first quarter, then 47 to 25 in the second after Mitchell Robinson got popped for a flagrant on Victor Wembanyama. Rich watched Wembanyama point to his own skull, the choke sign, telling Robinson and the whole arena, "I'm in your head, bro."

Then the ghosts started arriving by name.

When Jose Alvarado dragged Wembanyama down by his leg, Rich saw it instantly. The smallest man on a bench hanging onto the tallest player on the floor, exactly like Jeff Van Gundy clinging to Alonzo Mourning's leg in the 1998 first round, the dust-up that cost Patrick Ewing a suspension. "Is this our Van Gundy moment?" Rich asked.

When Josh Hart got a clear path to the basket and finger-rolled it off the back iron instead of dunking, Rich turned to his wife Susie and saw 1995. Ewing, Jordan out, the Knicks' best chance to reach the Finals, finger-rolling off that same back iron. "This is not going to happen, is it? Ghosts everywhere."

What flipped it was a scouting tip no one was talking about. Rich reminded everyone that Sean Elliott, the former Spur calling the series, had come on the show before the Finals and flagged Alvarado as the pickup to watch, the high-energy pest who would bully the Knicks. Instead Alvarado balanced the Knicks' offense, hit threes, set up OG Anunoby in the corner, and sped San Antonio into mistakes.

The exorcism, Rich said, was OG Anunoby tipping in Brunson's short miss with 1.2 seconds left, the kind of break the Knicks never got in the '90s or '80s. Hart even thanked Anunoby for saving him "a lifetime of regret," then blocked Castle's final shot to end it.

Rich knows it isn't over. One more win in two games, or it gets "very Nicklike." But he's choosing to believe. This house is clean.