Knicks Fan Rich Reacts to New York Sweeping the Cavs to Reach First NBA Finals Since 1999

Born in Brooklyn, moved to Staten Island at six months old, and a Knicks fan since the 1970s. That is how Rich framed the recap, and the payoff is that his team has not lost in a month and is headed to the NBA Finals.

There was one break in his fandom, and Rich named it: the stretch after James Dolan had Charles Oakley locked up overnight. He stopped rooting then, and stayed away until Jalen Brunson arrived and pulled him back in. Signing Brunson, Rich admitted, was a move whose impact he never saw coming, because nobody wanted to come to New York and nobody believed the Knicks would build anything worth joining.

They built this. The Knicks closed out Cleveland and reached the Finals for the first time since Rich was a 30-year-old, and his disbelief was total. He kept stressing it was not just Brunson. It was Towns, Bridges, Hart, Anunoby, the bench, the coach, the front office. They even emptied the bench to finish the job, Rich noted, with the deep reserves closing out the win in Cleveland.

He gave Mike Brown an unprompted shout, the kind of "my god, I didn't see this coming" credit that says everything about how far this team has exceeded expectations. Rich measured it against his own history as a fan: four years old for the 1973 title he barely remembers, a die-hard Bernard King and Patrick Ewing devotee, thrilled by the Pat Riley teams against the Houston Rockets when Jordan tapped out, or was told to tap out, and energized by the 1999 Finals run. This, he insisted, is the best Knicks team he has ever seen.

Rich could not resist one last jab at Cleveland's postgame analytics talk. As far as he is concerned, this series has been a sweep since the Knicks closed game one on a 44-11 run, unless there is some analytical game five he is unaware of.

Now the Knicks get to sit and watch the West sort itself out, a series Rich is happy to see drag on. Suzy takes the chair for two days, Ice Cube's son handles Thursday and Friday while Rich is at the Big Slick tournament in Kansas City, and the host signed off the only way he could. Holy crap, the Knicks are incredible. Go New York.