As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, as illustrated by the below tweet, this offseason has been absolutely bonkers. Are you grieving? Yes? We’ve all heard of the five stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. But have you heard of the New York Knicks’ offseason’s edition? Allow me to walk you through it.
Denial
Knicks fans are always grieving, so let’s talk about them here. When we entered the offseason Knicks fans were under the impression that they would be landing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. They traded the cornerstone of their franchise, Kristaps Porzingis, for cap space last season and sold their fans on the idea of a huge summer. Some fans even thought they’d land the first pick to take Zion and then land KD and Kyrie. But, in the most Knicks fashion ever, they got the third pick instead and had to settle for RJ Barrett. Then in free agency they didn’t land any big names. Unless you count about six different 9th men for $5-10 million each. Knicks fans were of course apoplectic and immediately in denial that this could happen.
Anger
Anger is an easy one. We’ve seen Knicks fans far and wide absolutely enraged with everyone in the franchise, but mainly James Dolan. A few months back we saw a song about how he should sell the team, and it is making the rounds again:
The Knicks franchise is being run like when you give a child $20 to run a lemonade stand, but give them no instructions, so they go out and by random stuff like soap and some limes. You just can’t trust what James Dolan is going to do and Knicks fans are (fairly) furious with their owner. This year they might as well have the Rangers stay at Madison Square Garden all year and play the basketball games too. (This is a little harsh because I do think Barrett, Knox, and Robinson could all become solid pros, but they haven’t developed yet.)
Bargaining
“We can almost see a light in the tunnel” stage of grief. The “what ifs” have begun in Knicks fandom. What if RJ Barrett is actually the best player in the draft? What if Kevin Knox takes a big step forward? What if Mitchell Robinson becomes an all-time defender? What if all of our free agency signings were sneaky good? The fact of the matter is the Knicks don’t have much shooting and will be relying on a 19-year-old in Barrett to run the offense. I’d be intrigued by a Knox-Barrett high-screen-and-roll but outside of that I’m not sure what exactly they’d be doing to give fans what they want.
Depression
I think it is pretty safe to say that Knicks fans have been pretty depressed lately. There isn’t absurd shit-talk or over-the-top optimism. It’s just sad. In fact, let’s go live to Knicks fans now! It’s tough. It’s sad. I usually have a lot of positives to say about most teams, but not right now. I’m getting a little second-hand depressed just writing about it. In two years they could have a strong trio of Robinson, Knox and Barrett, but they need a lot of things to break their way. Noted Knicks fan and famous pariah, Stephen A. Smith (also a joke, I think Stephen A is incredible at what he does) has it covered here:
Acceptance
The last of the five stages of grief. Most Knicks fans are finally at this point in the cycle. They’ve come to terms with the fact that their franchise is an abomination. No, that doesn’t make them happy, but they have accepted it. Their guard situation is quite, uh… ugly, as some fans have been quick to notice.
https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/1145751131819249670
The point is, things are bad for the Knicks. But Knicks fans, you’ve done it. You’ve made it through all five stages of grief. All you have to do now is find a new team or fully accept mediocrity until you can for Jim Dolan to sell.
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