Today, the franchise—and its “brand,” eyeroll required—are firmly entrenched near the top of the NBA again. This season, the Knicks won 50 games for the second consecutive year, something that hadn’t happened since 1995. (During the leanest years of the not-so-distant past, there were times when these guys couldn’t crack 50 wins total over two years.) More importantly, they made the Eastern Conference Finals this spring, something that even the most hating-ass naysayers should acknowledge as a major accomplishment. Despite losing to the Indiana Pacers in six frustrating games, there is no universe in which being one of the last four teams remaining in the NBA playoffs is a bad thing, no matter how much trouble they had getting past the upstart Pistons, how many times Pacers scapegrace Tyrese Haliburton put them in a food processor, or which of their competitors got injured on the way there.
But now that the Knicks have officially been eliminated, the requisite offseason questions come charging toward them like so many of Karl-Anthony Towns’ bull-like plows to the basket. What can the front office add to this roster in the offseason? Is head coach Tom Thibodeau the right guy to take the Knicks from playoff mainstay to actual title winners? Does Josh Hart move to the bench full-time? Off the court, there’s a lingering question that’s become fodder for the fans that judge the Knicks from every possible angle, not just by their basketball acumen. When it comes to the actual human beings who make up the New York Knicks—dudes who, respectfully, have powerful Murray Hill energy—it’s hard not to wonder: Are these guys cool?
Over Memorial Day Weekend, with the Knicks very much still alive in their Conference Final cage match, writer Ock Sportello published a blog post examining a phenomenon he calls the NBA’s swag crisis. As it pertains to the Knicks, Sportello points to star player Jalen Brunson’s status as a coach’s son—and his affinity for Eminem—as things that would traditionally work against a person when determining their coolness. But, on the other hand, captaining the Knicks to the brink of the NBA Finals is objectively cool, and injecting a potent dose of steroids into New York’s collective basketball fandom is the kind of thing that earns you both a literal and figurative key to the city. (Or in Brunson’s case, a table at Carbone whenever he wants.)
Noah Kulwin, the writer, co-host of the Blowback podcast, and sanguine Knicks fan, doesn’t think Brunson’s aversion to getting a fit off means the ceiling is caving in. “Jalen Brunson is the captain of the Knicks. Jalen Brunson will forever be the coolest person to me on that simple level,” Kulwin said. Much like New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the truculent point guard might not possess the right kind of cool, but he’s the right guy for this particular moment. In the current NBA landscape, where a growing majority of players now come from upper-middle class upbringings, and spent their entire youths playing AAU ball, Kulwin thinks we’re seeing a homogeneity that’s draining the cool reservoir. “They come from more similar backgrounds than before. That background is not necessarily a crucible for interesting personality formation when combined with the amount of hours that you just have to spend putting a fucking ball in a hoop. These are things about athletes—and what makes athletes the kinds of people they are, that we know. But it’s also, to me, about the risks that they’re not allowed to take.”