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Knicks in Six: Why This Is the Team to Bring New York a Championship · Rice on the Radio

0:00
I guess there's only one way to find out was to do it to it, right?
0:03
The Knicks are four wins away from doing something this city has waited fifty-three years to feel.
0:09
Not debate, not dream about, not talk yourself into some random streak in February to feel.
0:16
Four wins away from a parade.
0:19
And of course, because the sports gods have a sick sense of humor, it's Nick Spurs all over again.
0:25
1999 walks back through the door.
0:28
Same matchup, completely different world.
0:31
Back then the Knicks were trying to survive.
0:33
This team, this team can win the whole thing.
0:36
They have been doubted all year.
0:38
Honestly, most of these guys have been doubted their whole lives.
0:41
Brunson's too small, Kat's too soft, OG can't stay healthy, Mitch can't make free throws.
0:48
Good.
0:49
Keep doubting him.
0:50
Because now all of those guys are four wins away from a championship.
0:55
And standing in their way is Victor Weminyama.
0:58
The alien, the future, the dragon.
1:01
Look, maybe Wemby's era is coming, but not yet.
1:04
Not before Knicks get theirs.
1:06
Knicks and six.
1:07
Guess there's only one way to find out.
1:10
Extra, extra.
1:11
Keep the lights blow.
1:12
New York talking with the late nights go.
1:15
From the garden glow to the stadium seats.
1:17
Every win, every loss, every what does it mean?
1:20
Right on the radio, coming through your speakers, big tickets, box dudes, heartbreaks, believers, medicines, death giants, next on the ride.
1:28
Pull up the chair, let the whole city decide.
1:31
No feet are answers, no sitting on the fence.
1:34
We talk loud, laughs, and making it make sense.
1:37
Running down lights.
1:39
Right on the radio.
1:40
Let's do it to it tonight.
1:43
Welcome back to Rice on the Radio, episode 72.
1:48
Nick's in six, and why this is the team to bring New York a championship.
1:54
And I am saying that with my whole chest.
1:56
Knicks in six.
1:59
I know, I know.
2:00
The Spurs are favored.
2:02
Wemby's the future.
2:03
San Antonio just knocked off the defending champions.
2:07
National conversation is already warming up to the core nation music.
2:11
I can hear it.
2:12
The alien has arrived, and Wemby era is here.
2:15
Knicks are a great story, but San Antonio has the best player.
2:19
And usually the team with the best player wins.
2:22
Fine.
2:23
Good.
2:24
Keep doubting them.
2:26
That has been the story of this Knicks team anyway.
2:28
This team has spent the whole year being told what it's not.
2:32
And really, honestly, a lot of these guys have spent their whole careers hearing the same thing.
2:37
Brunson's too small.
2:39
You can't win a championship with a small guard as your best player.
2:42
Kat doesn't have it in him.
2:43
He's too soft.
2:44
And yes, look, to be fair, I have said that on this podcast before myself.
2:47
I'm not hiding from it.
2:48
A lot of people have said it.
2:50
But it seems to have changed the narrative a little bit.
2:53
Josh Hart, great, great hustle player.
2:56
But can you really trust him to shoot the ball when needed?
2:59
OG is elite when he's available, but can he stay healthy?
3:02
Can he play through some pain?
3:04
Bridges gets lost sometimes.
3:06
Maybe he's just out there chasing the Iron Man streak.
3:09
Landry Shaman, he's just a ninth man.
3:12
Maybe he gives you a few minutes here and there.
3:14
Deuce McBride, same thing.
3:15
Too small.
3:16
Good defender, nice player, but come on.
3:17
How good is he really?
3:19
Mitchell Robinson, he's an offensive liability.
3:22
Can't make free throws, only the other rebound, a little bit of a head case sometimes.
3:26
That's been the book on this team.
3:28
And now, all of those guys are four wins away from a championship.
3:34
So yeah, good.
3:35
Like I said, keep doubting them.
3:38
It's easy to pick against the Knicks.
3:40
It always has been.
3:41
It's easy to laugh at the Knicks.
3:43
It's easy to say the same old Knicks stuff, you know.
3:46
Oh, they won't do it.
3:47
They'll fall apart.
3:48
The garden will get quiet.
3:49
The moment will get too big.
3:50
Something weird will happen.
3:53
This team doesn't feel like that.
3:55
This team has grit and toughness, but that's not the whole story here.
3:59
They can defend, they can shoot, they can pass, they can play fast, they can win ugly, they can come back, they can bury you in a quarter, they can survive a bad start, they can adjust, take a punch, and then punch you right back and have you regret throwing it.
4:16
That is why this feels different.
4:19
And look, before we get into Wemby and Castle and Kat and Hart and Game One, we gotta we gotta sit with the history for just a second.
4:28
Nick Spurs, again, 27 years later, same two names meet in the finals.
4:37
1999 the Knicks were a survival story.
4:41
Eighth seed, lockout year, a team dragging itself through the playoffs with duct tape, elbows, defense, a little Allen Houston magic, spree well chaos, can be energy, and Patrick Ewing's shadow hanging over the whole thing, even after he got hurt.
4:59
You know, look, that team scratched, they clawed, they fought like hell just to get there.
5:05
This team, this 2026 Knicks team, they're different.
5:09
They're not some miracle team hoping the game gets ugly enough for him to hang around it.
5:14
This team can actually impose its will.
5:17
They have Brunson controlling the game late.
5:20
They have Kat stretching the floor and facilitating.
5:23
They have OG Bridges and Hart just giving them real wing size and problems.
5:29
They got Deuce and Shamut coming off the bench, hitting big threes.
5:34
And they have Mitch, I mean, hopefully, giving them offensive rebounding and extra possessions.
5:40
They also have a coach who's brought here to get them past where they got stuck.
5:45
So yeah.
5:47
The 1999 connection is cool.
5:49
Same teams, same ghosts, same old Knicks Payne sitting in the room.
5:54
But this is not a nostalgia episode.
5:56
The 1999 Knicks are were trying to survive.
5:59
The 2026 Knicks, they're trying to finish.
6:04
And that is kind of where the once a nick, always a nick thing hits for me.
6:09
You see all these legends back in the building, and it it doesn't feel like cheap camera work.
6:14
You know, it feels like the whole franchise is leaning forward.
6:17
The old Knicks are not just sitting courtside for a nice ovation waving around every now and then.
6:22
They are living through this team a little bit.
6:24
I mean, hell, they're they're getting up, cheering, almost running on the court.
6:29
They know what the garden sounds like when people believe in it.
6:32
They know what the city can become when the Knicks are more than just a team on TV and start turning into the mood of the whole place.
6:40
You can feel it with this group.
6:43
This city has fallen in love with this team.
6:46
Not the idea of them, not just the logo, not just the colors, this whole team.
6:53
And that'll bring us to the other side here.
6:55
Victor Wembinama.
6:58
Alright, look, let's be honest.
6:59
Wemby's ridiculous, right?
7:02
The league has uh never seen this before.
7:04
So there's really no blueprint just yet.
7:07
Seven foot four, protecting the rim like the final boss, handling the ball, stepping into threes from places that a man his size should not even be thinking about shooting from.
7:16
I mean, he takes some of these shots and your brain almost rejects the image.
7:20
That person is way too tall to be shooting at.
7:22
That can't be, right?
7:24
And he's only 22 years old.
7:26
That's the scary part.
7:28
Eventually, he's gonna get stronger.
7:31
Eventually, he's gonna grow into his body even more.
7:34
And eventually, he's gonna understand every coverage, every trick, every little playoff mind game teams throw at him.
7:42
He's probably gonna be a serious problem in this league for a very long time.
7:46
Look, maybe he wins multiple championships, maybe this is the start of something terrifying.
7:51
Maybe five years from now we're sitting here saying, remember when Wemby was still young enough to get got?
7:58
But that is exactly my point.
8:00
Eventually it is not game one.
8:03
Eventually, it's not this series.
8:06
Right now, he's still a young superstar in a place that he's never been before.
8:11
The finals are different, man.
8:12
The lights are different, the routine is different, the media is different, every bad pass gets dissected, every foul gets replayed over and over, missed shot suddenly turns into a national conversation about why you even took that shot.
8:26
It also turns into if the kid is ready or not.
8:29
And look, that's not just him, that's whole the whole Spurs roster is talented, but they're young.
8:37
Castle is legit, Harper can play, Vassal can shoot, Champagny can get hot, Fox gives him real juice and a little bit of a veteran presence.
8:47
But a lot of these guys are still kids.
8:51
So go make them prove it.
8:53
All of them.
8:54
Respect him, but make them prove it.
8:57
Make Wemby prove he is ready to be the best player in the NBA finals at 22 years old.
9:02
Make Castle prove that he can guard Brunson for a full series without the moment wearing on him.
9:08
Make Harper prove that he can make the right read when the Knicks pressure him.
9:13
And make Vassal and Champagne prove that they can hit those shots, and a building is so loud they can't even hear their heartbeat.
9:21
The Spurs are good enough to win this series, I will say that.
9:24
But the Knicks are savvy enough to show those boys a few things too.
9:29
And that's where the plan starts.
9:31
The Knicks do not need to stop Wemby.
9:34
That's not a real plan.
9:35
It's kind of a bumper sticker.
9:36
You know, he's too big.
9:38
Nobody's stopping him.
9:40
I think the plant should be to make him work.
9:42
Make him run, make him think, make him defend, make him deal with contact, make him feel OG before the ball even gets to him.
9:50
OG is going to be the guy for me this series.
9:52
Not every possession, not every minute, but the tone of that matchup should start with OG.
9:58
He's definitely strong enough to bother Wemby.
10:00
I mean, and he's also disciplined enough to not turn it into a foul parade.
10:05
And maybe, you know, annoying enough to make Wemby work just a little too hard to make him uncomfortable.
10:13
That's the key.
10:15
Don't let him just glide into this series.
10:17
Don't let him catch the ball wherever he wants and float around the rim on defense like a haunted character.
10:23
You know, make the catches hard.
10:25
Make the angles annoying.
10:26
Put a body on him.
10:28
Test the whistle early.
10:29
See what you can get away with.
10:30
This is the finals.
10:31
Usually they let you play a little bit rougher.
10:33
Not dirty, not stupid.
10:35
I'm not saying somebody out there like a hockey enforcer.
10:38
But it's the finals.
10:40
This cannot be soft.
10:42
The other part of this conversation, too, is the pace.
10:45
The Knicks can't let Webby rest inside this game.
10:48
You know, jogging up and down the court, gets settled, gets set in.
10:51
If the Knicks believe what some people around the league have said, being that tall and playing that hard, carrying that much responsibility can wear him down, then don't just talk about it.
11:02
Prove it.
11:03
Run him.
11:04
Make him sprint back.
11:05
Make him defend cat in space.
11:07
Make him move, slide side to side.
11:09
Make him guard multiple actions in one possession.
11:12
You know, make him think he's coming over for a block shot and then kick it out.
11:17
Make him think he's resting on Josh Hart.
11:19
Then Hart screens, cuts, crashes, makes himself annoying like he always does.
11:24
This has to be an energy series for the Knicks.
11:27
Not reckless, not just running around for the sake of running around, but when the lane is there, go.
11:34
When San Antonio is slow getting matched up, go.
11:37
When Wemby is still trailing the play, go.
11:41
And then when he's tired, when he sits, that's when you strike with the hot iron.
11:46
Those minutes can't be survived until Wemby gets back.
11:49
No, that's where the Knicks need to win the series.
11:52
Turn a two-point lead into an eight-point lead.
11:55
Turn a tie game into a run.
11:57
Turn the Spurs breather into a Knicks avalanche.
12:00
If San Antonio has to live without Wemby for a few minutes, those minutes need to feel expensive.
12:06
Now, the obvious counter here is Stefan Castle and Brunson.
12:12
The matchup has my attention.
12:14
Look, Castle is not just some random guy the internet invented a graphic for.
12:18
He is good.
12:20
He is physical.
12:20
He is bigger than Brunson.
12:22
Not really hard to do, but still the truth.
12:25
He just spent a whole series making life difficult for SGA.
12:28
He plays with force, he plays with a chip, and Brunson clearly respects him, as he should.
12:35
Castle is probably the best defender that Brunson is going to see all playoff run.
12:41
But we do this every series, man.
12:43
Every series has a Brunson stopper.
12:46
There's always somebody too long, too strong, too athletic or physical, too whatever.
12:51
And then all of a sudden by game three or game four, Brunson is 35 and the camera cuts to the bench.
12:56
Everybody's looking around.
12:58
So look, I respect Castle, I do.
13:01
But I am not handing him this series.
13:04
The thing that worries me the most is not Castle by himself.
13:07
The thing that worries me is Castle plus the alien behind him.
13:11
That's kind of the real problem that I see here.
13:13
Brunson can beat the first defender.
13:14
That's never been a problem.
13:15
He's done that his whole Knicks career.
13:17
He gets to his spots, he changes speeds.
13:21
But now, now when he gets that little pocket in the lane or, you know, gets that little floater that he loves.
13:29
Yeah, there's a 7'4 creature waiting near the rim to pay rent.
13:34
So, look, this might not always be a Brunson scoring series.
13:38
It might be a Brunson thinking series.
13:41
Pick your spots.
13:43
Use the mid-range.
13:45
Pull Wemby up.
13:46
Move the ball early.
13:47
Get Kat involved as a release valve.
13:50
Don't just drive into the lane to prove a point and get the ball swatted into outer space, you know?
13:56
Brunson does not need to win every possession by scoring.
13:59
He needs to win the series by solving it.
14:02
That's the difference.
14:04
And that brings me to Kat.
14:06
Look, Kat can swing the series.
14:08
I really believe that.
14:08
If the Spurs are going to use Wemby as a free safety, they're going to have him floating around and put him on heart and then let him roam near the paint.
14:18
Well then Kat has to become the punishment.
14:21
I don't need Kat to come out and play like it's a 2K my career game where he takes 27 shots.
14:27
I just need useful Kat.
14:29
If they put a smaller wing on him, shoot over the top.
14:33
If help comes, move it around.
14:35
If Brunson's getting crowded, be the big man release valve.
14:39
And if Wemby's hanging around the paint, drag the geometry on the floor out towards the three-point line.
14:45
Cat can win this series without leading the Knicks and scoring every night.
14:49
If he takes 10 shots in a win but has eight, nine assists and keeps the offense humming, completely fine with that.
14:56
The only version I do not want is a passive cat.
14:59
The guy floating, watching, not touching the game, not touching the ball, waiting for a corner shot.
15:06
No, man, this is the finals.
15:07
If Wemby is not guarding you, somebody probably smaller is.
15:10
And you gotta make that hurt, San Antonio.
15:13
Look, the Spurs are gonna dare Josh Hart to shoot.
15:16
We all know it.
15:18
They're gonna put Wemby near him, they let Wemby cheat towards the lane and basically say, go ahead, Josh, beat us if you can.
15:23
Fine.
15:24
I trust Josh Hart.
15:25
He's had some rough shooting nights.
15:27
He's had games where you can see him fighting himself a little bit, but he always seems to find his way back into that game.
15:34
And that's the thing with Hart, man.
15:36
He's got Hart, no pun intended.
15:38
Even when the shot's not falling, he is not useless.
15:41
He rebounds, screens, he cuts, he pushes the ball, creates chaos.
15:45
We've been talking about it all year.
15:47
Finds a way to be in the middle of something, in the middle of winning.
15:51
And if the shot is falling, well then San Antonio has a problem.
15:55
You know, if Wemby is supposed to be the free safety and Hart starts hitting corner threes, now what?
16:00
That said, the Knicks are not stuck.
16:02
That is the beauty of this team right now.
16:04
Everybody knows their role, everybody sacrifices when they need to.
16:08
Hart understands that if he is struggling and the spacing gets too cramped, Mike Brown is going to go to Leandre Shaman, who has been absolute money from three this postseason.
16:18
And there's no hard feelings, that's not panic.
16:21
They have options.
16:22
Hart gets the first crack.
16:24
He's earned that.
16:25
But if the Spurs want to start playing the math game, well, the Knicks have more than one answer.
16:31
And while we're talking about options, I have to get the Mitch thing going.
16:36
Mitchell Robinson showing up with nothing on his hand is actually kind of hilarious to me.
16:41
Very unbrand for Mitch.
16:44
Personally, if it was me, I would have gone the complete opposite direction.
16:48
I would have walked into the arena with the biggest brace known to man.
16:52
Full like medieval gauntlet.
16:54
Make the Spurs fans think my pinky has its own medical staff and I lost it.
16:59
You know, make them think I was showing up with a hand injury and a small construction crew.
17:03
And then right before tip, I rip it off like Willis Reed coming out of the tunnel, acting like nothing happened.
17:10
But Mitch just showing up like, yeah, what hand injury?
17:14
I'm good, man.
17:14
Is also extremely NYX.
17:17
I respect it.
17:18
Now, jokes aside, Mitch is very important.
17:22
He does not need to solve Wemby.
17:23
Nobody is asking to go out there and win the Wemby matchup for 25 minutes.
17:27
That's not his game either.
17:29
He just needs to steal possessions and, you know, impose his will.
17:33
He needs to hit some bodies.
17:34
Make Wemby accountable for being on the glass.
17:38
He needs to be physical enough that Kat does not have to be in the scrum every big body possession.
17:45
Look, yes, the free throws are a little bit of a concern.
17:48
San Antonio's probably going to do a little hack a mitch just to see where they are at with that.
17:54
But every offensive rebound in this series is gold.
17:58
Extra possessions are gold.
18:01
Any minute where Wemby has to box him out or fight him or lean on him and think about him is a minute that matters to the Knicks.
18:10
Now for Mike Brown, look, I want to be fair here.
18:13
Tibbs deserves his flowers, right?
18:15
I know how it ended.
18:17
I know why the Knicks moved on.
18:18
I know how some of the players felt.
18:20
I know all of that.
18:21
But Tibbs dragged this franchise out of the dredges.
18:25
He made the Knicks serious again.
18:27
Gave them standards, gave them defense, gave them toughness.
18:30
He made Madison Square Garden feel like it had a real basketball team again instead of a museum and expensive beer.
18:37
That should not get erased.
18:39
But Mike Brown was brought here for the next step.
18:44
That was his job.
18:45
This was not a rebuild.
18:47
This was not a come in and establish a culture, win 40 games, and we'll see where we're at.
18:53
No.
18:53
This was finals or bust pressure the second that he walked through the door.
18:58
And here we are.
19:00
The rotations have been shaky at times.
19:02
I'm not pretending every button he pushes looks beautiful right away.
19:06
But there usually has been a little bit of method to the madness.
19:09
Hart sits, Shaman closes, Mitch gives you the physical minutes, McBride changes the energy.
19:16
The bench has a pulse.
19:17
The team is more flexible than it used to be.
19:20
So Mike Brown has my trust.
19:22
Until he doesn't.
19:24
That is the final standard.
19:26
You know?
19:27
If something is not working against Wemby in San Antonio, you can't donate six possessions to the basketball gods while you're waiting for a lineup to figure itself out.
19:36
Try it out, read it out, adjust it if you need.
19:41
The series is too tight and the opponent is too good.
19:44
Which now brings me to game one.
19:47
Game one is where I think the Knicks have to go take something.
19:50
I don't want the polite split conversation.
19:53
I don't want, well, you know, if you get the first one or the first two, they did their job.
19:57
No, no, no, no, no.
19:58
Go get the first one.
20:00
San Antonio just played a gauntlet against Oklahoma City.
20:03
Seven games, defending champs, physical series, emotional series, game seven on the road.
20:09
And when they won the West, they celebrated like they won the whole championship.
20:13
You know, I don't mean that as disrespect, but that is human.
20:17
They're young.
20:18
They beat the defending champs.
20:19
They beat a division rival.
20:21
They had a big emotional release, and now the final start, and the Knicks have to make them feel that reset immediately.
20:27
Come out hot, come out sharp, come out like the team has been sitting there waiting for this moment.
20:34
Set the tone physically.
20:35
Set the tone with pace.
20:37
Make San Antonio realize that OKC was not the last test.
20:41
It was the last round.
20:43
So quick checklist for game one.
20:46
Number one, start fast.
20:48
Do not spot M15.
20:50
Do not spend the first quarter admiring the finals logo on the court.
20:54
You're here.
20:56
You belong here.
20:57
Act like it.
20:58
Number two, make Wemby run.
21:01
Every chance you get, make that man change ends, make him sprint, make him defend, make him work before he gets to be spectacular.
21:11
Number three, OG.
21:12
OG gets physical without fouling.
21:15
That's the line.
21:16
Be annoying, be strong, be disciplined.
21:19
Do not gift him free throws 35 feet from the basket.
21:23
Number four, Kat's gotta stay involved.
21:26
Not necessarily 30 shots, not hero ball, just involved.
21:30
Spacing, passing, shooting, you know, the stuff that's been working.
21:34
And last but not least, number five, win the non-Wemby minutes.
21:39
Try saying that five times fast.
21:42
This is where you steal the game.
21:43
When he sits, you don't breathe.
21:46
You attack.
21:47
That's the path, man.
21:50
Also got a little script here for you, too.
21:52
Okay?
21:52
No tinfoil hat.
21:53
Not saying Adam Silver is sitting in a dark room somewhere writing this with a candle.
21:58
But it is funny if you think about it.
22:00
So the NBA the last three or so years, yeah, three years has spent time trying to make the NBA cup NBA Cup a real thing.
22:09
Okay, they're really trying to promote it.
22:11
They want people to buy into it.
22:12
Trying to get people to care about it, trying to make it feel more than a weird December side quest, right?
22:20
Now, both teams from the NBA Cup Final are in the actual NBA finals.
22:26
That's a pretty good sales pitch, right?
22:28
The Knicks won the cup.
22:29
Did not exactly seem desperate to hang a banner, and now they have a chance to win the real thing.
22:35
That's kind of the sports script that lines up and makes you laugh a little bit, you know?
22:39
Their league has a rare little cup double story sitting right there, and somehow it feels like they're not screaming about it enough when they want to promote this thing.
22:49
But alright, but the better part of the script is this, right?
22:53
Everybody thinks Wemby is gonna finish his career with multiple championships, right?
22:59
He's gonna he's gonna really grow into his own.
23:00
He's gonna be a real problem.
23:01
And I do too.
23:04
But most great players have to lose before they win.
23:09
They need the scar.
23:11
They need the summer where the loss follows him into every workout, you know?
23:16
The thing that turns that greatness into an obsession.
23:20
Maybe this is it for him.
23:22
Maybe Wemby gets here early, loses to the Knicks, hates every second of it, and comes back terrifying for the next decade.
23:30
Fine.
23:31
You can have that future.
23:33
The Knicks need the present.
23:35
They need this one.
23:36
This city is starving for it.
23:38
53 years without a Knicks championship is not just a drought.
23:41
That is a generational damage.
23:44
That is parents, kids, grandparents, cousins, friends at bars, callers on radio shows, people talking themselves into point guards who should not have been starting for this franchise in the first place.
23:58
Barnani, Kadeem Allen.
24:01
That's years of bad basketball in the most famous basketball building in the world.
24:07
So when people say the city deserves this, yeah, it does.
24:12
But this team deserves it too.
24:14
That is the part that makes it hit harder.
24:17
New York did not just fall in love with the Knicks being good.
24:19
New York fell in love with this group.
24:22
Brunson, Cat, Hart, OG, Mitch, Bridges, Deuce, Shaman, Jose Calderon, Tyler Koelick.
24:33
All of them.
24:35
A roster full of guys people kept putting little labels on.
24:39
All now standing four wins from a title.
24:44
They're gritty without being fake tough.
24:46
They're skilled without being soft.
24:48
They're flawed in a way that makes them feel human.
24:51
And they are good in a way that makes you believe.
24:54
And I really do think they are better.
24:57
The Spurs are real.
24:58
Wemby is real.
24:59
San Antonio belongs here.
25:00
They fought hard to get here.
25:02
But the Knicks, the Knicks have more answers.
25:05
They're deeper, they're more experienced, they're more connected.
25:10
They can win in more ways.
25:12
They can shoot San Antonio out of the Wemby roaming defense.
25:15
They can make him run.
25:17
They can use Cat to stretch the floor.
25:19
They can use Heart to create chaos.
25:22
They can use OG to bother Wemby, and they can use Shaman if they need more spacing.
25:27
Game one is sitting right there for the taking.
25:30
The Spurs just slayed their dragon.
25:32
The Knicks need to walk in and remind them that there is another one in the room.
25:36
Knicks in six.
25:38
Confidently, emotionally, maybe even stupidly.
25:43
But Knicks in six.
25:46
Anyway, that's where I'm at.
25:49
Four wins away.
25:51
I know how ridiculous that sounds when you really sit with it.
25:54
The Knicks are four wins away from a championship.
25:58
A team that has so many people doubted it.
26:01
City's been waiting since 1973.
26:05
Now this group is here.
26:08
So, revel in it.
26:09
Seriously, revel in it, Knicks fans.
26:11
Enjoy the morning of game one.
26:13
Enjoy the group chats.
26:14
Enjoy the nervous energy.
26:16
Seeing the old players back in the building, the people wearing jerseys at work like it's a holiday.
26:22
You know?
26:23
One way or another, this is gonna end.
26:25
That's the beautiful and awful part of sports.
26:28
Maybe it ends with a parade, maybe it ends with a heartbreak.
26:31
Maybe it ends with Brunson holding a trophy, and maybe it ends with Wemby reminding everybody why the future is so scary for the NBA.
26:38
Right now, it has not ended yet.
26:41
Right now, the story is still open.
26:43
That's where the little life part comes in for me.
26:46
Sometimes you spend years being told what you are not.
26:49
Too small, too soft, not enough, not ready, not built for the moment.
26:54
The only real answer is to keep showing up until that story changes.
26:59
That's why this team hits.
27:00
That's why this team connects with this city, with these people.
27:04
They keep showing up.
27:06
As always, thank you for listening to Rice on the Radio.
27:09
If you've enjoyed the episode, follow, rate, review, subscribe, share it with a Knicks fan who's uh currently trying to act normal and hold it back.
27:18
You can find me on Instagram, at Rice on the Radio, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, you know, whatever you want.
27:24
All that.
27:25
I'll be around for game one reactions, clips, chaos, joy, fear, all of it.
27:29
Make sure you chat me up.
27:31
Tell someone you love them, spread good energy.
27:36
And let's go, Nick's.