Did you like the Knicks before they were good? Do you follow soccer — oh sorry, football — more frequently than once every four years?
Good for you. You’re not a bandwagon-hopper. But please give some love to those of us who just tuned in recently. Americans have enough to divide us — the last thing we need is a fight among people rooting for the same team or following the same tournament.
The New York Knicks’ playoff run this year attracted far more attention than the ordinary championship campaign. That was partly because it was New York, the most populous city in the U.S., and the capital of American media. Another reason for the undue attention was the drought: The Knicks hadn’t won a championship since 1973, meaning that most NBA fans and most New Yorkers had never seen a Knicks title.
The 2026 Knicks also won in fantastic fashion. In May, they won all eight games they played. While sweeping the Eastern Conference finals, they once came back from down 20 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers and ended up winning that game by 11 points in overtime. Despite this consistent dominance and outscoring their opponents by a record-high 14.9 points a game, basketball commentators kept talking them down.
So when the Knicks arrived in the NBA Finals, the nation’s eyes were on them. The two games at the majestic Madison Square Garden were filled with every New York celebrity imaginable, from former real estate developer Donald Trump down to former mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Some Knicks fans and commentators found these new fans obnoxious and complained about it online. Jennifer Lopez, during the playoffs, went after all transplants to New York City, insisting they have no right to call themselves “New Yorkers.”
Die-hard fans often resent fair-weather fans because those fair-weather fans get the joy of winning without going through the pain of losing.
If you are a dedicated Knicks fan of a certain age, you suffered through John Starks going 2-for-18 in Game 7, you suffered through Patrick Ewing’s finger roll, and you suffered through Reggie Miller. Then you suffered through 27 years of being awful.
Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner don’t instinctively wince at Reggie’s name or the mention of Charles Smith, and yet they sat front row for this victorious run.
But in their defense, the Finals provided its own miniature purgatory for every Knicks fan. In every game, the Knicks trailed by double digits. After dropping Game 3, the Knicks trailed the Spurs by 29 early in the second half of Game 4. Anyone who didn’t leave the arena early that night earned some “real fan” points.
More importantly, old fans should always welcome new fans. Chalamet and Jenner have a good excuse for not following the old Knicks: Chalamet was four years old, and Jenner was not yet two when Ewing last donned the blue and orange. And frankly, they have a fine excuse for not caring about the Knicks until recent years: The Knicks were mostly awful.
As a kid in the 1990s, I watched many regular-season Knicks games and every second of the playoffs, but then I tuned out. I moved to D.C., got a job, bought a house, got married, and had kids. I rarely watched any NBA except for the Finals, and not even every game of the Finals. I only tuned back into the Knicks two years ago during the playoffs when my high school friend texted me, “Yo, Carney, you gotta catch this team.”
So I will cede my place at the table to anyone who actually sat through the Andrea Bargnani days, but I don’t feel bad loving these Knicks all May and June.
Likewise, I don’t feel self-conscious joining the World Cup bandwagon, and neither should anyone else.
In 2002, hipsterism was at its peak, and nothing was more embarrassing than getting into something only after it got big. But that summer, a baseball teammate told me proudly, “I only follow soccer during the World Cup. It’s awesome.”
This shook the last bit of hipster-snobbery out of me, and it made me a World Cup fan for life.
Once every four years, some soccer die-hard at a bar (usually some guy from the Boston suburbs who roots for FC Bayern Munich) tries to shame me for not knowing all the rules, or for thinking “penalty” refers to a penalty rather than a penalty kick. But most serious soccer fans appreciate my brief interest in their obsession.
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Modern life is busy. Following the Premier League or the Euro Cup (I’m just guessing that’s a thing) consumes attention that the rational sports fan might need to allocate to mowing his lawn, potty-training his kid, or smoking various meats. Similarly, you might have had something better to do in the 2010s than trying to like Carmelo Anthony.
So to the year-round fans of soccer, thank you for explaining the “new” rules that have been in place for years. And to the new fans of the Knicks, welcome. Just do yourself a favor and never Google the words “Reggie Miller.”