2024 NBA Finals Continues Cursed Knicks Streak
The New York Knicks are going to the NBA Finals. Alas for the team's loyal fanbase, it's not the way they envisioned it.
The Boston Celtics' Eastern Conference Finals sweep-clinching victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night kept one of the more uncanny streaks in NBA history alive: each and every edition of the NBA Finals continues to feature some form of metropolitan involvement, as a past, present, or future Knick is set to partake in all 78 incarnations.
This year's entrants offer a familiar, if not jaded, face to the proceedings, as former headliner and first-year Celtic Kristaps Porzingis could be donning his first championship ring. Porzingis has missed each of Boston's last 10 games with a calf injury but there's another former New Yorker in tow in the from of backup center Luke Kornet.
Kornet is no stranger to the list: the two-year Knicks was one of the more recent entrants, indirectly repping the team in 2022 when the Celtics dropped a six-game decision to the Golden State Warriors. Kornet's appearances sandwich that of DeAndre Jordan, a 19-game Knick who took home a title for the Denver Nuggets last season. Boston also boasts Svi Mykhailiuk on its bench after he played 13 games for last year's Knicks before he was included in the trade that brought Josh Hart over from Portland.
Even if the Pacers pulled off a miracle comeback, the streak was destined to continue no matter what: Indiana, of course, infamously features Obi Toppin, the Knicks' 2020 first-round pick on its roster while Carlisle serves as the head coach.
The Dallas Mavericks, the Celtics' potential Finals opponent considering their 3-0 lead on the Minnesota Timberwolves, also carry Tim Hardaway Jr., a first-round pick of New York's from 2013. Minnesota features no former Knicks on its current roster though previous international standout Pablo Prigioni is an assistant coach under Chris Finch.
While that phenomenon seems like a bit of a stretch, the Knicks' lengthy history opens them up to such streaks, as the team recently wrapped up its 78th season. Notable names from Finals past include Willie Nauls, Maurice Cheeks, Rick Carlisle, Trent Tucker, Luc Longley, Jason Kidd, and JR Smith.
In the Knicks' defense, they seem to be inching closer to adding some names in the "current" department: this season, which saw them fall five wins short of the conference title, is the closest they've been to playing for a Larry O'Brien since the turn-of-the-century and they're set for the immediate future with breakout star Jalen Brunson in tow.
The 2024 NBA Finals will tip off on June 6 in Boston.
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI
Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks