“We All Know How it Feels To Be in Madison Square Garden”: Why New York Knicks Being Competitive is Important For NBA

Despite their fall from grace in recent years, the New York Knicks are one of the biggest organizations in the NBA. Many great players have donned the Knicks jersey like Walt Frazier, Patrick Ewing, and Carmelo Anthony.

Although their last title came in 1975, they were still a respectable team. But they are currently on a seven-year drought without playoffs and can’t break that slump. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski recently spoke about how the Knicks being competent is vital to the league.

He said, “The Knicks being competitive is important for the NBA. Just to have a solid (team). Forget about being championship level or a team that’s in the Conference Finals, just a team that is competitive and plays important games at the Garden. We all know how it feels to be in Madison Square Garden when the games matter.”

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What is the solution to the slump for the New York Knicks?

Woj emphasized how the Knicks need to draft better because of their history. He said, “I think it’s going to be built on how well they draft. They’ve gotta hit on the draft and find some guys in the margins (in Free Agency).”

RJ Barrett and Kristaps Porzingis are two exceptions, but otherwise, the Knicks have been disastrous with their drafting in recent years. Even after they got a promising player in KP, they traded him away.

So now with their #8 overall pick, fans will hope that the Knicks can play it smart. The next step is to provide their prospect with enough opportunities to prove and develop themselves.

Woj also reminded that the Knicks will not get big-name free agents anytime soon. He said, “They’re not going to go into free agency and get a big star, that’s not going to happen. You don’t get big stars when you’re rebuilding, when you haven’t shown players that you can sustain some kind of infrastructure that is solid and they can trust.”

The Knicks need to be patient and build a solid foundation now so that in a couple of years, they will be a destination that free agents will at least consider, if not sign for. They have been a joke for too long now, and they deserve to get out of the ruins now.

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