The Knicks had the famed boxing ring announcer Michael Buffer emcee the home opener on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden and before Buffer tweaked his best line to ask if we were ready for roundball, he referred to the home team as the "new New York Knicks."
In many ways that was correct. They had a point guard capable of actually running from one end of the court to the other, they had a dynamic star in Amar'e Stoudemire and they had a lot more backbone than the teams that would fold up and quit in the face of trouble over the last few years.
They got punched in the face against both the Celtics on Friday and the Blazers on Saturday, but they got off the mat, wiped the blood from their nose and got back into business. In Boston, they could never quite close the gap after leading in the first few minutes and wound up chasing a better team gamely but futilely. The Blazers game was more painful. The Knicks steadied after struggling early, grabbed a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter and then watched it fritter away over the final five minutes.
It was understandable that the offense faltered down the stretch. The team is still gaining knowledge about one another and Danilo Gallinari's shooting slump has made it very easy for defenses to concentrate on stopping Stoudemire without worrying about giving up long range bombs. Assuming that those two things get better, it will be easier to appreciate the new Knicks because they'll actually do more than put forth a good effort every night.
It's sad that the last decade has served to actually make simply trying hard seem like an accomplishment, but to truly inhabit the title Buffer bestowed on them these Knicks will need to follow through and pick up wins in some of these games. The Celtics and Blazers are both very strong teams, much stronger than the Knicks, and the Magic, who roll into MSG on Tuesday, are another thorny opponent, but it simply doesn't matter. The Knicks need to win, they need to show that they are going to be more than a more likable version of the same terribly overmatched teams that came before and they need to be more than just plucky losers who try hard.
If some guy with long hair steals your lunch money every day of fifth grade, he doesn't become a new guy just because he shows up the next September with a crewcut. It takes actually not stealing that lunch money and it is going to take winning before we can truly call these Knicks something stronger than the same old team with a new haircut.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
