New York wants to end a curse that has lasted more than half a century

BarcelonaNew York wants to end a curse that has lasted more than half a century. The Knicks will play in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. Fans have waited 27 years for this. It will be the third final since they won their second ring in 1973. Their opponent will be the winner of the seventh game between the Oklahoma City Thunder, the reigning champions, and the San Antonio Spurs.

"We have regained hope for the Knicks. I feel like the word hope has been too far away from us for a long time," boasts Karl-Anthony Towns, one of the key players on a team that also highlights the prominence of Jalen Brunson, who received the distinction of best player of the Eastern Conference Finals from the hands of two franchise icons: Walt Frazier and Patrick Ewing.

The Knicks have become the fourth team in history to achieve 11 consecutive wins in the playoffs. The last ones to do so were the Golden State Warriors, who strung together 15 wins in 2017. Mike Brown, the great proponent of Catalan Jordi Fernández, has done something that only 15 coaches had achieved before, as he has qualified his team for the NBA finals in his first year on the franchise's bench. "The players we have managed to bring together are great human beings and, obviously, fantastic basketball players," says the coach.

The finals will begin on Wednesday with the doubt of Mitchell Robinson, who broke a finger during the Eastern Conference finals against the Cavs. The center is one of the key pieces for the Knicks coming off the bench. "The last time the Knicks played in the finals I was three years old," recalls Brunson.

The return of the New York Knicks to the NBA finals transcends the world of sports. Spike Lee, their most famous fan, perfectly summarizes the city's reunion with a historic legacy. Donald Trump plans to attend some of the games the Knicks play at Madison Square Garden, an unusual event. The President of the United States is a regular at major North American sporting events. From American football to baseball, through tennis and motorsport. But basketball was a taboo territory for him. Trump maintains a good friendship with James Dolan, the owner of the Knicks, a franchise he has publicly supported.

A three-decade nightmare

The Knicks' nightmare has lasted for almost three decades, and this has fueled many conspiracy theories. Some fans believe that the New York arena, known as the Mecca of Basketball, is full of ghosts, of past glories that do not allow current players to succeed. For more than two decades, Knicks fans believed in a kind of paranormal curse caused by the management of its owner, James Dolan. The continuous injuries, the wrong decisions of its leaders, and the constant defeats led some fans to believe that Madison Square Garden was cursed.

Tickets to see the Knicks in the NBA finals will be the most expensive in history, as they can only be found for $3,500 on various resale portals. "It's an honor to experience this with the team I've cheered for since I was little. We had expectations and we knew this team was capable of achieving it. The only thing we had to do was work, sacrifice, and believe in each other, which is what we've done," acknowledges Towns.