NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took the subway Thursday night to attend the screening of ESPN’s “Basketball: A Love Story” which was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Taking the public transit as the commissioner of one of the most renowned leagues in sports, comes the expectation of being recognized by a number of locals. But these aren't just any kind of locals. These are New Yorkers.
As reported by Richard Johnson of Page Six, the locals of New York did not let this moment of seeing Silver in public slide, and voiced out their frustration with their franchise, the New York Knicks.
“They blamed me for interfering with the 76ers, which I denied, and they told me, ‘Fix the Knicks!’ ”
New York fans are surely tired of the continuing mediocrity of their basketball franchise. The Knicks have not won an NBA championship since 1973, and has not made the NBA Finals since 1999. Following the Patrick Ewing era, the franchise was consistently a bottom of the league team throughout the 2000s.
The team's fortunes seemed to have finally turned around following the acquisitions of then-Phoenix Suns superstar Amare Stoudemire, and New York-native Carmelo Anthony in 2011.
However, they only made the playoffs thrice in that era from 2011 to 2013. Following that period, the franchise was back to being an after-thought due to a series of bad moves by the Knicks front office, highlighted by a fall-out with franchise superstar Carmelo Anthony.
The Knicks traded Melo in the 2017 off-season and were back to rebuilding mode. They handed the keys over to their new franchise centerpiece in Kristaps Porzingis.
However, the Knicks' misfortunes continued as the 7-foot-3 Latvian tore his ACL back in February of this year, which was unfortunate as the big man, who was named an All-Star that year, was well on his way to having a breakout 2017-18 season.
The Knicks faithful still remain hopeful that Porzingis will return back to the form that he flashed last season, and are counting on a promising prospect in Kevin Knox, who was the team's ninth overall selection in the 2018 NBA draft. Still, despite the glimmer of hope, a cloud of uncertainty still looms over New York.
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