My love for NBA has been rekindled in recent years. I’ve been following it on and off since the Lakers lost to the Pistons in ‘04 (it was hard not to when the guy sit next to me in cram school talked about Kobe all day. R.I.P. Mamba I miss you); there were days that I was more invested (again, it was hard not to when the whole men's dorm was in the common room watching the Lakers vs. the Celtics, cheering when Ron Artest hit the three), as well as days that I didn’t know the season had ended until I heard people saying that the Durant Warriors had won again, but overall I always enjoy watching NBA basketball.

Since early 10s I had been rooting for the Mavericks until, you guessed it right, the Luka Dončić trade. I don't know if I qualified as a fan because I don’t buy merch and I don’t really watch games, but the Mavs was the only team I was consistently checking and emotionally invested in. Before the 24-25 season I even considered flying to watch them play; I looked up hotel locations, transportation options and barbecue places I’d like to try. That trade completely killed my fandom if there ever was one, and I never find such attachment to any team since. For that I'll never forgive the Mavs front office. Time to time I still watch the Luka buzzer beater against the Wolves, 2024 WCF Game 2, in the absolutely identical fashion to the Wolverine Crush meme.

So season 24-25 started with many expectations, hit by the Luka trade and ended with the Thunder, a team none of my friends root for, wining the championship. Then there were the–call me a conspiracist if you want to–rigged draft, and the Giannis Kalshi shenanigans, and the Kawhi contract shenanigans, along with Haliburton and Tatum's torn achilles. There wasn't many things to be happy about.

Fast forward to the 25-26 Finals. I’m not a Knicks fan but it was easy to cheer for the Villanova brothers and KAT. Who doesn’t like watching double digit comebacks and one point wins? I haven’t even mentioned Jalen Brunson, the Mavericks legend. I don’t think he would reach his height today if he was still playing alongside Luka, so it feels great to watch a second round pick as well as a familiar face exceeding people’s expectation or even underestimate, playing elite, clutch basketball.

It feels like–this depends on your perspective–like watching the good guys win for once in a while. Like watching a band of brothers time and time being doubted and proving people wrong, and they don't say crazy things, and they don't abuse getting bailed out by the league, which all shouldn't be a hard thing, but these days it's hard to find such a group of people, so when they be the way they are, people are happy to realize that, there are, for once, guys we can get behind with.

There’s something different than last year's championship or even past years'. I watched interviews and videos from New Yorkers like this; the way people talk and react about all this. 53 years is surely a long time but it's not just about the blank. There were probably people as happy in Oklahoma, Boston and Denver, but the scale of NY crowd made it way easier to see how the city feels when the Knicks were winning, even for somebody who have never been to New York, living in thousands miles away. It feels great to see people, see the city being genuinely happy, and hopeful, and joyful, and these emotion are infectious. And I'm happy too, because damn, they are scarce commodities these days, I'll be glad to have some if there are any.