Knicks fans deserve to dream about a title — even if it’s only June

Knicks fans haven’t experienced this for years, probably not since the summer of 1993. It’s not quite the feeling of seeing your team actually win a championship — to have that, as a Knicks fan, you probably had to have been born no later than 1965 or so. But it’s close.

It’s the moment you realize: It might happen.

The moment it hits you: This could be it.

Sometimes, all that does is set you up for a fall. In ’93, it felt like the Knicks were ripe to make a real run at the title. They’d proven their playoff mettle a year earlier and taken the Bulls to seven games. They’d upgraded their talent, notably importing Doc Rivers to run the point and Rolando Blackman to add firepower on the perimeter. It was Year 2 under Pat Riley. And they did exactly as they were expected to do. They won 60 games. They got the top seed in the East. They went up 2-0 on the Bulls in the conference finals.

And then … well. You know.

Sometimes there’s a waiting period. There was that remarkable time to be a Rangers fan right after they acquired Mark Messier in the fall of 1991, and to be a Mets fan right after they traded for Gary Carter in the winter of 1984. Suddenly … it seemed possible. And the Rangers won the President’s Cup in ’92, the Mets won 98 games in ’85. They were right where the fans had dreamed they’d be at the start.

The Rangers and Mets fell achingly short in ’92 and ’85, respectively, and the Rangers added a misery-filled season in 1992-93, too.

But we have the evidence of what that all yielded. We have pictures of a parade in the summer of 1994 and in October 1986. All the optimism hatched by a small injection of hope bore fruit. It can happen that way sometimes.

And it can happen this way, too: Jets fans harboring Super Bowl hopes at the very start of training camp in 1998 and 2023, fortified with hope, fueled by the fact that even a lot of folks outside their circle of belief thought so, too. And then Vinny Testaverde is on the ground in the second quarter of the first game in ’98, and Aaron Rodgers doesn’t even wait till the second series of the first game in ’23 to be in the same position.

It can be cruel, this kind of hope.

But it is, in many ways, what sustains us as fans, these periods when you’re allowed to dream and hope and envision without the inconvenient and occasionally dissatisfying detail of games to change your opinion. The Knicks won’t play a game that counts for four months. It’s all in front of them or, better yet, in the imaginations of the fans which is where best-case scenarios thrive in the offseason.

The Knicks added Mikal Bridges and retained OG Anunoby this week, and that’s been reason enough for Knicks fans to talk about their team and the upcoming season at an earlier time than they have in decades. It’s a good thing. Hope really is a good thing, no matter how many times we get the rug pulled from under us. If disappointment ruled the day, we’d all have stopped watching a long time ago. And yes, disappointment wrecks us pretty good sometimes. It wields a billy club.

But hope keeps us coming back.

Will the Knicks win a championship next year? Man. So much has to break right, and so many crises have to be worked through, and then you just have to pray nobody lands wrong on an ankle or a shoulder, and there’s also the small matter of there being other good teams that will also be looking forward to making 2024-25 their season. It’s a big ask. It’s a tough road. The odds say unlikely.

But can they?

It’s still June. There’s no need for logic in June, no need for skepticism. Dreaming about a title isn’t quite winning a title. But it’s a nice place to start.

Vac’s Whacks

“The Bear” is back, and all is right with the world again.

Dick Vitale has another round coming up in his continuing bout with cancer, so if you can spare a minute or two and a few positive vibes or two, and aim them down his way in Florida, please do.

I’m not sure “NBA French Invasion” was on anyone’s Bingo card 10 years ago. Or even two years ago, for that matter.

Aaron Judge over the past 49 games before Saturday: .390/.500/.919, 24 homers and 61 RBIs, and I’m just gong to say it: In my lifetime, I’ve never seen a baseball player who’s played baseball any better than that.

Whack Back at Vac

Larry Weinstock: For all those years a good Mets start has been torpedoed by a June Swoon, it is a bit refreshing to see a terrible start salvaged with a June Boon.

Vac: There is really, honestly, truly few things as schizophrenic as a 162-game baseball season.

Scott Wolinetz: Just saw the results of the NBA draft, looks like a who’s-who of “Who?”

Vac: I like to think that I watch a lot of basketball. I’ve never worn out Google more during any draft night, ever.

@TuchStans: I think Francisco Alvarez is an absolute superstar. As a Yankee fan Alvarez is what the Yankees have promised about eight different guys would be.

@MikeVacc: I remain a firm believer that Anthony Volpe already approximates what the Yankees said he’d be, and will eventually even surpass it.

Alan Zoldan: So should the non-Villanova Knicks audit a summer course at Villanova — you know, for team unity?

Vac: Or just learn the fight song. It’s actually quite catchy. “V, for Villanova, V, for victory … B, for blue and W, for white …”