Patience and Pragmatism: Leon Rose’s Knicks Feel Different

After years of organizational chaos, it seems that the Knicks finally have adults in the room

I grew up in New York City but have lived most of my adult life in Detroit, Michigan. There are two constants that I have experienced in my time here. The first is that there is an excellent craft beer scene in Michigan. The second is that the city is a great sports town. Unfortunately, such a great sports town has not seen the success of one of its most popular franchises, the Detroit Lions. Yet despite how mismanaged and chaotic the Lions seem to be every year, fans still come out to Ford Field every Sunday to see the team play. If nothing else, there is a fierce loyalty to the team by the people of Detroit.

Loyalty to a team that is consistently in turmoil, however, leaves residual effects. One of those effects is assuming that eventually, something will go wrong. The fear that the draft pick won’t pan out, or the big free agent signing will underperform, or that a coach will make an idiotic decision. As a Knick fan, I can relate to this. After all, we as Knick fans have spent the better part of the last two decades being the joke of the NBA. And we have our trauma when it comes to the incompetence of the team’s front office. So much trauma that when the team is doing something right we do not know how to properly react. It…