Just because someone has what you want doesn’t mean you want what they have.

Before the New York Knicks became the national media’s dead horse of a punchline, it was the second squad in Los Angeles taking beating after beating. The Clippers’ reign of error outlasted two homes – Buffalo and San Diego – and saw them go 29 years between winning a playoff series. In the past 10 years, the Clips have five 50-win seasons, eight playoff appearances and five series won. ¡Que cambiar!

The Knicks suffered the most excruciating loss possible to L.A. last night, a 134-128 overtime gut punch where a fake comeback became real for a quick snap, only to be snatched away at the literal last second and have any memories of the good times dragged through the mud of a five-minute choking. I don’t mean “choke” as in the Knicks blew it. I mean once the Clippers’ 17-point fourth quarter lead evaporated and they were forced to confront their mortality, they looked themselves in the mirror and remembered who they are: one of the NBA’s few true contenders. Thing is, a lot of the time the Clippers look themselves in the mirror what they see looking back is a Picasso. For good reason.         

The Clippers are like a lot of us. There’s their idealized, theoretical form, a team led by two two-way wayfinders with wing depth for days led by a title-winning coach. But life is hard, and a lot of days we wake just hoping to survive till the next day. Kawhi Leonard has missed half L.A.’s games this season, Paul George nearly a third. From the outside the Clippers are like a traveling All-Star team whose players have somewhere better to be, so there’s a lot less winning than you’d expect and a lot more “Tonight, the role of ‘starter’ will be played by Mr. Leonard/Mr. George’s understudy.” They’re trying to balance health, load management, the chase for a ring, inroads toward relevance in Lakerland and the realpolitik of their two stars each having but one guaranteed year left on their contracts. But how do you define yourself when your most important aspects of the self are so often M.I.A.? How do you ever learn to recognize yourself when your most prominent features could be anywhere on — or off — the map?

Much of last night’s game was a testament to why you hitch your wagon to superstars whenever you get the chance. The Clips were enjoying one of the most comfortable non-blowouts you’ll ever see: they’d go up 10-12 for a while, the Knicks would cut it to like four, then the Clippers would respond to push it back to double-digits. This went on the entire night, peaking up 98-81 in the fourth. Julius Randle is a two-time All-Star, Jalen Brunson could easily make the team this year and RJ Barrett was coming off his best game in a while. Doesn’t matter. Leonard and George are on another level.

So with the trade deadline coming up and the annual bacchanalia that is the offseason to look forward to, the Clippers are a model for what the Knicks should be looking to do, yes? That’s how the world works, all the way from Brooklyn’s madness to L.A.’s mistress. Unless the Clippers are a skinny mirror.

Many of you know what I mean, or have seen the Seinfeld episode: you’re at a clothing store and something catches your eye. You try it on and, in the store mirror, it’s a go: game, set, match. Sure, there are bills to pay and most of us are one bad break away from poverty or bankruptcy, but this outfit doesn’t just look good. It gets you. It makes you. The next day you wake up all excited, brush your teeth extra good, put on the outfit, look in the mirror and wait what the hell? You don’t look radiant. You look like your clothes died in their sleep and there’s still bills to pay. What happened?

Skinny mirrors.    

The stores use flattering mirrors so you see what you want to see. Last night was a skinny mirror for the Knicks. It looked like what we often hear is what they – and we – want: a couple of superstars with all the trimmings, and never mind the cost. After all, Kawhi and PG have made five and eight All-Star Games, respectively. The Knicks haven’t drafted anyone like that since 1985. Get it while the getting’s good.

But that’s the thing with skinny mirrors: there’s not as much good to be gotten as you think when you’re shopping. So far over 3+ years in L.A., Leonard and George have, counting their pro-rated salaries through 60% of this year’s games, each earned about $132M. Leonard’s played in a little under half the Clippers games in that time; by contrast George is Lou Gehrig, suiting up 60% of the time. In 2021, when the franchise reached the Western finals for the first time, Kawhi missed the last three games of the second round and the entire WCF; George missed one game in the second-round series.     

The Clippers, like the Nets, are what happens when second bananas decide it’s high time they enjoyed first billing. This is where the Knicks should give pause. The Knicks, like the Lakers, are their city’s team. It doesn’t matter what little brother does. Ask Esau: unless you trade it for pottage, birthrights belongs to the senior son. The Yankees were around for 50 years before the Mets were born, and for most of the next 35 years the Mets drew more fans to Shea Stadium than the Bombers did to the House That Ruth Built. Yet as soon as the ‘90s Yankees started being the ‘90s Yankees, they shot back to the city’s front burner like they’d never left.

The New York Knicks were NYC’s only NBA team for 67 years before the Brooklyn Nets came into being. In the decade since the Nets have traded for or signed a half-dozen surefire Hall of Famers. For them, those moves made sense. They’re not just looking to win, they’re desperate to be on the map, to resonate even when they haven’t mortgaged their future. The Clippers are the same. Just look at them. Their jersey font looks like they copped it from a Spencer’s Gifts store. They’re still a few years away from playing in their own arena for the first time in most of our lifetimes. The closest thing they have to a recognizable identity is a cocaine bear of an owner who can never sit courtside or do an interview without pushing the hard-sell. Seriously, for all the praise Ballmer gets for wealth he didn’t earn and the almost-universal human condition of not being Donald Sterling: you trusting any of these white devils with something you value?

Leon Rose continues to contemplate trading the farm for whenever Messiah X rolls along. We hear he doesn’t want to trade too much to improve the team’s depth now because there won’t be enough left to land a superstar, which is like saying you don’t want to pleasure your partner sexually because you’re afraid you won’t have enough energy left over to enjoy them pleasuring you. Grow up! Enjoy the journey, baby! As a carpenter once said when he was off the clock, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”

I don’t need the Knicks to trade six picks and swaps plus 3-4 young players for a couple of part-time superstars in order to enjoy the team’s present or future. The Clippers and the Nets both won the back pages by mortgaging the latter for the former. But the truth is before that both had solid seasons led by plucky, youth-driven teams. D’Angelo Russell being named an All-Star for the 2019 Nets and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander earning All-Rookie Second Team honors that same season helped make Brooklyn and Ballmerville appealing to the crème de la crème. The Knicks were surely sorely tempted seeing the Clippers ride the coattails of their two greats to the W last night. They’d be wise not to lose sight of just how much nights like that cost L.A. And if they need any further reminds that mirrors lie, I’m pretty sure there’s a subway running straight from Penn Station to Barclays.