New Year’s Day Strickland staff salutes
Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and Leon Rose are fundaments of fun for Knick fans, but for several Strickland contributors there are even more areas of appreciation
Before the Knicks resume play tonight hosting Utah, and before the excitement of the new year gives way to the drudgery of one day ending in Y after another, we at The Strickland wanted to take this opportunity to reflect and connect with you beyond stats and rants and graphics. In that vein:
Zach
2024 was a year of changing times and lessons learned. My parents sold the home I spent my childhood in, the Knicks sold the players I spent my teenhood with, I graduated from college and started my first big-boy job and the Knicks graduated from pretender to contender.
When my parents downsized from a home to an apartment, I feared where our next Thanksgiving would be, how our two dogs would react and where I’d sleep when I came to visit. When the Knicks traded RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Donte DiVincenzo and even Julius Randle, I worried about how they abandoned the faces that helped turn the ship around, and how they’d maintain the no-quit/all-grit/tight-knit culture we’d all grown to love.
When I graduated from college, I spent months sending out job applications to companies far and wide, getting rejection after rejection . . . until I “settled” for something that wasn’t initially exciting to me and lost sleep over how I’d fit in.
2024 taught me to embrace change.
My parents love their new apartment. The dogs have a crew of new friends, I had Thanksgiving with a side of my family I don’t often get to see and I get to sleep on a nice new couch when I pay a visit. I love the new-look Knicks. The offensive firepower is something I’ve never seen from a Knicks team, and holy shit they’re fun to watch. Plus, my concerns about culture get further erased every time Mikal Bridges shows off a new celebration or Josh Hart posts an Instagram story.
My assumptions about my new job couldn’t have been more wrong. The place I thought I settled for has been cooler than any of the jobs I got rejected from. I’ve found somewhere that believes in me, treats me like family and opens doors I’d never dreamed of stepping through.
As I went through all this change, one thing was always there for me: The Strickland. I’ll always have The ‘Land to vent about Thibs’ rotations, get roasted for not knowing a movie, hypothesize about the Knicks’ practice uniform colors or share a photo of my dogs enjoying their new home. Thanks to everyone who’s responded to me in the Discord, read an article, listened to a podcast, commented on one of the posts and everything in-between. You all mean the world to me, and I can’t wait to be a part of this when the Knicks bring home a championship.
Here’s to 2025 and beyond.
Shwin: Thank you to everybody who reads our work and listens to the podcasts. Everything we do only works because of the audience and the support you have given us since we started this venture.
And my biggest thanks is to Leon Rose, who took on the poisoned chalice that was running basketball operations for the New York Knicks and within five seasons has completely changed the organization, top to bottom. This is one of the most well run organizations in professional sports, boasting a level of talent our fanbase has been starved of since the ‘90s. Appreciating what we were given from this team in 2024 and excited for what they'll do in 2025.
Sam: A huge thank you to everyone who supports us in all the various ways that you all do, but especially those who tune into the Run.down postgame shows. I try my hardest to show up for all of you, even when I’m extremely exhausted or not fully into, it but knowing that there are people out there who tune in to hear what I & many of our other personalities have to say is encouraging – to say the least. As a teacher who goes through it every now and then, it helps that the postgame streams, especially after wins, are a place I can really chill and be myself and relax.
I remember when I was brought on towards the tail end of the “We Here” year. We began The Run.down postgame show the following year. Those were some tough times as a Knick fan, following the successful year the team had previously; we kind of didn’t have the best idea of what we were doing. We were just basically venting at the end of all those horrible losses in the 2021-22 season. Thinking back to those days and how many people tuned in to The Run.down then versus now, it’s amazing to see the growth. Once again, a huge thank you to everyone for the continued support.
Going forward, I most likely will not be on postgame shows as much, with me starting grad school very soon, but just know my presence at the Strickland will still be there as it always has been, and I will try to make as many appearances as I can. Once again, thank you all for your support and go Knicks!
Miranda: I’ve been writing about the Knicks for over a decade. For the first six years, they were bad, oten especially bad. I took recaps challenge: could I write about something fairly obvious — a losing team continually losing — and find something interesting or meaningful in those Ls to share? How close could I get to faithfully translating my headspace during a game into something someone else might enjoy seeing?
2021 was the first season I ever covered a good Knick team. The novelty was intoxicating. After the down year Sam referenced in 2022, the good times were back in 2023. But I found myself experiencing a duality I’d never before known: the Knick fan in me was thrilled with them winning and advancing, first past Cleveland, then taking a couple games off Miami. The writer in me was confused and exhausted. I attributed this almost to being rhetorically out of shape – I’d never covered a 90-game season; I’d literally never written so many positive things about a Knick team in one year. Maybe my muscles just needed more reps. Then last year happened. Same thing after the Pacer series: the fan pained, the writer drained.
This year, the feelings are even more intense. The Knicks look better than they have since Pat Riley and Patrick Ewing were their leaders. It’s an incredible time to write about them. And yet the fan in me is left confronting feelings too big to articulate. The Knicks were more than a simple diversion for me in the ‘90s, and for different reasons entirely are much more than that to me now. I’ve been working on a memoir idea for a few years paralleling my life as a Knick fan with the arc of my life story. Hoping to start getting that out this year. Maybe that will help me say things I’ve been wanting to.
I want to thank Donnie Walsh (that’s Strickland member Donnie Walsh, not the former Knick president who Shwin carries of picture of in his wallet for whenever he needs a quick rush of bile), Doubledouble Dutch, BigPatYouWin and all our other readers and commenters for creating a space and audience for my words to go. I’ve been so personally adrift for so much of this year that it’s thrown my writing for a loop. Yesterday’s recap of the win in Washington was the first this season I felt came out how I’d hoped. I am so, so lost, friends. It’s more than nice having this oasis of safety, support and shared madness on an ever-alienating internet.
Finally, I wrote a piece two months ago about the Republicanazi rally at MSG. We lost subscribers because of it. I knew we would. What I had a feeling about but couldn’t know for sure was how the site and its creators would react. Small, worker-owned sites are forever hustling just to survive in this industry. How would they feel about the bees’ nest I bothered They supported the piece and its message, unconditionally. I can’t tell you how rare that is, and how refreshing. I still have no idea what I’m doing right now as a writer. I’m fortunate to be somewhere I’m safe and supported while figuring it out. I hope somewhere, wherever in this world, you find the same.
