The New York Knicks are the New York Mets are the New York Knicks
The Knicks and Mets have always shared a bond, one that's grown even stronger in 2024
You can see all kinds of New Yorkers in New York City’s sports teams. Faded glory is an entire caste in Manhattan, old money born with a silver spoon in their mouth who lose it and learn the taste of blood. That’d be the New York Rangers, who won three Stanley Cups and reached three more Finals their first 14 years of existence, then spent 25 years mostly missing the playoffs and another 30 breaking hearts there until 1994, when their fans could finally die in peace. Since that silverware, it’s been mostly blood.
While the Yankees are uniquely successful among the city’s franchises, they evoke one of its classic archetypes: the unknown who re-invents themselves and goes on to riches and fame beyond imagining. Think Groucho Marx. Robert DeNiro. Jenny from the Block. The Yankees were the Highlanders for a decade before changing ownership and names in 1913; a decade later they won their first World Series and just kept on winning them. While only one’s come since 2000, most MLB teams would kill — literally — to win 90-100 games a year and finish top-three in attendance.
The Giants moved to New Jersey 50 years ago, while the Jets have spent two-thirds of their history there; they don’t factor into this discussion – sure, they have plenty of fans in the city, but so do the Lakers and Syracuse basketball. The Liberty evoke the pulse and promise and something new, both when they started play in 1997 and with their recent star-powered renaissance; wherever there’s a crane or a sledgehammer, the spirit of the Seafoam endures. The spirit of gentrification, too, and thus the Nets.
The boys in blue and orange share a special bond. The Knickerbockers and Metropolitans won their first championships together, the Mets in the fall of 1969, the Knicks the following spring. And while no title run is run-of-the-mill, the Mets’ and Knicks’ were miraculous.
From the mid-1970s till the early 1980s both teams struggled, until Patrick Ewing, Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry righted the ships. At the turn of the century both made deep playoff runs, the Knicks reaching the Finals in 1999 and the Mets the World Series a year later. If only the Game 2 umpires had done their job and ejected Roger Clemens for assaulting Mike Piazza with a bat shard. Then again, it’s not the worst thing Clemens got away with. After that, the teams’ paths diverged for 20 years.
When the Amazins were amazing in the mid-aughts, the Knicks were down deep in the weeds of the Isiah Thomas nightmare; by the time they turned things around, the Mets had hit hard times. In 2015 the Mets were back in the Fall Classic while the Knicks fell all the way to a franchise record for losses in a season. The Metsies returned to (regular-season) glory in 2022 before collapsing down the stretch; a few weeks later the Knicks began what’s been their best run of play since 2000. Now the Mets find themselves at the business end of a season that will either go down as an inspirational turnaround or a brutal twist of the knife. They’re good at both.
The parallels today extend beyond the two franchises down to the very players themselves. Consider the connections:
Jalen Brunson/Francisco Lindor
Neutron stars are the densest stars in the universe. If you built a spaceship big enough to fit the sun and sent it somewhere with the gravity a neutron star, and on the way passed a red dwarf hitchhiking and picked it up, too, when you reached your final destination the two stars would crunch down to the size of a city. That’s pressure. That’s nothing to the two teams’ MVPs.
Both aren’t just the best players on their side, but their captains: Brunson officially, Lindor only a matter of time. Both – by the standards of their industries – are underpaid. Brunson is the NBA’s 66th highest-paid player next season, between Jonathan Isaac and Terry Rozier, making eight million less than Immanuel Quickley and nearly a million less than RJ Barrett. Lindor is 10th, yet the only two players above him having better years are Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, who are literally PED-era Barry Bonds without all the dickery and body armor and Roy Hobbs if he could run.
Among the others above Lindor are Stephen Strasburg, who’s retired but still owed over $100 million by Washington; Mike Trout, whose 29 games this year mark the third time in four he didn’t reach 100; Anthony Rendon, whose 34 home runs his last year as a National led to a quarter-of-a-billion-with-a-B-dollar deal with the Angels, for whom he’s hit a total of 22 home runs in five years; Jacob deGrom, who since winning consecutive Cy Young awards six years ago hasn’t reached 100 innings in a season (last week he made his first start in almost 18 months, threw 3.2 shutout innings, left up 4-0 and saw his team blow it); and Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, the Mets’ second- and third-highest paid players this season despite playing for other teams. The upside: their combined 5-10 record with barely over 100 innings pitched this season is the Texas teams’ troubles.
Julius Randle/Pete Alonso
They’re big. They’re strong. They’re both about to turn 30. Both produce. Both are exceptional in their franchise’s history: Randle the Knicks’ greatest free agent signing until Brunson, Alonso on pace to be the Mets’ all-time home run king – if he’s still a Met next year. They’re also both the names most often linked with one-way tickets outta town. Readers of this site are familiar with Randle’s credentials; if you’re not a Mets fan it can be easy (and lazy) to dismiss Alonso as a modern Adam Dunn, a slander I recently came across. Alonso, in his sixth year as a pro, is a four-time All-Star with multiple top-10 MVP finishes. During that time Judge has 226 home runs, Alonso 224. Steve Cohen: pay the man.
OG Anunoby/J.D. Martinez
A couple of first-year players with their teams who moved the needle from day one. Both won rings in 2019, Anunoby in Toronto (he was hurt for the playoffs) and Martinez as Boston’s leading home-run hitter. OG is now one of the Knicks’ most important players, while Martinez is an essential presence in the middle of the Met lineup and the locker room, where he’s credited as an unofficial hitting coach for his teammates, particularly rookie sensation Mark Vientos. The Knicks made it their priority this offseason to re-sign Anunoby. Will the Mets do the same with the 37-year-old Martinez?
Mitchell Robinson/Edwin Díaz
Sports seasons are long. Spring training through the World Series lasts eight months; NBA training camps begin in October and it’s slightly more than that before the Finals end. It’s draining for everyone: players, coaches, officials, announcers, people who cover the team (trust me), and even sometimes the fans. Baseball is the most mentally taxing game, with 162 contests in 181 days, or that’s how it used to be, anyway; there’s pitch clocks and ghost runners now, so maybe that long-established ratio is out the window. Basketball extends through the year’s darkest, coldest months. You need pick-ups to get through it, bursts of life, of light. Enter Mitch and Edwin: two bright, uplifting, smiley dudes able to do things most of their world-class peers can’t do. Even with all the great pitchers in MLB, not many are vaunted enough to warrant a trumpet fanfare simply for entering a game. Meanwhile, Mitch has been a freak since day one.
Fans come for the wins, but stay for the joy. Mitch and Díaz deliver.
Mikal Bridges/Luis Severino
Two new additions with prior experience as key players for championship contenders. In 2018 Bridges joined a 21-win Phoenix side; by 2021 he was starter for them as they fell just two wins short of a title. After Kevin Durant decided coming up short in Brooklyn wasn’t the cool thing anymore, he was traded to Phoenix for Bridges. Now Durant is stuck on the Desert Titanic while Bridges has upgraded from purgatory to a shot at glory with the Knicks, where he’s expected to start, potentially lead some bench units and pair with Anunoby to give New York its top perimeter defensive duo since . . . John Starks and Derek Harper?
Severino was a top-of-the-rotation starter for a number of Yankee teams who might have made the World Series if not for the cheating Houston Astros (Mets fans about Astros cheating in October). Unfortunately for Luis and the Bombers, as great as he was he couldn’t out-duel Justin Verlander in the biggest spots; fortunately for Luis and the Mets, he’s been a lights-out replacement for Verlander as their ace in 2024.
Josh Hart/Jesse Winker
A couple of outspoken, fun-loving fourth-wall breakers who’ll never be the center of the opponent’s attention but who are larger than life to their fans and unafraid of the big moment. Hart’s hit more game-winning shots for the Knicks in the playoffs than Carmelo Anthony. In 2019 Winker hit a game-winning grand slam against the Mets and let their fans know about it. They responded in kind; when he hit one for the Mets earlier this month, they responded more kindly.
Hart shares a gene with Robert Horry and Jason Kidd, two players who teams didn’t mind letting shoot the first 46-47 minutes of a game but who morph into Steph Curry in big moments (spare me your rebuttals; it’s hyperbole, darling). Hart’s already got playoff-clinching buckets in Cleveland and Philadelphia MSG West to his name, and continues to be an ambassador for de-stigmatizing breast milk as a recreational drink. Is there anything he can’t do?
Donte DiVincenzo/Francisco Álvarez
Neither of these guys are the first, second or third name you think of when listing their team’s best players, but they’re right at the top for who you want taking the big shot or at-bat. They’re also multi-dimensional: DiVincenzo makes plays on both ends of the floor, and the additions of Bridges & OG should mean more opportunities for him to defend the way he does best, i.e. creating chaos in the passing lanes, sparking takeaways and getting the Knicks into some easy baskets.
Álvarez’s bat has been touted all throughout his rise to the big leagues, but he’s exceeded the expectations of him as a defensive catcher and a handler of pitchers. He also wears his eye black in the style of a cross, which is hot. Kylo Ren’s sword hits me the same way, as it’s also cross-shaped. What, that only hits the spot for me? Guess that’s my cross to bear. Let’s move on.
Deuce McBride/Jeff McNeil
They’re about the same height, they’re both fan favorites for their willingness to grind and ability to hit threes/get hits, and you’ll get better odds than not both will be traded sometime this year or next. Why? With Deuce it’s because of the leaps his game’s taken, his youth (he turned 24 last week) his contract (three years totalling just over $13 million), and because of the new Byzantine CBA rules nobody likes besides people who belong in front of a guillotine. With McNeil, it’s because he’s 33 next year, he’s owed $33-$47 million on his deal and Luisangel Acuña and Ronny Mauricio are younger, cheaper, more athletic alternatives with pop.
Precious Achiuwa/Adam Ottavino
These Bronx- and Brooklyn-born native New Yorkers possess significance that doesn’t leap off the page but can’t be oversold. Achiuwa is the most versatile Knick center, the only one who can shoot at all and another proposition entirely if he starts making 3-pointers, something he’s worked on this offseason. He’s also all that stands between Robinson’s injury history and busting out the Jericho Sims tourniquet. Ottavino is third-best on the Mets in strikeouts per 9 innings and has faced more batters than any Met who hasn’t started a game besides Reed Garrett. He also had the most humane response to a crushing loss I think I’ve ever seen mid-game.
These are what I call AAA players — not AAA as in baseball’s minor league, but the roadside assistance company. I have AAA. I never think about it. Weeks, months, years go by without it crossing my mind. But if my car breaks down in the middle of the night 20 miles from home, and I’m cold and there are wolves after me, I know AAA is there and thank God for them. It’s a lot more fun to obsess over Brunson, Lindor, etc., but if/when Mitch turns another ankle or Díaz comes down with a tired arm in a big spot, Achiuwa and Ottavino are worth their weight in gold.
Mike Breen & Clyde Frazier/Gary Cohen & Keith Hernandez
Throughout their histories, as bad as both these teams have been at times, their fans have been blessed with best-in-class broadcasters. The Mets started out with Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy; Murph will always, for me, be the voice of summer. What Ruth/DiMaggio/Mantle were to Yankee outfielders, Marty Glickman, Marv Albert and Mike Breen have been to Knick play-by-play men. Breen is a lifelong Knicks fan, and when it bursts out from him it’s a religious experience.
Cohen is the same, even tying a recent Lindor moment to Jeremy Lin’s Knick run.
Finally, last but the opposite of least, no linking of these teams is complete without two franchise icons revered as clutch players, defensive GOATs, icons of style, Just For Men spokesmen and leading actors in the miraculous title runs of ‘69 and ‘86. Frazier played the greatest game in the Knicks’ 78-year history in the biggest game in their history, full stop. The seven-time All-Defensive selection is somehow even better known for his sartorial splendor and his calling of balling. There’s never been a consensus whether Clyde, Willis Reed or Patrick Ewing are the greatest player in Knick history, but there’s no question who’s the best-loved.
Hernandez co-captained the ‘86 Mets along with Gary Carter. While Game 6 of that World Series is the more famous comeback, the Mets were down 3-0 in the sixth inning of game 7 against Bruce Hurst, who’d already dominated them twice in the series and was doing it again. It was Keith’s two-run single that inning that got the Mets on the board; they’d tie it later that inning, take the lead in the seventh and never look back. Hernandez is regarded by many as the greatest defensive first basemen ever – see for yourself. Like Clyde, he’s had a renaissance since retiring, both as a Seinfeld legend and a member of the Mets’ top-ranked three-man booth, as insightful talking baseball the game as he is a wild card talking about anything else.
The Mets head into the last few weeks of the season in the playoff hunt as the proverbial “team nobody wants to face.” The Knicks kick things off in a couple of weeks with title hopes for the first time since 2000. Whatever happens with both, we know they’ll make whatever comes next unforgettable.
