Maybe it was like this back in the early ’70s, in those years immediately following the first championship when the Knicks were still awfully good — good enough to win a second title in 1973, three years after the first one — but weren’t nearly as dominant as they’d been in 1970.
Maybe in, say, 1972, when the Knicks struggled their way to “only” 48 wins, their fans paced nervously while watching (or, mostly, listening) along. Maybe the five-game losing streak they endured from Jan. 4 through Jan. 14 that year left people so disgusted that they declared, “That’s it! I can’t watch [or listen to] them anymore!”
Maybe it was that way in 1994, too, when the Knicks lost four in a row and were playing poorly enough that Pat Riley scheduled a side trip to Reno between games in Phoenix and Sacramento to take their minds off the fact that they were a relatively pedestrian 36-19. The fans grew more despondent by the hour — and then began to feel relentlessly bulletproof as the Knicks proceeded to rattle off 15 straight wins.
Maybe things then were every bit as manic-depressive as they are now.
