Papabear Says
Martin for over 17 years I've followed you and joined the UltimateKnicks.com We've had some sad years and it's almost 50 years since we've had a title.It make you want to think about this. If I had a girlfriend or a wife and things were going bad with the relationship you would end it in a few years. But our relationship with the Knicks we keep on getting abused and used but we keep hanging in there. 
The 4 stages as a Knicks fan
Stage 1 - this year is going to be different. 50 wins and 2nd rd of the playoffs
Stage 2 - reality sets in. We’re just not that good, please just play the kids and let’s get a good lottery pick
Stage 3 - fun with tankathon, the draft prospect thread heats up. We put together a win streak at the end of the season when the games don’t matter and drop 2 spots on lottery night.
Stage 4 - with no playoffs, looking forward to summer league. The off-season is so long for us, we are delusionally happy for the Knicks to start playing games again in the preseason. This year is going to be different!
Rookie wrote:The 4 stages as a Knicks fanStage 1 - this year is going to be different. 50 wins and 2nd rd of the playoffs
Stage 2 - reality sets in. We’re just not that good, please just play the kids and let’s get a good lottery pick
Stage 3 - fun with tankathon, the draft prospect thread heats up. We put together a win streak at the end of the season when the games don’t matter and drop 2 spots on lottery night.
Stage 4 - with no playoffs, looking forward to summer league. The off-season is so long for us, we are delusionally happy for the Knicks to start playing games again in the preseason. This year is going to be different!
Good ones. How about Stage 5 - player X is going to take us to the promised land. Let's just blow all the picks and young prospects to trade for him. Back to Stage 1. Rinse. Repeat.
ramtour420 wrote:Rookie wrote:The 4 stages as a Knicks fanStage 1 - this year is going to be different. 50 wins and 2nd rd of the playoffs
Stage 2 - reality sets in. We’re just not that good, please just play the kids and let’s get a good lottery pick
Stage 3 - fun with tankathon, the draft prospect thread heats up. We put together a win streak at the end of the season when the games don’t matter and drop 2 spots on lottery night.
Stage 4 - with no playoffs, looking forward to summer league. The off-season is so long for us, we are delusionally happy for the Knicks to start playing games again in the preseason. This year is going to be different!
Good ones. How about Stage 5 - player X is going to take us to the promised land. Let's just blow all the picks and young prospects to trade for him. Back to Stage 1. Rinse. Repeat.
Stage 6 -- go to UltimateKnicks.com to bitch and argue.
I’m 36 and been here since the beginning of UK. I was 15 when I joined. AOL days. I’ve been a Knicks fan since I opened my first pack of cards in 1992 at age 6 and Ewing was the first card in the pack. I had other ties to the Knicks but that solidified it at the youngest age I can remember.
I was on knicks4life for around 3 yrs until someone in a thread said check out UK. I never turned back since. Great site then and now. Great job Martin and others who built and maintained the integrity and culture in this site. But I was Young and cocky then. 20 years later of watching these Knicks, I’m now old and grumpy.
Hard not to be a NY sports fan growing up in queens. Plus an athlete who played basketball since a little kid outside parks. So I had no choice but to choose the Knicks when someone asked me. Then watching starks guard MJ did it for me. I started to model my game after starks. Defender and streaky shooter.
I was always a fan of or rooting for underdogs because of starks and the Knicks overall. So I guess being a knick fan wasn’t too bad because we always had that underdog label since I remember.
Moving away from queens in HS, I used my connection with the Knicks as a way to hold onto something NY. From HS freshmen in queens (august Martin HS), I moved to NJ, Alabama, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maryland, texas, now back in Maryland (over a 20 yr span).
NY was my NYC connection during all those moves. But it’s nice to see all the different ways we built up this team. Seems like starphucking, as some of you say, wasn’t that bad of an era. I remember complaining that we need to build within, but we kept making these marbury and melo type trades. Tmac and penny. I wish we was smart enough when we had ewing. Should’ve built a better team around him. Probably have a chip right now.
So that’s why I became and as crazy as it is, I’m still a Knicks fan.
I started to follow the Knicks in the mid 80s- right before they got Ewing, but right when they were Hubie Brown and not doing exceedingly well. I think I was watching the game Bernard blew out his knee.
UK is the best site. Even if I weren’t a Knick fan, I’d be here for the community.
franco12 wrote:I started to follow the Knicks in the mid 80s- right before they got Ewing, but right when they were Hubie Brown and not doing exceedingly well. I think I was watching the game Bernard blew out his knee.UK is the best site. Even if I weren’t a Knick fan, I’d be here for the community.
We started around the same time. I do remember the “Ken the Animal” version followed soon by the Hubie years, which were fun and very respectable. I went to the Garden a lot with a student card getting me half of blue seats (3 bucks!) and then sneaking down front after the half. When Ewing came those were great years but the suits and posers filled the seats and drove up prices.
I was posting on another board which was okay to good but is now simply a hater board. Any positive angle on the Knicks, particularly Randle or Thibs, is shouted down. We have some of that here but far from the majority, as well as a lot of very knowledgeable posters. And a few characters 
Some are enthusiastic, some negative, many bipolar! But the overall quality is high and no one gets to dominate. Thank Martin and all 🙏🙂
I started watching around 79/80 with Sugar, Webster and Ray Williams. My first game at MSG was opening night 1984 with Eddie Lee Wilkens having the game of his life. Around 13 I went to a basketball camp run by Dean "the Dream" Meminger and later became a halfway decent player. My favorite years included Pitino's first season, the 93 season with McDaniel, 99 run with Sprewell and Camby, Lin season and Amare's first season before we traded for Melo. Worst years for me were the Isiah years. I lived in Miami from 1988-2005 and was fortunate to go to many of the Heat/Knick playoff games during the glory years. Moved out to Bay area after and have remained there ever since.
There is definitely a masochistic element to being a long-time Knick fan. When we finally win a chip it will be the most satisfying thing I could ever imagine. Like many of us that are middle to older age - just hope I'm around to witness it.
I found UK around 2003/04 and am grateful for the forum and community feel. Feel like this forum could be well represented in a Christopher Guest-type Mockumentary about Knick/sports fans...
My uncle got season tix after the 70’ chip. Went to my first game in 71’ in the 4th grade. Vs PHX, and Willis laid out Neal Walk.
The Great Connie Hawkins was like plastic man!
Uncle tragically died July of 1973 at age 47. He was very instrumental to me as I had a dead beat dad and no grandparents.
Messed me up. He died with his beloved knicks as World Champions.
No other team to follow. Nets won ABA chips in 74’ and 76’ with Dr J. I was there. It was great fun, just not the same.
Nets died when they went to jersey. Never saw a game live there.
KNicks always. Even though I suffer from BKS.
Battered Knick Syndrome.
I became a Knicks fan in high school, living in upstate NY. We were constant ECF contenders. Those Pacer and Bulls series ( late 9Oies, so after MJ retired)oh man, talk about rivalries! 99 finals run was the highlight, those knee pads over the other knee pads together with wraps and ... It was a tough way to go out for "the Warrior"
Isiah years weren't the worst,at least we made some picks. The worst was the Larry Brown season with the wtf. Then again, this was during Isaiah after all, hmm 🤔 What drives me? It's the player development and seeing players grow up and mature as adults. Marbury was tough to process, lol.
Knixkik wrote:I’m 36 and been here since the beginning of UK. I was 15 when I joined. AOL days. I’ve been a Knicks fan since I opened my first pack of cards in 1992 at age 6 and Ewing was the first card in the pack. I had other ties to the Knicks but that solidified it at the youngest age I can remember.
36?! That explains all the "Transformers" references when you first started posting. 
Been on and off the board since Martin put out an invite on the old Knicks ESPN board at launch, was also on Knicks4Life. I remember when the site owner put up a fake NY Times trade headline that went viral.
GustavBahler wrote:Knixkik wrote:I’m 36 and been here since the beginning of UK. I was 15 when I joined. AOL days. I’ve been a Knicks fan since I opened my first pack of cards in 1992 at age 6 and Ewing was the first card in the pack. I had other ties to the Knicks but that solidified it at the youngest age I can remember.
36?! That explains all the "Transformers" references when you first started posting.
Been on and off the board since Martin put out an invite on the old Knicks ESPN board at launch, was also on Knicks4Life. I remember when the site owner put up a fake NY Times trade headline that went viral.
I always wondered who else came from knick4life. And til this day I don’t remember who recommended this site. Or if that person is now on UK.
The number one reason I’m a Knicks fan is Patrick Ewing. Number two, defense.
I’m waiting for the day we recapture some of that defensive dominance from the 90’s. Well, as much as today's rules allow.
Our recent W’s have been AWESOME.
And seeing Julius put up Ewing-like numbers, plus assists, warms my heart. I’m currently rooting for him to figure it all out, and become our best player since the big guy.
Started watching 87-88 season when in HS...became hooked in the 90s battles..... J. Starks being may fav player...not the best talent but laid it all on the court and wore his heart on his sleeve....John Starks Baby....
Loved talking with other fans...for years the NY times had a forum like this that I think they closed in the early 2000s...great convo there. I had been looking at ultimate knicks since they consolidate articles...and had been coming to this site for like 10-15 yrs before I realized there was a similar community as the NY times forum...Don't post much but read a whole lot....
Since I moved out of NY the League Pass has been my guilty pleasure....although most yrs it was throwing away $150-200 because the team was $hit...recall the Larry brown season when I was living in Tampa...I had knicks plates and when I was picking up a projection TV from Bestbuy another shopper was like with the way the knicks are playing a knicks fans does not deserve a TV like that
since I been in TX the last 17 yrs.....i had to live with Tim Duncan...then the HOU...now Luka magic....
Still holding onto the hope a chip gets won in my lifetime....
blkexec wrote:GustavBahler wrote:Knixkik wrote:I’m 36 and been here since the beginning of UK. I was 15 when I joined. AOL days. I’ve been a Knicks fan since I opened my first pack of cards in 1992 at age 6 and Ewing was the first card in the pack. I had other ties to the Knicks but that solidified it at the youngest age I can remember.
36?! That explains all the "Transformers" references when you first started posting.
Been on and off the board since Martin put out an invite on the old Knicks ESPN board at launch, was also on Knicks4Life. I remember when the site owner put up a fake NY Times trade headline that went viral.
I always wondered who else came from knick4life. And til this day I don’t remember who recommended this site. Or if that person is now on UK.
There are a few more here. Eventually "Maltré" was asking posters to run the site for him, and it went down the tubes. Martin and Andrew offered free tote bags to new posters, and the rest was history.
Papabear Says
I believe I was on this site by the New York times. Anyway it disbanded and someone invited me on this site and I was there ever since. Now back in the day I remember watching Seton Hall playing and thier star player was Walter Dukes I believe. Then my best friend was an assistant coach at Power Mamorial where Lew Alcindor was playing (aka Karim abdu Jabarr) this was before Walt Fraizer came to the Knicks. I would go to the knicks games with my Pops.So I was a knicks fan around 1960. LOL Partied with Earl the Pearl and Clyde. And played against Walter Dukes and Lew Alcindor aka Jabarr in summer league park games and while in high school I had to make a choice between going to the finals with my basketball team or sing in this talent show contest with my singing group. Which on do you think I picked???
I have been a Knicks fan since 1967, yes I'm that old
Wow. Didn’t realize we have so many knick fans from the 1960s. I have so many questions for you guys.
I’m also a little jealous hearing about your summer league games with or against Kareem jabar and others.
My summer league games was against Jordan hill and Gilbert areanus (agent zero). That’s not quite the same Would love to hear more about that. Partied with Clyde? How cool was that.
I remember seeing melo at a club which was cool. His head was above everybody else’s. Easy to spot.
But I love it. Witnessing the Knicks in their glory days is something the rest of us only dream of. Good stuff
I watched and attended games with my parents here and there in the late 80s but I was young so I wasn't that invested in this team and I can't remember exactly when I become a diehard fan but it might have been in 1990 cause I remember watching Ewing's baseline 3 to beat Bird and Celtics and going crazy. Bird and Celtics were this historic team and we sent them home! I started collecting basketball cards soon after and that too peaked my intertest in this team and sport. I naturally became way more invested and obsessed when we hired Riley in 91 and really started winning so I experienced the highest of my fandom at the very beginning and really young (9-19 years old). Not sure if that's good or bad.
blkexec wrote:Wow. Didn’t realize we have so many knick fans from the 1960s. I have so many questions for you guys.I’m also a little jealous hearing about your summer league games with or against Kareem jabar and others.
My summer league games was against Jordan hill and Gilbert areanus (agent zero). That’s not quite the same Would love to hear more about that. Partied with Clyde? How cool was that.
I remember seeing melo at a club which was cool. His head was above everybody else’s. Easy to spot.
But I love it. Witnessing the Knicks in their glory days is something the rest of us only dream of. Good stuff
Old but not my story......
Wilt pinned a shot by rookie to NBA and said to the kid "Welcome to the NBA"............
Soon after some Legend, might have been "Helicopter Hines" pinned a shot by Wilt and said "Welcome to Rucker!".....
Legend!
