P&T September mailbag invite

Can you smellllllllllllll . . . what the upcoming season’s cooking?

Today is International Chocolate Day. It’s also National Peanut Day here in the U.S. of A. Speaking of flavors that blend well together, the newest mix of the New York Knicks open training camp in a couple weeks. As such, it’s time for one last pre-preseason mailbag before the panoply proceeds.

Usually that means me soliciting questions from you, and that, loves, is an invitation that’s always open. But I’ve had a question of my own traipsing around my mind that I’d like to put to you, to either answer in the comments below or turn into a question of your own for next week’s mailbag. While most Knicks fans will likely offer similar answers, I suspect the thoughts/feelings behind them will vary from person to person.

What I want to know is this: what, for you, would be a successful season?

I ask because my first thought is, “Conference finals or Finals.” I bet a lot of you would say the same. After all, they’ve come thisclose the past two years. They haven’t been there since Rick Brunson was on the team and Jalen was 3; now Rick’s son’s the one sonning cats. The consensus seems to be the Knicks are the second-best team in the East, though for some even that’s selling them short.

Milwaukee is old. Cleveland is soft. Indiana hasn’t won a playoff series against a non-M.A.S.H. unit. Philadelphia’s faith is based on a (new) wing and a prayer that their most important player and most important import defy their medical histories and stay healthy; if Joel Embiid and Paul George enter an elevator to go up five floors, by the time it gets there one or both are hurt.

So why not the Knicks?

I’m not smart enough to know or dumb enough to pretend I do. The reason I ask is because fandom isn’t a cult, it’s a kaleidoscope. There’s no right or wrong way to root, and an infinitude of shades and shapes that make up the things we care about. Fandom is forever evolving, too, as are our dreams.

When last season began, my definition of success was repeating what the Knicks did the year prior: win 45+ games and another playoff series. For me that was the goal, because the Knicks hadn’t sustained two thumbs-up years in a row since 2000. I don’t trust management or billionaires to begin with; given James Dolan’s James Dolaning, I’m never relaxed enough to dismiss him as a concern. So showing stability and success was, for me, the dream.

Once it was clear Giannis Antetokounmpo wasn’t going to return from a calf injury suffered at the end of the regular season for the Bucks’ first-round matchup with the Pacers, my feelings changed. I figured Indiana would win, given they’d won the season series 4-1 and the Bucks without Giannis are a sword that’s all hilt and no blade. So my thinking changed: now I wanted the Knicks to reach the conference finals and either upset the Celtics or leave them something to remember them by . . . up until the Knicks, already minus Julius Randle for five months, lost Mitchell Robinson, then OG Anunoby, then OG again.

So, I’m here asking for mailbag questions, which as always can be about anything and everything, whether it’s the Knicks, the NBA or pretty much whatever. But I’m also asking what you, today, hold as your hope for this season. Looking forward to your words, all. Much love.