This is what the promise of these Knicks really is. As terrific as they’ve been the past two years, there has been a common theme to much of their success: When Brunson plays an extraordinary game, they generally win.

For it was exactly 51 weeks earlier — Dec. 30, 2023 — when Knicks fans received one of the first stunning bits of news they’d gotten since the Knicks had begun working their way back into the fabric of the city. 

It is something to think about. 

Rickey was forever Superman.

Is it that time of year already?

This may be hard to believe, given that he’s become the crown prince of New York basketball in almost every way, but it wasn’t even like this for Jalen Brunson.

David Stearns has to look at things differently than an owner does, but the owner is the one who pays the bills, which means Steve Cohen gets a voice.

One of the fun parlor games that accompanies the Juan Soto decision is this: Can the Mets take the town from the Yankees?

Maybe the funniest thing about Bill Belichick reaching out to the Jets is the fact that he clearly doesn’t believe any of the 37 or so media jobs he did actually made it to the air. 

That wasn’t good enough. That wasn’t near good enough. The final was Hawks 108, Knicks 100.

You know when we’ll know when the Knicks have officially arrived? When we can anoint the new next villain at the Garden, one whose very presence on the floor sours the stomach and boils the blood.

For the first time, the Yankees have gotten a taste of what it’s long been like to be the Royals, or the Pirates, or the Reds.

Now the Mets will no longer be graded on a curve.

If you toggled between the two games and timed it just right, you could treat yourself to a plethora of pathetic plays pickleballing each other.

Now it’s almost as much of an accident to choose a local team as it is any other, absent any generational pressure.

It was obvious Rick Pitino had something amusing under his sport coat. He smiled as he strode to the bench. Then he removed the jacket.

There was one sequence that stood out from all the rest. That’s saying something when you spend most of the fourth quarter nursing a 20-point lead.

Rob Manfred already has in place a few loyal legions who will instantly slander you with typical cultural disdain.

This is as close to a dress rehearsal as you can ask for. There are actual consequences attached to winning and losing the game.

The Knicks reached the quarter pole of the basketball season Sunday night, and if they wanted to celebrate the occasion, they couldn’t have asked for a better patsy.