Hour 1: Knicks Dedication

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is what everyone is talking about.
Everything is on the table. This is what champions come to take. This is what everyone came to see.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
And the slam!

**SPEAKER_1** (0:14)
No do-overs, no second chances, no more Mr. Night Sky.
This is winner take all. And it's all happening now on the home of the NBA finals. Don't miss it, June 3rd on ABC and the Espn app.

**Michael Kay** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show podcast.

**Michael Kay** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**Michael Kay** (0:35)
Listen live weekdays at 1 on the Espn New York app and your smart speaker.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:41)
And good afternoon, everybody.

**Michael Kay** (0:43)
This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Tuesday. It's June 2nd, 2026 Me and you for two, those are the rules of engagement. It's the fastest two hours on Sports Talk Radio. And you get a chance to be a co-host every single day. Here's the password 1-800-919-3776.
1-800-919-3776. The NBA Finals begins tomorrow at 830 on ABC. You could also hear it right here on 880 Espn. The Knicks and the Spurs for the NBA Championship. The Spurs are favored. The Knicks seem to be getting a lot of action though. A lot of the NBA Cognizante seem like they're leaning toward the Knicks. So this could be a costly series for Vegas if they continue to give the odds in favor of the Spurs. It's weird if you've been watching the Knicks play like all of us have. I guess you could understand San Antonio getting a little love because of Wembe. But the Knicks have won 11 in a row by unprecedented margins of victory. And they've done everything that's been asked of them. They've played the Spurs three times this year, and they won two of them, including the NBA Cup final. Since Wembe took over, they played them seven times, and San Antonio leads four to three. So this is as razor close as you could possibly have it. And still Vegas is saying San Antonio is the favorite. Well, we'll see if they're right. Got me to thinking though, and I want to get the co-host involved as well. You know, when I did the show with Don and Peter, Don would always come up with a phrase, you know, pinky toe game. Is this a game that you want so much that you would carve off your pinky toe? And we'd say it would, you know, wouldn't even be a sharp knife. It would be one of those plastic knives you get in school cafeterias, even sporks, you know, the combination of fork and spoon. Would you carve it off with that in order for your team to win the championship? Well, I'm not going to go that route because I'm not stealing Don's bit. That's Don's baby. And a lot of people have stolen it. I'm too close to Don to steal anything. I wouldn't do it. I couldn't look him in the eye. But I'm going to do this. So if you're a Nick fan, you probably have some other team that you like.
Another team that you love. A lot of Nick fans are Yankee fans. A lot of Nick fans are Met fans. Or pick a football team, the Giants or the Jets. Now we say that this has unified a city like no other New York team because they really have no competition. You could say the Nets, but I still say the Nets are far, far, far, far, far too much of an outlier to be real competition for the Knicks. Now I think the Islanders are real competition to the Rangers. Rangers still have the majority of the fan base, but the Islanders have made a dent. You know, the four Stanley Cup titles certainly have done that.
I think the Devils with their three Stanley Cup titles have made a dent. So I think that if the Rangers are going for the Cup, yeah, people would be excited, but not to this extent like the Knicks. And I know that the Nets have gone to two NBA finals. They've lost both of them, went to the Lakers and the Spurs. I get it. But the bottom line is, they are not real competition for the Knicks. They're just not. They've got kind of a boutique fan base who loves their arena, which is really cool, and they do sell out. But I just don't think there's a competition there between the Knicks and the Nets. Anyway, Knick fans like other sports and like other teams. So every Knick fan wants it to finally happen. Everyone, it's been too long. 1973 is a long time ago. It's 53 years. And if you think about it, when the Rangers won in 1994, it's 54 years. And we thought that was forever. Well, now this is one year shorter. So it's close to forever. 73 is a long time ago. 73, I was 12 years old. I'm 65 now. So that tells you how long it's been. So every one of us, every person who roots for the Knicks, they want it to happen now. They want this monkey off their back.