New York Wins the Title, Brunson Wins Immortality, and Knicks Fans Have a Zihuatanejo Moment With Zach Lowe

**Bill Simmons** (0:00)
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The Bill Simmons Podcast, live on Netflix. It is late, it is almost midnight East Coast time. I'm here with a, I don't know, are you groggy, Zach Lowe? Not groggy, medium groggy?

**Zach Lowe** (2:02)
After that, not groggy at all. I'm a little too amped, so let's do it.

**Bill Simmons** (2:06)
Great. By the way, new rewatchable's coming on Sunday night now. It is from Hell Month, and it's gonna be in that Rockston Cradle, so get ready for that. And then we're gonna go back to a somewhat normal podcast schedule, because the Knicks have won the NBA title. It's been 53 years. This is... We'll start with the Knicks, then we gotta go to Brunson, because I can't believe what I just watched tonight from him.
I think with the Knicks, other than the fans and the drought being over and the way the city rallied around the team and people traveling to the games and just how much over and over again they're fighting back to win these games. You know, these teams win the title, and then you look back years later, and you're like, yeah, yeah, the 2019 Raptors. What was their gimmick? What was their thing? This Knicks team, we're just going to remember it instantly. It's going to be Brunson and Combacks and the Knicks fans. And it just was an indelible, indelible playoff run. 15-1 in the last 16
One of the best, what was the last team that you remember just grabbing, the 2014 Spurs? What was the last one where you're just like, holy shit. I can't believe it came together like that for them.

**Zach Lowe** (3:14)
In terms of, in terms of style and everything just clicking into place and then finding, I mean, finding a magical, something magical happened to the Knicks at the absolute perfect time. They found the best version of themselves, a better version they had found at almost any point in the regular season, locked it in and sustained it, sustained it through different kind of games, through foul trouble, through slumps, through different opponents. It's a magical thing that happened to them. And I think the 2014 Spurs comp is the right one in terms of style. You know that when you see it. We were both at those Spurs heat games and it was like, it's a wrap.
This is Nirvana. He don't even know where the freaking ball is. Different style, but stylistically coming together and having that magic and just like, don't mess with it, just sustain it, just keep it. But in terms of indelible single season champions, the ring feels a little extra special. For whatever reason, I think you go back to the 2011 MAVs for different reasons.
A team that stands out is just a super memorable single season champion. I think this team, ironically, having taken a player from a different version of the Dallas Mavericks, will stand out like that for a ton of different reasons that we'll get into.

**Bill Simmons** (4:25)
One of the things, I thought the Spurs had a more talented team, and then it was a case of, are they going to figure out they're better than this Knicks team? Then by game five, it's like, the Knicks are better than the Spurs. I know how this game, I was sitting next to my wife watching it, and she was on her phone half the time, and they're up, Spurs are up 12, they're up 15, they're up nine, and I'm like, the Knicks, they're going to come back. Watch what happens with Brunson here. She was like, wow, you have ESP with this Brunson thing, and I'm like, it's not ESP. This is what he does. You could just see him kind of lurking and waiting, and then he took over the game at the perfect times. Nobody on the Knicks, who else played well on their team?