The Knicks Are Back, and So Is New York

I was at the Knicks game last night at Madison Square Garden, Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs, a place the team hasn’t been in nearly a decade.

Traffic to the game was crazy; an hour and fifteen through the Lincoln Tunnel, as if every car in New York had sped off to New Jersey for the weekend and was, right before tip-off, suddenly returning.

So, I missed much of the first quarter, and it seemed, from the scene inside, that everyone else did too; fans were scattered all around, drinking beers, scarfing down pizza, some still even trying to buy tickets.

But the Garden was rocking. I sat in an upper section, the cheap seats — well, they weren’t that cheap, believe me — and I don’t know if it’s because I hadn’t sat that far up in a long time, or if it was just the playoff atmosphere, but it felt like a football game or something.

People I talked to, people who were watching at home, even people who worked at MSG themselves, said they had never seen the Garden like that. The place was that pumped up. It was electric, that feeling, that vibe. Everyone at the game felt like they were in sync with one another, as if they had bought tickets together, planned to come together, cheer for this team together. We had been apart for more than a year, some even longer than that, but now we were here.

It was a tremendous energy, and the place was fired up. And I felt a swell of emotion, I can’t lie, sitting there looking at the Knicks logo. My entire life, I had…