The Knicks won 2019. Twice. Suck it, haters

There were two realities my family encountered after moving to western New York in the 1980s that were new to their children. The first was racism, as we immediately encountered all kinds of open harassment and even violence. The second was lawn envy. It was soon apparent that if one neighbor mowed their lawn at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, another would invariably be mowing theirs by 9, another by 9:30, etc. It seemed comical, as though rather than coffee these people started the day drinking Keep Up With The Joneses.

We laughed about it. I saw it as a small blessing: whatever difficulties my family was having, at least we weren’t these people. Then one day my father canceled some plans he…