It had been eight years since the last time the Knicks hosted a playoff game at Madison Square Garden and, let’s be honest, it felt like a million years since a night like this, where fans were crammed into nearly every seat in the venerable arena.
So it wasn’t surprising that the emotions poured out when the lights dimmed for the pregame introduction, releasing years of frustration with the long-struggling franchise and 14 months of being left mostly to watch this righting of the ship on television and talk about it with friends on zoom.
But if the fans were excited, it seemed that so, too, were the Knicks.