Why Being a Knicks Fan Hurts So Good

Knicks fans were proud to take selfies and line up in front of Madison Square Garden to watch the team play this season. That has not always been the case.Credit...Brittainy Newman/Associated PressAshley Nicole Moss did not have much of a choice when she was growing up. Her father, Jeff, was a Knicks fan, which meant that she was a Knicks fan, too.

For part of her childhood in Brooklyn and Queens, Moss, 27, found that rooting for the Knicks was not such a horrible thing. When she was especially young, the team often made the playoffs and even advanced to the N.B.A. finals in 1999, which she said was among her earliest memories as a fan. So she was completely unprepared for the subsequent two…