The Knicks Parade

A radio producer from the 20th Century watches from the sidelines.

As I watched the Knicks Parade earlier today, some feelings I hadn’t felt in a long time came back.

I WANTED TO BE IN A STUDIO PRODUCING SOMETHING.

I felt like I should have been back in WOR Studio 2. Joe Bartlett anchoring live news coverage.

I miss the art of killing time/got-nothing-yet. Let’s go around the horn to our team on the scene, killing a few minutes at a time. Should we sneak in some spots? Let me call “traffic” and see which spots we can bounce. Hey, this guest is a good talker, let’s keep them. OK, let’s reset and recycle.

None of this made me feel old, but I did feel a little “Admiral Kirk” this morning, looking to hop back in the chair.

I smiled when I heard an anchor try to sneak in a Legal ID, but forgetting to add the “New York” after the call letters. I imagined the producer tapping the headset. “Give me a legal ID when you can.” Been there, done that.

I think back to 1994. The Knicks were in the finals. The Rangers won it all (boo). There was a World Cup.

In those days I was producing John Gambling….watching sports until 11pm and getting up at 3:30 back in the days when you had to book your show off a landline and had to half-prep the show out of the newspapers. We had guests like John Andariese and soccer announcer Andres Cantor.

Even on TV this was tremendously fun to watch. The Knicks have made everyone happy! It was really really nice to just see so many people happy.

Thanks Knicks!

Other thoughts:

I am an admitted casual, front-runner, bandwagon fan. My son went to Villanova and got me into the Villanova Knicks last season. I didn’t “earn” this the way so many fans did. That said, I had a great season watching as a casual!

Some folks on social media were suggesting they should have had a longer parade. I disagree. This is New York City. In New York, you gotta earn it. We do the Canyon of Heroes, not the Boulevard Of GenericTown. Get out of bed, get there at 3am. Part of what makes this special IS the chaos of the crowd.

Channel 4 had just come out of a dump-delay when a fan used a colorful word. No buffer yet. Gotta love it.

Jalen Brunson also said some swear words that made it to live TV. People will live.

Jim Dolan opening by dissing anyone younger than 53 was a choice. Crowd did NOT love him.

And seeing the organization get the keys to the city…what a nice moment!