'This is the Year!': Eric Adams Up on Knicks, Addresses MSG Move
Eric Adams is making a campaign promise perhaps everyone in Manhattan could get on board with.
The Mayor of New York City joined MSG Network during halftime of the New York Knicks' preseason opener against the Detroit Pistons, sandwiching an interview with ideas of grandeur for the 2022-23 team. Adams, closing in on the one-year anniversary of his election, had some lofty comparisons for the team led by Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett, comparing them to a couple of names that they play under each night.
"I'm loving it ... I have this feeling back when Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier (were here)," Adams declared, promising to attend any ensuing championship celebration. "That's the same energy. I feel this is the year, you could feel it."
DeBusschere and Frazier, among many others, are among those forever immortalized near the ceiling of the Knicks' Madison Square Garden home, their numbers retired by the franchise. While the Knicks are comfortable with who they'll be rolling with in the future (having inked both Brunson and Barrett to expensive long-term contracts), the question of where has popped up in recent years.
Adams has been a part of the long-gestating reclamation plan centered around the intercity railroad station Penn Station, which resides below the Garden's hardwood. The polarizing project carries the rumor that the Knicks and the NHL's New York Rangers could be uprooted from their MSG home and move to a new version. The current, fourth edition has been home to the Knicks and Rangers since 1968. James Dolan, head of the Madison Square Garden Company and owner of the Knicks and Rangers, has vocally opposed his teams moving, though Adams recently declared he would be open to starting such a dialogue with him.
But when queried by host Alan Hahn about the move, Adams is making it clear that he prefers the teams stay between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, calling rumors of an uprooting an "interpretation."
"This has been the home of Madison Square Garden, great memories, great victories for years. It was about engaging, good conversation," Adams said. "We want The Garden right here. We love (the Knicks and Rangers) being here and I'm looking forward to many, many more years."
Adams left the door slightly ajar for a potential move, claiming he was "always open to talk with the ownership of what they would like to do and what the future holds."
A Brooklyn native, Adams has used the Knicks' Garden endeavors as inspiration throughout his career as both a politician and a New York City police officer. He claims that MSG serves as a tribute to the "resiliency" of the city, calling out moments like the injured Willis Reed walking out of the MSG tunnels to partake in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, which yielded the Knicks' first championship.
"My (own) resiliency came from watching Will Reed come out on the court with his knees wrapped up but he was able to play. Anytime I feel down and out, I think about those moments. I have this great poster up," Adams said. "It's not just sports. With New York fans, it's about how we define ourselves as New Yorkers.
We are invincible ... 34th (Street) and Eighth Avenue is the legend that invincibility."
The Knicks won Tuesday's exhibition by a 117-96 final. They'll return to action at the Garden on Friday night for another preseason contest against the Indiana Pacers (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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