things i think about while powerwashing 177

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As I stand in the muggy subway, my mind struggles to play back through the last five minutes of the game. Somehow, the New York Knicks have won an NBA championship. After all those years of #lolknicks with James Dolan inevitably messing with the team, those years of Kristaps Porzingis, coach Derek Fisher, way too many years of Julius Randle, Kevin Knox, Frank Ntilikina.

I could go on.

But somehow Knicks General Manager Leon Rose constructed a winning roster for this year. A year that has ended with droves of New Yorkers swarming the streets on a sweet summer Saturday night screaming and running, sprinting through the symphony of taxis horns blaring in the night. A night where Jalen Brunson scared over half of his team's points to close out the series in San Antonio. A night where the so-called prodigal child of the NBA failed to show up for his team.

The biggest thing that ran across my mind as I watched people in the streets cheer and yell was how much the NBA needed this. The NBA has been on a decline - partially due to the strange reffing and free throw-based gameplay that has been plaguing the league. Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might be the poster boy for this but even during the playoffs both teams were really trying to hunt for them. But despite that - despite the stop and go and all those god damn ads we saw hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers start to watch basketball for the first time and fall in love with it. Yes you can call them bandwagoners but the fact of the matter is: they're hooked. You might even see them next year.

So to those of you who are subscribed and watched basketball for the first time today: welcome! I hope you stay around for the NBA draft coming in a few weeks as more sports will be discussed on this newsletter going forward!

Anyway I somehow ended up on a rooftop in East Village thanks to esteemed subscriber Leo Liu and his friend! It was pretty crazy hearing other rooftop parties cheer and seeing a whole group of partiers basically just sit on the ledge of their building. As an avid fear-er of heights ... no.

Some general notes to close out this newsletter:

• Mitchell Robinson is the longest-tenured player on the Knicks and was somehow the most impactful throughout the game. Karl Anthony Towns played great defense on Wembanyama (Spurs) but I found that he liked to defend him closer to the arc, giving him some space to facilitate the ball. Robinson on the other hand was able to lock him in around the baseline which severely undermined Wemby's ability as facilitator: big stuff from the big man!
• As you all might know the Spurs really lost this series to themselves at all levels. The spirit of the Kangz reared its ugly head with De'Aaron Fox's extremely boneheaded play at the end of Game 4, and somehow the Kangz virus spread to Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson who decided to keep Fox in despite that!!???
• I was generally in Knicks friendly watch parties (shoutout to esteemed subscribers Leo Liu, Akshay Pawar, John Mema and Matt Jewison), but the one time I was in a Spurs enclave it got pretty awkward (shoutout to esteemed subscriber Sophie Lowe). One last shoutout to Sophie's friend Cody who is a diehard Spurs fan: watching him watch the game was entertainment in itself.

museum of the week

it's been a weekend lol ...

anonymous subscriber news

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animal of the week

My sister and esteemed subscriber Carolyn Chen has been walking quite a bit lately and it seems that she has seen some wildlife as well! Also she is looking for friends to add on Pokemon Go so hit me up if you want to add her.

Duck from san Tomas aquinas trail

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