Orange, Blue... and Dad's Green
As I write this, the Knicks championship parade has just begun winding its way through the streets of Manhattan. Their long-awaited victory in this year's Finals has me feeling all kinds of ways, just like every other New Yorker- and I'm not even an active fan! Sure, I watched the occasional game with friends or family over the years but the truth is, in my household my father- my very New York father, born and raised in the Bronx and a lifelong Yankees fan- was never a Knicks fan. His basketball heart belonged to the Boston Celtics.
So instead, I grew up surrounded by Larry Bird posters, T-shirts, Celtics books on shelves and the coffee table. As a boy, he fell in love with the team of the 1950s, dazzled by a player whose brilliance stayed with him for decades. Later, Larry Bird became his favorite. The Celtics Kelly-green uniforms didn't hurt either, as that particular green has always been his favorite color. To this day I still don't which came first- his love of the Celtics or his love of that shade of green. A very "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" kind of deal.
But on this burnt orange blog I want to reflect a little about the blue and orange colors that inhabit the Knicks and several other NY teams. Aside from the sport itself and victory, I love watching my city wrapped in orange this week. But those colors are older than the (1946) Knicks. Older than the NBA. Their origins lie in New York City's own flag, whose roots stretch back to the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and The House of Orange. The Mets wear them too. Long before they became the colors of sports franchises, they were the colors of the city itself.
What I've been loving about the Knicks is how unifying they are here. New York sports fandom is famously divided. Yankees or Mets, Giants or Jets, Islanders or Rangers. Every allegiance seems to come with its rival. But The Knicks have been doing a fantastic job bringing us New Yorkers closer together- cheering, basking in the glory, and spreading the love ๐๐งก
New butterfly patches for my old jacket. Arranged the blue and orange ones together on the top:)
UncuttArt, an amazing street artist, who always reminds us to protect our hearts
https://linktr.ee/UncuttArt?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAb21jcASg7gZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA81NjcwNjczNDMzNTI0MjcAAadGH3qhNMEVqD8at2jKf0BMi2P7GK-CAmIMfPLKH5uTYXHGeZK7PGIm74vFRg_aem_Q83qeo_8bMx1RL_0oR7BbA
Just a Paul McCartney album I was playing recently and coincidentally, I see that it bears the beloved colors on my mind
In my orange and blue...
...And my blue and orange lol
Noteworthy
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/collective-effervescence-meaning-goog_l_6a315186e4b07f7766eae1bd/amp
Great articles on the sport fan,
on what it means to NY,
And the term, collective effervescence










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