We are the Champions!

 30 years. That's how long I've been a Knicks fan. Since I was in 5th grade. Through the ups and downs, the many, many downs, the mismanagement, even the horrors of the Phil Jackson era...I've been a Knicks fan. I never thought I would see the day the Knicks were NBA Champions. Not only for the 30 years have I been watching the sport...not for the 41 years I've been alive...but for 53 long years the Knicks were held out of the Champions list. I've seen them play in the Finals before. Most of the time I've seen them fall short. This year, though...this year was different. Not only did the Knicks win the NBA Championship, they dominated the playoffs. Largest margins of victory. Longest winning streak. Biggest comeback. All these things were accomplished this season, and finally...finally, the Knicks won it all, for the third time in their 79 attempts. One of only three original NBA teams- and one of only two to be in the same city the entire time, the Knicks became only the 9th franchise with 3 or more NBA Championships. I don't know what the future holds, back to back winners are very rare by design in this era. The salary cap already cost the Knicks three of the Championship players including key important player Mitchell Robinson, so even though I think a repeat is possible with this core, I'm not going to assume it's a given. I am going to relish every moment of this playoff series and I will rewatch it every time MSG repeats it. 

Now, documenting this on cards. That fell on Topps Now, which did an OK job. They definitely favored the Spurs, but they did make some very nice cards for my team. 

The Championship team photo is always incredible and this year does not disappoint. Although considering my team won I don't think I would be disappointed in any way, lol. 

OG's amazing shot will forever go down as one of the biggest moments in Knicks history. 

Jalen absolutely deserved the MVP. He went above and beyond what most people expected of him. 

Trading for KAT is what made this Finals run possible. That is when the team started to take shape. 

I even got to see a parade for my team! A parade in NY is always great, and in the last three years I've gotten to see one for the Liberty and the Knicks. For a basketball fan it doesn't get much better than that. 

Unfortunately Topps only made 4 cards for the parade, but I got them all, of course. 

Finally, on July 23rd my Champions team set arrived.

A 15 card insert with one parallel or autograph.  Here are all 15 cards.

My only complaint is that Mike Brown didn't get a card. This was one of the few times in the league where a coach made a positive difference in the team. 

My parallel was the SP version of Mikal Bridges.

I have to be honest, I would rather the Champions team set had been the players with the trophy rather than the action shots. They are good too, and all photos from the finals, but posing with the trophy is special. 

It's now a month later, the cards are all in hand proving this actually happened...but I still can't quite fully believe it. A small part of me still expects to wake up and have it all have been a dream. 

I had to get the shirt too. Fanatics didn't make anything good in my size, so I ended up ordering a bootleg off a Facebook ad. Gotta do what you gotta do.

New York Knicks, 2026 NBA Champions. I will never, ever get tired of hearing that, or writing it. A dream come true. 

3000th Knicks card scanned!

 During the month of March I scanned the 3000th Knicks card in my collection. It's not the 3000th, but the 3000th scanned. That's a pretty cool milestone and I wanted to get a post out of it. Although I have not finished this month's upload yet, they join the Celtics, Bulls, Warriors and Lakers as the only teams to hit that mark...although there's a pretty high likelihood that 5 to 10 more teams may reach that mark by the end of 2026, maybe as soon as April. 

This was the 3000th scanned:

and this was 3000th actually uploaded:

I would like to have the Knicks take the top spot in my collection tally but there are just so many more cards available for the Bulls and Lakers that I doubt it will ever happen. 

Madison Square Garden Tour and Times Square

As I've mentioned a few times, my brother has a series of Adventures he is taking me on...yesterday's was actually my birthday trip. Even though my birthday was in October, a combination of my health, finances, and simple timing all combined to mean we couldn't do it until yesterday...and it was very much worth the wait! 

 The round signs say "Welcome to Manhattan"...it was his first time ever driving in Manhattan and the first time we had been there since 1994, when we took a tour provided by his college to the American Museum of Natural History. I was 10 and don't remember much of it.

 George Washington Bridge

 Glass buildings

 Driving through Manhattan! It wasn't really as dark as the pictures make it seem, I just have a crappy camera.

 A statue of a garment worker. His car was basically on the other side of that coffee shop in a multi-story parking garage.

 This is taken standing in front of the statue in the above picture and looking left, which I think is north but I'm not 100% sure.

 Times Square! The first time either of us has been there...it's actually smaller than I expected it to be.

 Looking up, you can see the pole that the ball drops down on New Year's Eve

 As someone who is really afraid of heights, I don't think I could deal with being in any of these buildings.

 The ball! Unfortunately, it was mostly covered, but I was able to get some of it with my camera. While it generally does not take good photos, it does have 42x optical zoom and actually does better with far away things than close up things.

 The ESPN building!

 More Times Sqaure

 Even more

 A double decker bus

 The Disney Store in Times Square

 Inside the Disney store

 A giant gold Mickey in the store

 They have some steps you can go up in Times Square. That's my brother up on top in the far left corner. I was not planning to go up, since the heights thing, but....

 I decided to anyway! This is the view from the top. On the way home, we actually drove across the street where the taxi is, so my brother can honestly say he's driven through Times Square!

 My reflection in a giant polished steel teardrop sculpture

 Madison Square Garden! Yes, the building is actually round. It's name comes from Madison Square, where the first building was built in 1876, not the shape of the building.

 Penn Station

 The Garden has quotes from famous people around the building. Most of my pictures did not come out very well.

 I didn't know Amtrak had their own police.

 A baby police car!

 We walked around the entire outside of the Garden, which means we came up on it from the other side. The neon sign advertises the next Knicks game

 The MSG Network building, where all the Knicks, Rangers, Islanders and Devils TV broadcasts come out of (A channel I've watched quite a lot of over the years)

 The same sign, now advertising the next Rangers game

 Very large Knicks sign, in the Garden's entryway

 Props for the photos that come with the tour- the sticks are game used, the balls were not.

 There is a picture and event circling the entire floor for every day of the year. The tour was fast paced so there was no chance to read them all.

 Our tour guide and the Fight of the Century Memorabilia

 One of the most iconic moments in sports history, in my opinion.

 Willis Reed game worn-shoe.

 Fun fact- Marilyn Monroe was a very distant cousin

 Wayne Gretzky memorabilia

 One of the Garden's beer rooms

 My first in-person view of an NBA court, EVER!

 Best shot I could get of the Rangers retired numbers. The tour did not take us to the other side so I could not spot the Knicks retired numbers.

 Rangers banners in the rafters.

A great shot of the court! This is now my cover photo on Facebook.

 The actual Knicks locker room! They let us look into the Rangers room as well but my pictures came out too blurry.

 The Liberty no longer play in the Garden and are in the process of being sold. This was pretty much the only reference to them I saw. However, it sounds like they are, for all intents and purposes, being sold to the Nets so they shouldn't go too far.

 Over the two entranceways they have a giant TV screen on the ceiling. It was pretty darn cool!

 An actual, concert used piano by Billy Joel.

 A scale model of the Garden, including the walkway we went on as part of the tour, with people on it.

 The Rangers banner is in the other hallway across from the Knicks

 A most unusual building

 Manhattan has many nicknames, The City of Taxis would be an appropriate one. Now that I see that Manhattan is not the big scary place the NYC news makes it seem...I wish we had gone when Checkers were still plying the streets.

 Our last stop before returning home was the original location of Midtown Comics. By this point I was exhausted from all the walking, and this was the only photo I took...I didn't even think to take one of the outside of the store. Of course, my number was also low- we ate lunch right after this, and my number was 59, the third lowest it's been since I had to begin testing three times a day in 2013. My doctor has been on me to get more exercise...

 The Intrepid Air & Space Museum! I wanted to go to this before...but actually seeing it, I want to go even more now!! We shall be doing this one, but not until the weather gets a little warmer. It topped out at about 25 yesterday, according to my brother's car.

 The Hustler club

 more of the Hustler Club

 Some unusual shaped buildings

 the George Washington Bridge as seen heading north

 What an usual way to build.

 Empire City Raceway and Casino

 Indoor skydiving...I'll pass. Because if I tried it, I'll pass out.

 A mural in Tarrytown

 Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, dating to 1685. I believe this may be the oldest building I've ever photographed. You may have heard of it, after all, this is the one in the famous Headless Horseman poem.

 We have now made 4 trips to New York City, and every one has resulted in seeing a classic car in the city! Although I was not able to get a photo of the two I saw in the city, I saw a total of 8 on the day, this one is just south of Peekskill.

 This and the next photo are original mile markers on the original Albany Post road, which evolved into Route 9, which is the main road through my hometown, and also through my favorite place in the world, Lake George, and even where we were today- Broadway, on both sides of Times Square, is also Route 9. The red mile stone dates to the mid-1700s. I can't find the exact date of the mile stones, but here's a Wikipedia entry that gives the history of the road. My home town is mentioned several times.

I was a little disappointed with the MSG store. While the employees were all super friendly and helpful, the selection was limited. They didn't have any shirts or jerseys larger than 2X, which is too small for me, there was not a single trading card in the entire building either. My actual birthday present from my brother was not the trip (although I considered the tour the present) but $100 to spend in the MSG store...and I wasn't able to. I had planned to get a Knicks shirt and found several designs I liked, too, but no go. I did manage to get this Official Game Puck, although I don't know if it was game used or not, a 1/64 diecast Rangers Zamboni, an MSG magnet and two mint containers- not that I ever plan to eat the mints (mint is disgusting) but the tins have the Knicks and Rangers logo on them. Aside from the cards, of which there are now 13,000, and the one Rangers shirt I wear some times, this is my first NHL memorabilia.

One of the cooler things...each Tour comes with a photo, and you get to use a prop...I chose this stick, which is a game used item from Henrik Lundqvist, my favorite player in the league!

My brother took this photo, it's now my profile picture on Facebook!

This is the official picture, which actually comes through as a video, but we got a screencap. I'm pretty sure this is the first time my brother Rich has actually appeared on Cardboard History, though I know I've posted myself before.

Overall, it was an excellent day. We accomplished things we didn't think we could do- walking through Manhattan, driving through it for my brother- but we did. And it was great. And it's going to happen again! So far, all four adventures he has chosen have been winners, and this was no exception. I really enjoyed it a lot!

I took over 560 pictures, and only shared the best here. I have them all on my website, which you can see HERE.