National Basketball Association

Knicks aiming for championship

Published Dec. 21, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

The hallowed grounds rocked, the crowd roared, and far below on the wooden floor that is basketball’s most sacred ground, a retooled New York Knicks team capped a somewhat meaningless preseason victory over the New Jersey Nets.

The moment Wednesday night was fleeting but fierce: In an 88-82 win that most of the people in the Garden surely knew meant little, the new nature of New York City gave way to some emotion — to a crowd that perhaps glimpsed not just this random win in a shortened preseason, but also the basketball potential unfolding in the Big Apple.

After years of futility, in a city that is as much a basketball Mecca as anywhere in America — home of the Garden, of the Goat, of street ballers and future stars and superb basketball played from the high school level to college and the pros — New York City again has an NBA team to be proud of.

After the game, Amar’e Stoudemire didn’t mince words. This team, he said, is on a “quest” for a championship.

“It’s definitely more intense this year,” the star big man said. “Our goals now are definitely higher. Our goal last year was to make the postseason and we accomplished that. Our goal this season is, ultimately, to win a championship.”

What’s striking about the goal isn’t that a proud, talented player wants to win it all. It’s that finally, in New York City, it’s no longer a notion to laugh at derisively.

“We want to make a push for the playoffs,” rookie guard Iman Shumpert said, “and take it for a ride.”

If that happens, it’ll be in large part because of what Stoudemire put into motion. His decision to sign with the woebegone Knicks last year has ushered in a team that, if not at the level of the Heat, Celtics and Bulls, thinks it could be soon enough.

Carmelo Anthony came on board last season after forcing his way out of Denver, and big man Tyson Chandler was a surprise addition during this shortened preseason. That’s a big three that certainly vaults the Knicks into a more relevant place than they’ve been since some of their players were children.

On Wednesday, Chandler grabbed 12 rebounds and added eight points in 31 minutes. Melo dropped 21 points and added eight rebounds while getting used to his role as point-forward, a situation made urgent by the lack of depth at point guard, at least until free-agent addition Baron Davis comes back from injury in the next four to eight weeks.

And Stoudemire? He played just shy of 24 minutes, had 15 points and emerged later in the locker room saying what the whole city seems to know: It won’t be easy, but the New York Knicks are back.

“It does feel good to finally see us manifest in the way we are,” he said. “This is going to be an exciting year.”

At best the Knicks project as the fourth-best team in the East — they were sixth last year at 42-40 — and that’s being generous. The Miami Heat, while deficient at center and point guard, have found a new calm and confidence as they open their second season under the umbrella of the Big Three. They look to be even more dangerous than last season, when they reached the Finals.

The Chicago Bulls return a team that won 62 games, but they’ve added Rip Hamilton at shooting guard, an addition that fills a huge hole and potentially makes them that much better. And Boston, old as the Celtics may be, remains the better team until the Knicks prove otherwise.

“We have a lot of work to do, but our confidence right now is growing each day,” said Melo, the league's third-leading scorer last season at 25.6 points per game. “We know what we can be. We know what we can do. It’s just a matter of us coming together and doing it.”

Doing it relies on several question marks. Can Melo be the facilitator in a way that involves Stoudemire in the offense, and will Chandler be able to blend his size and physicality with the speed of play head coach Mike D’Antoni requires in his offensive system?

Will Davis return healthy, happy and eager to be more of a passer than a scorer? And can a team under D’Antoni actually play defense, something the Bulls, Heat and Celtics do with passion and precision?

On Wednesday, the players said the answers were yes. Chandler, Melo, Stoudemire and their head coach talked separately about the buy-in on defense and the strides they’ve made in that respect. Davis strutted through the locker room looking pleased to be there. And each of them, it seemed, carried the fact that they have a chance to remove from America’s best basketball town the label of NBA half-wits

Before them, they know, is the chance to bring banners back to the Garden.

“Oh man, that would mean the world to me, to come here (and win),” said Chandler, who won a title in Dallas last season. “I know this is a very prideful city with a great tradition and incredible fans. We’re going to work at it. Definitely give it 100 percent. And I’m going to get out there and do everything I can to get this team to where it should be, and I know my teammates are just as dedicated.”

Asked if he really thought a championship was a realistic goal — if a new group of guys still learning to play together, with an injured point guard and with a star trying his hand at point-forward, actually can consider it realistic to aim for winning it all — Stoudemire didn’t hesitate.

“Absolutely.”

So the moxie at least has returned to the New York Knicks. Starting Sunday, when they open against the Boston Celtics, we’ll start to see whether or not the play that once made this town the pride of the game has returned with it.

You can follow Bill Reiter on Twitter or email him at foxsportsreiter@gmail.com.