The Zach Lowe Show
Crazy Knicks Moment Draft and Knicks Hate Index With Sam Morril Live From New York!
17 Mar 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: Why is New York so special to Zach Lowe?
Thank you all for coming. It's raining, right? It's horrible outside. Thank you all for coming. My wife, who is here, will tell you I was panicking.
Chapter 2: What insights does Howard Beck provide about the Eastern Conference?
Nobody was going to show up because of the rain. And then one of the guests, who is a secret, I won't say who, was like, they're New Yorkers. They're tough. They're going to show up. And so you showed up. I'm going to sit because I'm a little nervous, so I'm going to sit. I'll be bringing out a guest in a second, but I'm going to talk for about two minutes. Bear with me.
This is the only show I will ever do where I get a little bit personal. When we were planning... I'm going to stand again. You guys are... Enough. Enough. Shout out the Lithuania shirt, by the way. We were planning all these live shows, like where should we do them? And I said, New York, I gotta do New York. Have to do it in New York. And the Ringer people were like, New York's tough.
Chapter 3: What are the craziest moments in Knicks history?
There's a lot of stuff going on in New York. It's hard to get people in New York. There's a Nets game going on like right there. And I gently said, I don't think that's gonna be much of a deterrent. I think we'll be good. I'll stop. But I wanted to do New York because this one is personal for me on a couple of different levels. I grew up in suburban Connecticut.
Chapter 4: How does David Jacoby evaluate the Knicks' performance this season?
And it's, my dad and my sister, who are both here somewhere, can attest to this. Growing up in the 90s, early 90s as a teenager, I hated the Knicks, and I feared, I didn't just hate New York City, I feared New York City. I was like a little, like, wimpy suburban kid. I literally thought, like, you'd get off the train in Grand Central and someone would just stab you immediately.
All I knew from the morning news was that Tompkins Square Park seemed like Beirut to me. Like, I was like, how could anyone... And now here we are, and I'm doing a live show in New York, and I insisted on doing it. A couple of things changed. Number one, I started covering the NBA for a job.
Once you cover the NBA for a job, you kind of like, Bill disagrees with me about this, but the fandom just kind of gets beaten out of you. The team you like, the team you don't like. They're kind of just sturdy companies competing against each other. Players change teams, people move around. And you have to be professional. Sorry, Bill. You have to be unbiased. Sorry, Bill.
And so it just kind of gets beaten out of you. The other thing I learned covering the league, and I say this, I'm going for cheap applause and I don't care because it's true. The Knicks fan base really might be the single best fan base in the NBA. There is no fan base.
I don't think there is any fan base that more deserves an NBA championship than the Knicks fans who have been waiting their entire life for an NBA championship. And I've been in almost every building in the NBA. There is nothing. Maybe Oracle like peak warriors. That's it. There is nothing like Madison Square Garden during a crazy Knicks playoff game.
And the other thing that changed for me and why we're here, and I insisted we do a show in New York, is that I moved to New York. And I lived in New York for almost 20 years. I met my wife in New York. Vesna is here somewhere. She is the rock of our house. She's the toughest, best person I know. And she not only, she's pushed me to be more daring and adventurous in every phase of my life.
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Chapter 5: What are Sam Morril's top hated teams and players as a Knicks fan?
And part of that is like if you're going to live in New York,
Chapter 6: What does the Knicks Hate Index reveal about fan sentiments?
You got to live in New York. You got to go everywhere. You got to meet everyone. You got to get out of your comfort zone. And lo and behold, I lived there for 20 years and it became my home. Now, as you probably know, I'm a suburban loser dad, but I will always feel like a New Yorker at heart.
And I had to I got to give the commencement speech two years ago at the high school in Connecticut that I went to. And the whole speech was 11 minutes long. And it was really me sort of subtly, maybe actually too subtly. I was thinking I was being too polite.
It was me sort of subtly saying to all of these kids, get out, get out of the suburbs, get out, go live in New York City where you'll meet people from all over the world and people who speak every different language in the world and who eat all the best food. You'll go. I said to them, there is nothing like being in your 20s in New York City.
and going to a bar unattached, who knows who you'll meet. Editors, musicians, writers, finance people. Not my cup of tea, but it was cool to talk to them and like learn about their life. The coolest, most highly accomplished people in the world live in this city. So it's like a total highlight for me to be in the greatest city in the world. It is still my home at heart.
And thank you all for coming out. And my sappy thing is now over. The Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by FanDuel. Things are really heating up on the court, and FanDuel is the best place to bet on all the epic matchups during the NBA season. Build a same-game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout, or try live betting and jump into the action after tip-off.
And don't forget, with FanDuel, you get paid instantly when you win. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app now and play your game. 20 or over in president-select states, 18 or over in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Call 1-888-789-7777 and visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show live from New York City.
And now, without further ado, it is time It is time to say the three most anticipated words in niche, still niche, basketball podcasting. What up, Beck? Howard Beck! Holy fuck. This is a lot of people you invited, Zach. Hell yeah. What we're here to talk about, we're going to do now, we're going to do a segment on the Knicks, the New York Knicks.
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Chapter 7: How do the Knicks compare to their rivals in the Eastern Conference?
And we'll touch on the Nets, I promise. We will have a small segment on the Nets. If someone wants to shout out the updates on the scores of the Nets-Blazers game, it's a huge game. We're all paying great attention. Okay. The New York Knicks squeaked by the Warriors last night. They are 44-25. They have a very easy schedule the rest of the way.
All the nerdy odd systems give them like a 90% chance of either being second or third in the East, which means probably playing the Celtics, which is a whole lot of fun, great Amtrak corridor series. They are, boo the Celtics, boo. For the record, I just said you're allowed to boo the Celtics, not that I would also boo the Celtics. The Knicks, the New York Knickerbockers are third in offense,
Sixth in defense. They are 19-7 in their last 26 games since the Dallas loss, which I was at, which was rock bottom when they got boat raced by the Mavs at home. There are only three teams in the top six in both offense and defense. The Boston Celtics. This is fantastic. I always forget just the hostility between New York and Boston is delightful. The San Antonio Spurs. No, why? Why? Okay, fine.
And the New York Knicks. Even the Thunder are technically first in defense and seventh in offense, so they don't even qualify. And yet, Howard Beck, there is much angst, despite all those nice things I just said, about the Knicks. Stephen A. Smith today blamed Jalen Brunson for everything that's going wrong about the Knicks.
There seems to be very little faith that a team I picked before the season to go to the finals can actually get to the finals, despite the fact that Detroit, three and five in their last eight games. The Cavs, four and five in their last nine games. The Celtics still reintegrating Tatum. Why is there this angst about the Knicks right now? I feel like we should be asking everybody here.
There's one gauge I can use, Zach, that goes beyond all the advanced stats, all the per 100, all the tracking stats, everything else. There's one single gauge I can use as an experienced veteran reporter who's been covering the Knicks and the NBA for a long time in the city, which is this.
Last was it last Tuesday the Knicks were down by something 20-something to the Jazz They won that game, but in the midst of that I started seeing tweets and texts and blue sky posts Blue sky this guy spokesperson for blue sky I'll get you on there. I'll get you back.
There's one of these days But suddenly there on blue sky in fact Something I had not seen in literally years maybe in maybe pre Kovac. I
under the account of our buddy Alan Sepinwall, great TV critic, go buy all his books, subscribe to his sub stack, a tank, a tank gif of a tank, like I don't remember if it was exploding or going off a cliff or something, but Alan had kind of like mothballed the tanking gifs, which he had used for many, many years of many, many bad Knicks seasons, and suddenly there it was again, and I thought, oh no.
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for the Knicks and their playoff aspirations?
I think they're in a little bit of a rut here. I thought their performance last night against the Santa Cruz Warriors was... Pretty depressing. A little alarming. They did win, though, just as they did win that jazz game that Sepinwall revived the tank gift for. But I don't know.
To your point of the context of all the other teams in the East that are contending for those top spots, everybody's got their warts right now. All right, I'll try. There's the standings up there. Yeah, that's right. We're going all out, people. You don't even have to look on your phones. You can look at the standings right here. Look at Cade Cunningham. Cade Cunningham's like, bring it on.
Like... Jalen's towering over him. doesn't it just seem like it's just a little too hard for the Knicks? Things are just a little too difficult. Like Mikael Bridges right now. Massive slump. I don't need to tell you what they traded for him. He's in a massive slump to the point that Mike Brown is asking questions about are you going to change the starting five?
Josh Hart, it's like one night it feels like they've solved the problem of teams put their big men on Josh Hart and just have them rove around and then another night it clogs up their entire offense. Cat Cat's an experience. You guys now have lived it for a couple years. It's a whole experience. Mitchell Robinson, is he going to stay healthy?
Jose Alvarado came in like a meteor and it's kind of petered out a little bit. He's got good chemistry with Cat. He unlocks Cat a little bit. That's petering out. And even like third in offense, you watch some of their possessions on a good night when they really score well. And it just feels like it's on a knife's edge, the entire possession. Like, that guy almost cut into that guy.
I'm not sure Josh Hart really has a plan, and there's four people around him. And somehow they escape it, and everything works out well. And the defense, we all know, right? Teams are going to hunt Brunson. Teams are going to hunt Cat. The Knicks know that. Their defense has been very good since the All-Star break. Many less shots at the rim, many fewer shots at the rim. My dad is a grammarian.
Um... And they've tweaked the scheme and all that. But there's just a lot. But here's what I'm here to say. It's all so angsty. There's no reason why they can't make the finals. Look at the standings. Tell me the reason why they can't make the finals. Go through the teams. The Pistons, can they score enough points in the playoffs with their lack of shooting? Maybe their defense is awesome.
They're tough as shit. Maybe. The Celtics, I will grant you, feel like the most... The Celtics feel like the most together team of these top four teams, like the team that knows most who they are and what they want to be and how they want to play. They have an incredible starting five now that Tatum is back. But Tatum is four games into coming back from a catastrophic injury 10 months ago.
I kind of want to see it a little bit longer before I'm like, no-brainer. They were crowned favorites in the East. One game into Tatum's comeback, all the talking points was, oh, they're the favorites in the East. Maybe. Cleveland... they're really good. They have a lot of talent. Somebody's always injured. I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this.
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