Guttural Fan Noises And Exceptional Risottos, With Giri Nathan

There are many people who are capable of watching dramatic sporting events in crowded bars and enjoying themselves. You may be one of them, and you have almost certainly seen them out there erupting in celebration at big moments, or just chanting "U-P-S" at a UPS truck because they don't know what else to do with themselves. The NBA playoffs are great for these people, and the subset that have given themselves to the New York Knicks have been having a pretty incredible time of it as of late. But this is not the only type of fan that exists, and this week we welcomed a different type of fan onto the podcast—our resident Knicks diehard Giri Nathan, who has watched his lifelong fan dream come to the very edge of realization while sitting on the floor of his apartment, nursing a seltzer and trying not to wake up his baby with OG Anunoby-inspired ululations. The sickos matter, too. We recorded the episode around midday on Wednesday, as is our custom, which means that the events of that evening's implausible Game 4 were not covered. In their place, we have an assessment of what the first three games illustrated about these two fascinating teams, and also of what the series has done to Giri's emotional state. There is a good deal of vibe assessment and basketball analysis, a retrospectively unavoidable amount of Robert Kraft voice, and a consideration of the oafish security theater that surrounded both Game 3's accursed presidential visit and, for reasons that have not been specified, also Game 4. But there's a lot of basketball talk, too, including Giri's prescient Jose Alvarado prophecy, a consideration of the specific officiating problems and broader officiating challenges of these NBA Finals, and how the game is struggling to keep up with the emerging foul-all-the-time-on-every-play exploit.