She’s having a ball.
Flub-prone Knicks fan Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday dribbled up another awkward show of support for the team’s bid to win the franchise’s first NBA championship in 53 years.
Hochul, during a news conference about readiness for soccer’s upcoming World Cup, declared herself a fan of all sports.
“I’m fired up. I’m a huge sports fan, whatever it is,” she said.
“If there’s a ball involved, I love it. So, we’re excited, New Yorkers.”
The cringey comment came at the end of Hochul’s remarks and dovetailed with her recent failed attempt to dunk on President Trump’s own Knicks fandom.
Hochul last week tried to undercut Trump’s claim to be a lifelong Knicks supporter by snarkily saying, “I’d ask him to name the starting lineup from the 1993 championship team and see how he does.”
As any long-suffering Knicks fan knows, the orange and blue team last won a championship in 1973.
During 1993, the Knicks blew a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls — who went on to win the championship that launched the team’s first “three-peat.”
The Knicks did make it to the NBA Finals in 1994, but lost to the Houston Rockets. They also did so in 1999, falling to the San Antonio Spurs.
Undaunted by the flub, Hochul began her remarks Thursday by rhapsodizing over the Knicks’ latest championship drive and bafflingly comparing it to dawn.
“Let’s keep it going, Knicks,” she said. “I was just reflecting on the crack of dawn — literally crack of dawn — when the skies are orange and blue, early this morning when I took my walk and you know what I noticed? New Yorkers are making eye contact again. It was shocking. People looking up and have an extra lift in their step and wearing their Knicks gear as I was trying to go incognito but everybody seems to notice.
“There’s something magical in the air. So, it’s a very special day. Go Knicks. Make us all so proud.”
Hochul then tempted fate by invoking a jinx.
“They will be up until the fourth game and then they’ll be done,” she said, before catching herself, “I didn’t say that. I did not jinx anything, OK?”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
