For the first time since 1999, the New York Knicks are going back to the NBA Finals after winning the Eastern Conference Finals in a four game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers. But while most are giving the credit to Knicks star players Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, “ESPN’s SportsCenter” believes another person may have been responsible; WWE’s Danhausen.
On Tuesday, one day after the Knicks closed out the Cavaliers with a 130-93 win, “SportsCenter” did a deep dive into Danhausen’s involvement with the series. And it began so in a way that may have undermined Danhausen’s influence, pointing out that Danhausen had originally cursed the Knicks, as well as “First Take” host and die hard Knicks fan Stephen A. Smith, earlier in the playoffs. Fortunately, the curse hadn’t worked, with the Knicks beating the Atlanta Hawks in six games in the first round before sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round.
It was at that point that Danhausen and the Knicks’ alliance officially formed, with Danhausen returning to ESPN to uncurse the Knicks and Smith, while placing a curse on the Cavaliers, much to the chagrin of Danhausen’s rival and Cavs fan The Miz. Danhausen saw immediate benefits from his change of course, receiving a jersey from the Knicks, as well as attending Game 1 of the Knicks-Cavs series in Madison Square Garden.
For a moment though, it looked like Danhausen’s curse may have backfired, as the Cavs dominated most of Game 1, even going up by twenty two points with a little over seven minutes left remaining. It was then that Brunson took over with a herculean performance to send the game to overtime, with the Knicks ultimately prevailing 115-104. The rest, as they say, was history, history that vindicated Danhausen’s cursing abilities, and landed him a crossover merch deal with the Knicks.