i kept reading seeing this. why? how?
Aside from NY being the media-center of the world, the KNICKS brand belongs to those old, legacy teams (CELTS, LAKERS & 76ers) which many still have an affinity with .......... a winning KNICKS team (not even a championship, just have a decent, playoff team), brings that much more coverage in the NBA - imagine those NY-based afternoon, late-night talk shows, raving and not panning a KNICKS team.
One can look no further than with the 76ers ........... they get relevant the past few years - the hype of an EASTERN contender spreads, Embiid is a national troll, Simmons lack of a longball gets league-wide attention, etc.
One more, the KNICKS have get a winning team the EAST gets that much more relevant, improving overall league parity.