He’s about to play in the biggest game of his life, but one USA soccer star can’t take his eyes off the Knicks
Irvine, California (CNN) — The sofa cushions didn’t stand a chance.
The last line of defense between native New Yorker Tyler Adams and a celebration that’s been waiting a lifetime to be born, the off-white pillows in the fancy team hotel turned into a trampoline as Adams and the US Men’s National Team celebrated the Knicks’ improbable win against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
After OG Anunoby tipped in Jalen Brunson’s short three-pointer, Adams – wearing nothing on his feet but a casual pair of red slides – jumped onto the sofa and over the pillows. Then, for good measure, the midfielder reversed course, hurdling over the back of the couch and back onto the cushions, a look of perfectly earned joyous shock plastered on his face.
No doubt the sofa gymnastics gave plenty of soccer fans in the US heart palpitations. On Friday night, Adams will play in inarguably the most important game of his career. The US faces Paraguay in Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium in a World Cup match that has been billed as no less than the most pivotal moment in the evolution of US soccer.
But fandom is fandom and Adams, born in Poughkeepsie and raised in Wappinger Falls, was born in February 1999. A few months later, the Knicks made the Finals; they hadn’t been back since. He, like generations that date back 50-plus years, has never witnessed an NBA championship.
“I mean, listen, I have group chats with me and my boys from back home growing up, and we’ve always been Knicks fans,’’ Adams told CNN Sports. “We’ve never been this close, so it’s exciting. I blacked out.’’
The video of his and his teammates’ celebration, along with going viral, was endearingly real, a snapshot of how – no matter the level of personal fame or athletic success – at the core everyone is a little kid rooting for his team.
The USMNT … they’re just like us. Equally just like us, Adams was more than happy to out the teammates who weren’t Knick fans.
“Brenden Aaronson, hater,’’ Adams said. “He’s a Sixers fan.’’ (In Aaronson’s defense, he grew up in Medford, New Jersey, just across the river from Philly).
That, at the final practice before the US plays in a World Cup on American soil, the first five questions directed at Adams were about the Knicks says something about how the American sports culture tilts.
“Like that’s gonna be the question right now, alright,’’ Adams said with a laugh.
The World Cup might be the biggest sporting event in the world, but the fight for space in the US sporting conscience remains.
Except if you dig deep enough, there are parallels between the USMNT’s mission and the Knicks’ run.
Despite running through the playoffs and winning 11 games in a row, the Knicks were betting underdogs when the series started against San Antonio. Through the entirety of the playoffs and especially in the last four games, they have built a reputation on pluck and guts. They have staged three epic comebacks against the Spurs, saving the most absurd for the most recent, rallying from 29 points down.
In the process, the Knicks have achieved an almost impossible task – they’ve made a professional sports team from New York likeable.
The US team’s hill to climb is even more steep. They are 60-1 odds to win the World Cup, and a realistic good showing would hover somewhere around advancing to the round of 16.
But should they succeed, they will have achieved something akin to the Knicks’ broader accomplishment; they will have opened their sport to a wider audience and perhaps made it likeable to those who opt out.
“I mean it’s pretty captivating,’’ Adams said of the Knicks’ improbable run. “Them being kind of the underdog coming out of the East and doing something special, as they’re doing right now? I mean, I take inspiration from that. But hey, I’m a New York Knicks fan.’’
The-CNN-Wire
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