Knicks, Wemby, and Murakami's Hot Start | 99Chalk

The Knicks, Murakami, and Wemby

May 9th, 2026

I think the Knicks are going to go to the Finals. Don’t kill me if they don’t. Here are some things that happened yesterday.

Are the Knicks going to the finals?

The Knicks look really, really good. Like, really good. Every game since Game 3 of the Hawks series, they’ve kicked ass, and no team has seemed to have a chance. They’re deep, their rotations are working, and KAT is playing great defense. When all those things are firing, the Knicks are a hard team to stop.

It’s hard to imagine either team on the other side of the bracket beating them. On that side, we have a struggling Cleveland team and a young Pistons squad, though the Pistons give off similar vibes to the Pacers team that knocked the Knicks out last year. A year we thought was the Knicks’ year, after beating the Celtics in the playoffs, before a Tyrese Haliburton moon ball came down and extinguished their flame.

Maybe this is the year they get back to the promised land and bring a title back to New York.

Wemby

WOW. What a game. That was so fun to watch as a fan of neither team. Watching Wemby and Ant trade baskets at each end of the floor was a reminder that basketball is in a great place. That was the kind of basketball we want to watch, not what we’re going to watch tonight with the Thunder and SGA.

It was great to see the refs let both teams battle it out and play with the ferocity that the playoffs deserve. Getting back to Wemby. Watching him play is otherworldly. A 7-foot-7 center shooting threes from beyond the arc and then dribbling like a guard around screens is breathtaking, and something we should not take for granted. But go Wolves.

Munetaka Murakami

I think MLB GMs overthought this one. They saw a power-hitting third baseman who couldn’t play defense and struck out a lot, and decided that in the modern MLB, that wouldn’t work. Well, I think it is working. It’s early in the season so things could change, but he’s now tied for the home run lead with Aaron Judge, the best hitter in baseball.

Sometimes you just need to trust the eye test instead of fixating on a player’s xwOBA. As a fan, I like to see players hit home runs. Strikeouts are ugly, but every team needs that guy who has a chance to go deep every single at-bat. And I think Murakami is going to be even better than that, as he was one of the best players in NPB before coming over to America.

We need to trust the pedigree more and give these players a chance. Let’s give the big guys a shot. You can teach defense, but you can’t teach power.

See ya tomorrow.