If you believe in sports as a civic trust then there’s no more essential relationship than the one between a team’s general manger/president/director of operations and the fan base. When a GM — (we’ll simplify this going forward by referring to the decision-makers of a franchise as the GM, regardless of what the official тιтle is) — earns the trust of his fans, that’s when you achieve as close to full sporting satisfaction as the law allows. 

Right now, that seems to be the position Leon Rose holds for the Knicks. And he’s earned that. Rose has made his share of missteps along the way — hello, Evan Fournier; hello, Kemba Walker — but if you were to describe his tenure so far in shooter’s terms, he a 50/40/90 guy (as in field goals, 3s and free throws). 

He’s hit far more than he’s missed. He’s added two starting All-Stars in the past years. He has been patient in waiting for the right times to strike, and much of that happened in the getting-to-know-you phase. But every member of the starting five has been acquired in the past three years. This is his team. It might be imperfect, and in time we might say that for all the good moments they never won a тιтle together, but that’s for the future. 

For now, it’s hard to find a Knicks fan who doesn’t have full trust in Rose. There are many who don’t have the same warm regard for the way Tom Thibodeau coaches the team, and Knicks fans will be in a perpetual state of wait-and-see as long as James L. Dolan is the owner.