New York Loves Someone to Hate
Wembanyama now provides purpose: Galvanizing Knicks fans and summoning heroes. Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs has become the new figure for New York fans to take out frustrations on. ‘I’m nowhere near Trae Young level, though.’ - VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, the latest villain in Knicks lore. MARCUS THOMPSON II - The Athletic The New York Times - Mercoledì 10 giugno 2026 Pagina 28 Gotham always needs a villain. New York prefers someone to revile, someone to rally against. This city is girded with grievances: the abysmal traffic, the absurd rent, the oppressive weather, the idiot tourist in the way on a busy sidewalk, the taxi darting across three lanes with no blinker, the neighbor who somehow got a better deal. This city wakes up looking for a place to put its fury. And because of New York’s significance as a city at the center of so much American excellence, it attracts as much resentment as it does admiration. It makes New Yorkers a proud and protective people. That tension ...