It will never be this way again for this group of Giants, and on one level that’s a good thing. No matter what happens this Sunday at Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium, or wherever else January (and, dare we even say it, February) may bring them, these Giants — the Joe Schoen/Brian Daboll Giants, and whatever pieces of the core remain going forward — will never have a season quite like this one.
Pat Riley gave a name to a season like this nearly 30 years ago.
He called it “The Innocent Climb.”
“A team of unselfish members, without any impressive success, begins an innocent climb to greatness when the team starts achieving something dramatic,” Riley wrote in his 1994 book “The Winner Within.” “When a team dedicates itself to acting unselfishly, trusting each other and combining instinct with boldness, it is ready to achieve something spectacular.”
Riley was referring specifically to his first Knicks team in 1991-92, a team that went from 39 wins to 51 and tied the Celtics for the Atlantic Division title, the first time in 21 years a Knicks team had finished in first place. After beating the Pistons in five, the Knicks pushed Chicago to a Game 7 — the first of only two times the Bulls were ever extended the distance in the 24 series victories that encompassed their six titles between 1991-98.
Riley’s Knicks went on to other successes, but those triumphs came with something else: expectations. And so the 60-win season in 1992-93 and the run to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, while exhilarating, weren’t nearly the same. They couldn’t be. You can only taste initial success as a group once.
“Innocence is a state of mind that if you give of your best to the team effort, you’ll get your fair share of good fortune over the long haul,” Riley wrote.
“There is a world of difference between innocence and being naive. Being naive means failing to understand what is required to succeed. Being innocent, by contrast, means understanding that everybody needs their own space, but being personally willing to put those personal feelings aside for the good of the team as a whole.”
Sound familiar? It should, if you’ve watched the Giants much this year.
And while Riley absorbed a lot of backlash for that book and some of its other clever turns of phrase — “The Disease of Me” was another popular one (and the immediate pothole awaiting the descent of the innocent climb); “The Core Covenant” was another — coaches lapped it up.
And, well. The man has won nine rings as a player, assistant coach, head coach and GM, and allowed the Knicks a singular wellspring of prosperity in a 50-plus year desert that stretches back to 1973. He sort of knows the subject pretty well.
The fact is, this has been as enjoyable a season as a Giants fan has been allowed to experience in forever. Even the seasons preceding their most recent Super Bowl wins didn’t have a season quite like this one since they were tinged in disappointment and failed expectation and the near-firing of Tom Coughlin. Really, you have to go back to 1997, Jim Fassel’s first season, to experience a true innocent climb for Big Blue, a 10-5-1 stunner (and, no, now is not the time remind you against whom that season ended).
There have been others. The ’84 Mets, for sure. The ’93 Yankees. Last year’s Rangers were quintessential. The ’97 Jets, Bill Parcells first there, who went from 1-15 to 9-7 and the brink of the playoffs. The ’94 Devils. The 2001-02 Nets, when Jason Kidd slowly brought the greatest show in the league to North Jersey.
Some of those teams reached their sport’s highest high soon thereafter. Some fell short. But even the years that ended with a parade weren’t as carefree as the climb that preceded it.
There is good reason to believe these Giants, the Schoen & Daboll Giants — (Has that been used yet? That should be a thing, Schoen & Daboll.) — are bound for beautiful things over the next few years. They experienced a similar season four years ago in Buffalo, Josh Allen’s second season, when the Bills won 10 games and first started to understand how good they could be. Both were assistants then, Schoen in the front office, Daboll as Sean McDermott’s offensive coordinator.
Bills fans have mostly had a blast in the years since. But it was just a little different that first time through. That can only happen once.
“Innocence,” Pat Riley wrote 29 years ago, “is a positive choice made in the belief that the team can achieve something great.”
It is great to see, the start of something potentially great. And ever so fleeting.
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