AS THE FINAL SECONDS ticked away on the New York Knicks ' playoff thrashing of the Boston Celtics in May and the mad revelers of Bing Bong Nation poured out of Madison Square Garden, Justin Brandel sorted through a tangle of emotions. He was watching in amazement from his Manhattan apartment and trying to keep up with the text thread blowing up his phone -- his friends, fellow Knicks fans, hazarding guesses about how much the cheapest tickets would cost for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. $800 just to get in the door? $1,000? $1,500? Screw it, it's worth it , his friends said. The last time the Garden hosted Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was 1994. There's a real chance we'll all be dead before this happens again. These are the Knicks, after all.

As friends began

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