Then I started watching some NBA on television. There was a highlights package. I think it was on Sunday afternoons.
Michael Jordan was just coming on the scene and everyone was getting into him and the Bulls. The big rivalry at the time was Bulls-Knicks, so I took the alternate team and became a Knicks fan.
The Knicks were a really good team back then. They were the best team in the Eastern Conference - apart from the Bulls, obviously - and they were probably the most dominant defensive team.
Through 1992 to about 1995, they won a lot of games and it was pretty easy being a Knicks fan. Then came the Latrell Sprewell-Allan Houston era, and that was huge. I also became a really big fan of the coach, Jeff Van Gundy.
So those were sort of the high points of my life as a Knicks basketball fan.
The low points? Just the last 12 years, I suppose.
It's been really tough watching the Knicks for a long time. Demoralising at times. You could see there was potential there, but they just kept losing.
The Knicks had always been able to attract top players to New York. But it went from players wanting to be there to players wanting to get out of there. They became the joke of the NBA.
My support really wavered during the time Isaiah Thomas was in charge. I looked at supporting other teams and didn't pay so much attention to the Knicks.
But when he went, and Mike D'Antoni came in, I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Straight away it looked like the team was going to be a lot better, and they certainly are.
I'm really optimistic about this season and beyond. I think they've got the potential to be Eastern Conference champions, and I think they can compete with any team in the West.
I've come across a few Knicks fans in New Zealand, but not many. I coached a team once and found two kids who, for whatever reason, were Knicks fans. They were only 12 or 13, so the only Knicks they had known were the awful Knicks.
There aren't too many of us around, but those people that are Knicks fans are true blue. You can't beat them.
In Easter 2007 I got to go to New York. We had been in London and flew to New York for five days for a so-called holiday. Really, it was just so I could see the Knicks.
Madison Square Garden was mind-blowing. It almost brought a tear to my eye.
We sat right underneath the Patrick Ewing banner. That was pretty special.
The Knicks weren't great but it was a chance to see some of the best players in the league. Kevin Garnett was playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves, so to see him in action was pretty amazing.
I came home with a Knicks T-shirt and a Knicks hat. And I've still got the programme sitting on a bookshelf. That's a pretty special memory.
GARETH MITCHELL
- Logistics manager
• Team: New York Knicks.
• Sport: Basketball.
• Fan since: About 18 years ago.
• Favourite player: John Starks.
• Greatest moment: Larry Johnson's four-point play.
• Been to Madison Square Garden?: Yes.
- As told to Hayden Meikle.
