The Knicks are back in the playoffs!

The 2010 offseason for the NY Knicks and their fans proved to be an emotional roller coaster. With the uncertainty of landing Lebron James, the Knicks made the bold move of going ahead and giving free agent superstar Amare Stoudemire
a huge contract to bring his talents to the Garden. A few days later, Lebron hit up primetime tv and let the world know he was to become part of the Miami Heat.

Instead of worrying about the lack of talent around him, Amare played like a man possessed and made the Knicks look like something that they haven't in years.....WINNERS.

Then came the blockbuster trade 50+ games into the season that sent Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to NY in exchange for several of the team's starting players. The mid season shake up has proven to keep the roller coaster going as the team has endured some ugly losses and has a losing record since the trade (10-12).

All these things were put into the background last night at Madison Square Garden as the Knicks crushed the Cleveland Cavs and clinched their first playoff appearance in 7 years.

“That was the first goal,” D’Antoni said of making the playoffs. “It would be nice to have home-court advantage, but we didn’t do that. Other than that, this is as good as we can do up to this point. Now we have to keep getting better defensively, rebounding, all the little stuff.”

Coach D'Antoni made sure to show his appreciation to the player that began the reversal of fortune, Amare Stoudamire.

“He was just very appreciative that I was strong enough to come here in a situation where it wasn’t looking great and secondly to take the challenge for myself and also the team to speak so bold at the start of the year about the Knicks are back,” Stoudemire said. “And then be in a position now in the playoffs, which was the ultimate goal that we talked about with Mr. Dolan and his staff.”

The Knicks will most likely take the 7th seed and face either the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics in the first round where the will look to get the franchise's first playoff win since the 2000-2001 season. Can the Knicks shock the world and actually take a series from one of these powerhouses?