PHILADELPHIA — At this point, it’s hard to remember just how thirsty we were as a basketball populace for so many years, just how starved.

The Knicks lost 93-80 to the Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals on June 2, 2000. That year was the ninth consecutive when the Knicks had won at least one playoff series. That was a franchise record.

Knicks fans had gotten comfortable with the prosperity.

But from that day until April 26, 2023 — just under 23 years, for those without a calculator — the Knicks won one playoff series, total. That’s one (1). One. It wasn’t just a drought at Penn Plaza come playoff time for the Knicks, it was a web of the Sahara, the Mojave and the Arabian deserts, strung back-to-back, an endless sandscape.