Six years ago, Shaun Geddes, the host of the Knicks-centric YouTube postgame show "Postgame Prosperity," had a manic episode that landed him in the hospital. For a week, Geddes was holed up in a South Florida facility, sullen and heavily medicated. He had trouble sleeping, and he wasn't able to watch the NBA playoffs. He had to relearn activities that used to come naturally to him, like driving, and wondered if his life was marked for indefinite gloom. "It was weird to be able to be in myself but not be in myself," Geddes told me. "Like, I knew that I was myself, but I I couldn't bring out the energy. I had to wonder whether it would always be like that."
Shortly after his time in that hospital, Geddes joined The Knicks Wall, after being a fan of the homespun fan blog from afar. It's not an exaggeration to say that Knicks fandom helped save him. Geddes, 28, is a sports-talk workhorse. After every game, the Queens native (he moved to South Florida when he was in the second grade) is on YouTube, ranting and charismatically rehashing what just happened during the Knicks game. When he's on air, Geddes, with his braids and pointed jawline, is fascinating to behold. It's like watching your cousin who is really into the Knicks, but also, your cousin is John Oliver ranting about point guard play. "Shaun has this energy that people gravitate towards. Whenever you are smart and have the energy that he does, people will come," Kyle Maggio, the head of business operations of The Knicks Wall, told me, and he lets Geddes pretty much call the shots on the postgame shows.
Geddes usually has a whiteboard behind him with a message, or an exclamation, that captures the theme of what just transpired during the game. After the Knicks's double-overtime win against the Celtics on March 6, that message was “NINE OF THEM THANGS," a reference to the Knicks's nine-game win streak. (On the same postgame show, he finally welcomed viewers to the broadcast thirty minutes into his livestream, because he was screaming so much from excitement.) After the win against the Portland Trail Blazers last week, it was "WHAT WOULD TAY KEITH DO?," a nod to the inimitable producer's tag: "Fuck these niggas up." And earlier this week, after a brutal loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Geddes just stared at the camera in silence for a full minute before writing "OUCH."
Geddes is an exuberant host, and abandoning the idea of objectivity is pretty much the point—this isn't MSG's sanitized post-game show. When the Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau routinely played ineffective guard Elfrid Payton during the team's resurgent 2020-2021 season, Geddes (mostly) jokingly called Thibodeau a "war criminal." Above all, Geddes is a Knicks fan. For the first few minutes of his livestreams, especially after a victory, he will passionately scream about the game without really diving into specifics. Joy, or despair, comes first, then the analysis. Geddes will read the comments scrolling by from fans and he'll play off of what they're saying.
While Geddes is physically far from the Garden these days, he says the Knicks are imprinted on him. "Through my aunt, we used to have these really nice seats. I got to go to the 2001 playoffs series against the Raptors. They handed out these orange towels, and I had that [towel] for a very long time," he told me. "The Garden is so natural. The feeling at the Garden is nothing like it. Not even cliche—you're home when you're there."
The Knicks Wall is independent and doesn't pay much, but its members are incredibly passionate. (Full disclosure: I wrote a few things for them a few years ago.) Their coverage has a balance of being critical of Knicks ownership and management (often rightfully so), but not sardonic about the players, fans, or the team itself. "KNICKS FOR CLICKS"—the oft-repeated saying bemoaning the idea that national sites and broadcasts make fun of the Knicks because they know that the team and their long-suffering fans can't help but click on those stories—is a bit of a narcissistic fantasy that Knicks fans cling to, but it's true that Knicks coverage is often grim and frustrating to listen to.
Take, for example, Fox Sports's Nick Wright's commentary on why the surging Knicks won't do anything in the postseason. Enter the "KNICKS FOR CLICKS" mindset, and suddenly, you'll be able to perceive that Wright's arguments are rarely convincing. That sort of purposeful slagging of the Knicks is transparently cynical, and boring, and meant to get Knicks fans riled up. Not everyone can be like Stephen A. Smith, and "always triggered." Some people just want to feel good about their team—enter The Knicks Wall.
Geddes noticed that The Knicks Wall coverage felt raw, down-to-earth. It captured the feeling that rooting for a team you love doesn't need some sort of disclaimer at all times. "I thought the voice of the brand was cool. I remember liking Kyle Maggio's stuff on Twitter. I followed Maggio, and asked him if I could be a part of The Knicks Wall," Geddes told me. "It was a stab in the dark, but they immediately said yes."
It wasn't until the abysmal 2019-2020 season that Geddes started doing the "Postgame Prosperity" segments. (It's called "Postgame Pouting" if the Knicks lose.) "I had asked if I could take over [the postgame coverage], if that was okay," said Geddes. "They were like, 'Go get that. You got it.'" But it took a while to create the full setup that we see now. At first, Geddes had a Michael Jordan poster behind him. It didn't go over so well with Knicks fans. "I can understand that," Geddes said.
After a few games, Geddes purchased a whiteboard from Amazon, like Steve Kornacki counting up votes, but for Knicks vibes and thoughts. "My room has become a set," he joked. "The setup isn't flashy, but it is distinct."
The surprise run of 2020-2021 brought the gift of a playoff appearance for the starving Knicks fanbase, who were still mostly stuck at home and away from the Garden. Geddes's postgame shows began to shoot up in popularity for people who wanted to talk about the Knicks, but were separated from their friends. "People started making memes of the live show. Then it caught on," explained Geddes.
While viewership is only in the high hundreds for each postgame show, it goes up during the playoffs and especially after games against the Celtics. And the show has some famous fans—sometimes, the comedian and lifelong Knicks fan Desus Nice will show up in the comments, cheering Geddes on. "Shaun is my guy in real life. I love his passion," Desus told Hell Gate. "Knicks fans have been through it, and you gotta be a real one to endure this blue and orange life for the past few years."
The actor Ben Stiller might be Geddes's most unexpected fan. Last year, the lifelong Knicks fans and New York native reached out to Geddes and took him to a game at MSG. "When I say that anything is possible, that is what I mean. He would like The Knicks Wall posts about the live show. And I was like, 'I wonder if Ben Stiller watches this,'" Geddes said. "Then he tweeted at me and he DMed me one time and told me he appreciated my energy." Of Stiller, Geddes said, "He was a down-to-earth guy."
To be a fan is to be in psychic lockstep with your team; it's an almost sensual and telepathic relationship. What makes Geddes's work resonate is that you can tell that he lives by what this team is doing. He's truly glowing if they win—and adamant about what is wrong when they lose. "I try to be vocal about things, because I never want people to be alone," Geddes said. "When I am having a tough time in life, when the Knicks play poorly, it's hard. But I also have to manage that."
Geddes isn't kidding about not wanting people to be alone. When he goes to Madison Square Garden the few times a year he makes the trip to New York City, people often stop him to takes pictures. (We have one together on Twitter somewhere.) No matter how many people come up to him, feeling like they know him from his videos chronicling the ups and downs of an era in Knicks basketball that's actually fun, he stops and chats. "I want to meet people as people," Geddes said. "It's a blessing every day to have an opportunity to be myself, because I once wondered if I ever would be, and that's why I try to be as vocal as possible about it. Anything's possible."
