Is WWE star true MVP of New York Knicks' improbable championship run?
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Inquiring minds would like to know: does Danhausen have any time to save the New York Giants?
Maybe he can give John Harbaugh and John Mara a call over in East Rutherford.
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Perhaps Steve Cohen should fork over a few bucks to solve what’s gone wrong with the Mets in Queens.
Of course, Woody Johnson and the Jets should be at the front of the line.
Desperate times during which even the proudest franchises may feel jinxed by the sports gods require the unlikeliest of heroes, so the question that must be asked is this:
Is the "very nice, very evil" WWE star the true Most Valuable Player of the New York Knicks' championship run?
Much has been made about the celebrities crashing the Knicks’ playoff party, and rightfully so, but to truly appreciate the wacky and wild ride of it all, we need to go back to when everything changed on a dime.
Well, not a dime, but a plea that cost $137.50, tax included.
Because the impact the quirky Danhausen has had on the Knicks' success and their thrilling postseason run was certainly not scripted. Yet there is no denying something happened after Jalen Brunson and Co. found themselves trailing the Atlanta Hawks 2 games to 1 in the first round of the NBA playoffs - right around the time Danhausen was asked to get involved back in April.
Justin Starr was desperate and as a lifelong Knicks fan he felt another season was slipping away, thanks in part to Danhausen’s feud with ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith.
Wait: what? A professional wrestler in face paint that resembles a mash-up of a crazy circus clown and the rock band KISS, and one of the most famous talking heads around, possibly contributing to the end of the Knicks' season? Sometimes truth is as entertaining as fiction.
"I was talking to my two buddies and I'm like, guys, like, I gotta do something about this," Starr recalled for NorthJersey.com and The Record on Friday. "We lost two games in a row by one point, Danhausen had cursed Stephen A., who is a Knicks fan, and I worried the team was caught up in that. So I saw Danhausen had his Cameos open, and I'm like, I think I'm gonna pay Danhausen to uncurse the Knicks. Then my one buddy said, ‘Well, I think you should unless you don't want to watch sports this summer,' and five seconds later, I purchased the Cameo."
How and why Danhausen decided to lend his supernatural powers - again, real or imagined - to the Knicks and the plight they found themselves in can be traced back that plea from Starr, a 33-year-old Long Island native who hosts a wrestling podcast, "The 10 Count."
It's the best money Starr has ever spent as a fan, and this one happens to work two other jobs to help make ends meet for his wife and 18-month son. J-Starrhausen, his alter ego for this story, spends his mornings as a courier for FedEx Express and his afternoons helping out at his family's butcher shop, Scott's Five Star Meat Center, in Commack, N.Y.
Danhausen has gained a lot of notoriety for his "uncursing" of the Knicks when they were reeling, their suspect viability to survive the first round of the playoffs at the time, let alone reach the NBA Finals.
The Knicks are now one victory from their first NBA title since 1973 entering Saturday night's Game 5 against the Spurs in San Antonio. They have lost just once since Danhausen sent this Cameo video to Starr, whose own commitment to the championship cause has absolutely been overlooked.
Who is WWE superstar Danhausen?
If Conan O’Brien were possessed by a demon, you’d get Danhausen (real name: Donovan Andrew Danhausen), who spends most of his time putting hexes on his opponents while asking friends, foes, fans and bosses for “human money” compensation for his work. Those curses are typically placed upon those who either cross or doubt Danhausen, and they usually play out both comedically and competitively.
The Knicks won 13 straight games after Danhausen's "uncursing" picked up steam on social media. He was invited to Madison Square Garden, where the Detroit native donned a Knicks' jersey and posed with such celebrities as Ben Stiller and Cardi B.
When the Knicks were down 29 points to the Spurs in Game 4, Danhausen promised he never lost faith.
And when OG Anunoby's tip in with 1.2 seconds left capped the greatest comeback in the history of the NBA Finals, providing the Knicks with a stunning 107-106 triumph and a 3-1 series lead, Danhausen wrote on social media: "Do not doubt Danhausen. Do not doubt KNICKSHAUSEN."
This isn't the Knicks' first venture into a WWE-inspired feud. Back on June 28, 2024, during an episode of Friday Night Smackdown in Madison Square Garden, Brunson and the Pacers' Tyrese Haliburton stood in the ring with good guy LA Knight and heel Logan Paul, respectively, and ate up the stare down, igniting their on-court rivalry from the playoffs earlier that month.
Two years later, the WWE spotlight is again shining on the Knicks, only this time their chance of winning a championship is real, not an imagined storyline. Danhausen's "uncursing" got to 13-0 for the Knicks prior to their Game 3 defeat.
Now that the NBA Finals have crossed into the world of sports entertainment, there is speculation that the loss was all part of a bigger storyline with Taylor Swift joining Mariska Hargitay, Ben Stiller and others courtside for Game 4 and the miraculous rally that ensued. The Danhausen streak was temporarily ended at 13, only so Swift and OG could have their moments on Wednesday night.
"It's all written in the stars - pun intended," Starr said with a laugh. "I told my wife that, if we have another son, the name Danhausen Ogugua Brunson Starr just sounds phenomenal, and that would be some ending to this story when the Knicks win the title. Then Danhausen's cape goes to the rafters with the championship banner."
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Is WWE star Danhausen true MVP of Knicks' improbable championship run?