The Knicks are having a fantastic season, with two starters making it to the All-Star team together for the first time since 1975. Meanwhile, the Rangers have been performing exceptionally well since the beginning of 2025.

Weary New York sports fans have earned this joy.

But for over a million Optimum subscribers across New York, New Jersey and Conn, there’s only agita.

That’s because the cable provider has had a blackout of the MSG Network since New Year’s Day.

No Knicks, no Rangers, no Devils or Islanders. Nada. A big fat goose egg. A blank screen.

Unfortunately, fans who are still paying full price for games may feel a bit let down. They now have the option to subscribe to the Gotham sports app for an additional $30 per month. Not exactly the most exciting news for them.

But how much can sports fans be squeezed just to enjoy their local pro teams during the regular season?

My X feed is filled with angry fans literally screaming, “I want My MSG.”

Celebrities like Fox Sports’ Craig Carton and actor Hank Azaria have expressed their opinions on the matter. In addition, various politicians from the tri-state area, including the attorney generals of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, are urging both parties to find a resolution to the ongoing issue.

I am hearing from friends and friends of friends. Nonstop. They feel ripped off, slighted and like Optimum is flipping them the bird.

Jeremy Allen, a 29-year-old recruiter in East Meadow, Long Island, told me, “Sports is the only reason I have cable and now I can’t even watch the games. I guess I was naive thinking it would get resolved right away. What a rude awakening.” The die-hard Knicks fan is shopping options.

Russ Lella, a 55-year-old high school teacher in Melville, watches every regular season Knicks game.

But he spent his Christmas vacation on the phone with Optimum. “I said, ‘Look, you dropped my channel.’ They kept telling me what I did have.”

When he told them he was switching providers, he said, Optimum kept him on the phone for 90 minutes, offering discounts.He still left.

“I am a teacher, so I was off that week and had the time,” Lella said. “My friends, who are too busy with work to deal with this nonsense, are angry. When I went to turn in my equipment, there were literally 20 other people there doing the same because they can’t get MSG.”

My college friend Billy Johnson, who hosts the Big Apple sports podcast “Free Oakley,” said his phone hasn’t known peace since the blackout.

“My Long Island friends are totally screwed. I’m the only one on my text chains who can actually watch the games,” he said. “My best friend sits in his car in his driveway in the freezing cold and listens to the Knicks games on the radio. It’s insane.”

And the timing is a major slap in the face.

“Good Knicks seasons don’t grow on trees,” Johnson pointed out. “And devoted fan are being deprived. They are being held hostage by a couple corporate types.”

MSG and Altice, which owns Optimum, have waged open warfare against each other online. On Tuesday, MSG Networks offered a truce in the form of third-party arbitration. Optimum called it a “nothing more than a pr stunt.”

Look, I’m not in the boardroom. I’m that person in the living room. Most of us are. And we just want the simple pleasure of watching our local teams, not watching our bank accounts dwindle as we add streaming service after streaming service, simply to have access.