The owner is a big part of it, he’s widely regarded as one of the worst in the league if not the worst. they are also hugely popular and their logo is all over NYC as a fashion statement. It’s sort of the equivalent of if the Yankees had not won since the 70s. If everyone in a city is a fan of a team that never wins anything despite having tons of money and one of the best venues in sports in MSG, it invites a lot of jokes at their expense.
Another part of it is that the team is worth second most of any NBA team at 6.6 billion. To have such a mediocre resume for 50+ years for a team like that is definitely inviting ridicule, even from their own fans.
The assists seemed like they were all alley oops too. Looked really confident in the 4th