While the “healthy Knicks would beat a healthy Celtics” comment was asinine - let alone the “trust” factor given the Knicks’ players’ playoff histories and the whopping 12ish games they played together - Wilbon is being misquoted about the Pacers stuff, as he was saying he didn’t know if this current, unhealthy version of the Knicks would even beat this Pacers team. That specific comment wasn’t saying anything about the Celtics.
But, yeah, the Knicks hype driven by the New York media machine is pretty sickening. I hope they win and then we sweep them with 20+ wins every game to shut them up.
EDIT: This also might be what Tatum needs, too, as he would be extra motivated to dominate this matchup given all the non-sensical Brunson > Tatum takes.