For going on a generation, Mets fans were getting used to the idea that they can’t have nice things. 

Enter Steve Cohen of Great Neck, Greenwich, Wharton and his hedge fund, Point 72. That’s the name of his other business, but in some recent years it also represented the Mets’ chances to win the National League pennant. 

My how things have changed. With the flourish of a pen and consummation of the record $2.4 billion transaction to buy the Mets, the poor got rich, and good things started happening — not immediately, but not so long thereafter, either. 

Cohen always believed you pay for quality, the Mets themselves being the one exception. Don’t forget, he first tried for the Dodgers, the powerhouse that comes to town Tuesday in a matchup that will provide a nice gauge for where the Mets stand. Cohen said from the start he endeavored to emulate the Dodgers, and the current trajectory shows the team from Queens trending their way, even if the Dodgers (88-38 entering Monday) remain ahead of everyone. 

It’s hard to recall this now, but when Cohen won the team by outbidding the former couple of Alex Rodriguez and the new Mrs. Ben Affleck — yes, the Mets came fairly close to winding up in a breakup proceeding — Cohen was getting something of a distressed asset. 

He won the team, but the loyal, long-suffering fans got the real gift. 

It’s not only the loot — sure, it helps to have a reported $15 billion — but often times it’s the thought that counts. The team famous for bleach, fireworks, Madoff and midyear swoons is having a near-perfect season, both between the lines and outside of them. If Cohen’s first year was a warm-up, the second has been nothing short of a dream. It’s a nice switch to see the Mets not only in first place but doing everything right, too. 

Yes, of course, it’s about the acquisitions they never would have made. The team that once signed Jason Bay over Matt Holliday only because he cost half as much (never mind that he was one-eighth as good), handed out the biggest player salary ever. Max Scherzer is not only a Hall of Fame pitcher but an off-the-charts competitor, someone who established a quick rapport with Cohen on a zoom call that ended with Scherzer winning a contract with an annual salary 20 percent more than the next highest in history. And to date he’s earning every last penny. 

The Scherzer signing set a tone for a year of only good or better decisions. It’s not just that the Mets lead the nemesis Braves by three games in the NL East, they’ve beaten them more times than not, and beaten up the disliked Phillies, maybe the best bad-fielding team ever. 

Plus, it’s been a summer of celebration of their history, as Cohen promised on Day One, and a reminder that it’s not as bad as imagined. 

Thirty-eight years after franchise great Tom Seaver was ignominiously lost a second time in one of many classic Mets mess-ups, the organization finally honored its greatest player with a statue outside Citi Field, including an uncanny depiction of his iconic follow-through, complete with his back knee scraping the “dirt.” To be fair it was such an obvious omission the Wilpons had this one in the works. But that was just the start. 

Thirty-two years after Keith Hernandez took free-agent riches in Cleveland of all places, the Mets retired No. 17 to honor the leader of the memorably crazy but great 1986 championship team known to younger fans as the superb broadcaster who adores Gary, Ron, his cat Hadji and good fundies, not necessarily in that order. We probably blew the Hernandez Hall vote — he is after all the greatest defensive first baseman, and has a 121 OPS-plus, an MVP and two championships — but the Mets did him right. 

Twenty-eight years after the Mets last held an Old Timers’ game, the Mets staged a perfect one, with 65 former Mets, including four legends from the 1969 team plus three from the inaugural 1962 team. The day was made even better when the Mets surprised folks by retiring all-time great Willie Mays’ No. 24. 

No wonder fans chanted “Thank you, Steve,” that day. Cohen’s cash buys a cadre of crack PR and marketing people who must be some of his best bargains, but the return of the old timers was his brainchild. 

Even better for fans, who have seen their team’s payroll climb above their big brothers in The Bronx for a rare time and into a virtual tie atop the leaderboard with those Dodgers, who are setting the standard this season and arrive at Citi Field on a ridiculous 43-10 run heading into Monday to open a three-game series starting Tuesday. The Mets and Dodgers are both now just over $290 million, and into the so-called “Steve Cohen tax” fourth-tier territory. 

Cohen promised a championship within five years upon purchase of the team, but he’s restored pride in only two. In some ways, that’s a bigger victory.