Before Saturday’s NBA Finals game – in which the New York Knicks, a historic franchise beset by decades of failure since their last championship in 1973, could win the title – the city believed.
It was awash in the Knicks’ blue and orange. The Archdiocese of New York posted #YesWeHaveFavorites on the social platform X. Bagel shops sold Knicks-colored bagels. People who didn’t know the names Willis Reed or Walt Frazier suddenly recognized Jalen Brunson.
When the final buzzer sounded, after yet another Knicks comeback made them champions, it wasn’t only about a title. For New York basketball fans, patience has made victory all the sweeter – and their team’s improbable journey to a championship has prompted a surge of ebullient fellowship across the diverse communities that make up America’s largest city.
Why We Wrote This
The New York Knicks’ NBA Finals victory brought a diverse and sometimes-troubled city together, with the team expressing the grit that many residents see in their own lives.
New Yorkers have found not only sports excitement but also a story as relatable as their own struggles with a city beset by high living costs, the pandemic and its aftermath, and sometimes-fractious politics.
“We got that New York grit,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said after the game.
The Knicks trailed by double digits in three of their four series victories, but mounted stunning fourth-quarter comebacks to win.
“This team just doesn’t stop. It keeps coming. It’s like New York – it’s hard being here, but you wake up every morning and you keep going at it,” says David Hollander, a professor of sports business at New York University and author of “How Basketball Can Save the World.” “You keep pushing yourself past whatever difficulties it is to be in this city, and then you see the glory. You emerge every day stronger.”
By the opening of Game 5, the Knicks stood astride the city.
Banding together, block by block
Three official outdoor watch parties drew thousands in Manhattan, as sports bars and restaurants saw lines stretch around the block and waits last hours. Hospitals organized watch parties for patients. Fans projected the game onto building walls and streamed it from big-screen TVs mounted in SUV trunks. Sidewalks, cramped apartments, and even funeral homes became gathering places. At Resurrection Brooklyn, a Presbyterian church in Clinton Hill, more than 300 people packed the churchyard to watch the game while sharing free hot dogs, chips, and beverages.
Around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, the celebrations spilled out onto the streets. Although police made arrests at some gatherings, others had a different vibe. Even on the buttoned-down Upper East Side, suited professionals and women dressed for a night out donned official orange-and-blue jerseys and traded fist bumps with strangers.
The spirit was evident even before the game.
“Everyone is coming together. There is so much love. I was hugging random people the last time they won,” said longtime fan Christina Coleman as she and a friend lined up for a Planet Hollywood watch party near Times Square. She said they had been waiting for more than an hour and did not know if they would make it inside, but were sticking it out anyway. “That’s how much I love the Knicks.”
The Knicks are one of 12 major professional sports teams in the area – some based closer to the city than others – but few represent New York as much as they do. Basketball is woven into the city’s identity – from playgrounds in Harlem and the Bronx to high school gyms in Brooklyn and Queens.
“I remember when the Giants won, but the Knicks are different,” said Palesa Motsoasele, a Brooklyn resident watching the game in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, recalling the NFL team’s Super Bowl wins. “New York is a basketball town. Every park you go to has a basketball court.”
Founded in 1946 as the Knickerbockers, the team entered the playoffs this spring with a solid but hardly stunning 53–29 record. The franchise caught fire over the next two months, winning 13 consecutive games before the San Antonio Spurs took Game 3 of the NBA Finals. It looked like the Spurs might even the series in Game 4, building a 29-point lead before the Knicks staged the biggest comeback in Finals history and took a 3-1 advantage. Game 5 started rough as well.
Joy, rowdiness, and unity
As the Knicks edged ahead in the final minutes for a 94-90 final score – winning just their third title in 80 years – pandemonium had erupted in the streets. In Brooklyn, people climbed atop city buses as police blocked off several blocks of Fulton Street. Packed streets prevented buses from passing, so commuters jammed subway cars. Conductors on the G train blared horns as they entered stations in Brooklyn. One video on X showed a city bus driver breaking out in dance; another showed fans packing a West Village block and singing “Empire State of Mind.” Elsewhere in Manhattan, revelers spilled off of sidewalks as cars blew horns in exultation.
In Times Square, where a few streets had been cordoned off earlier, some celebrations later turned violent. Video appeared to show fans atop a school bus as another yellow bus was rocked back and forth. At least one was set alight. Police reported that people climbed light poles, clashed with officers, and smashed windshields. At least one person was shot and taken to the hospital.
Minutes after Saturday’s victory, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the Knicks ticker-tape parade and ceremony honoring the team at City Hall will be on Thursday. It’s the city’s 210th ticker-tape parade but the first for the Knicks.
The most recent parade in October 2024 celebrated the New York Liberty’s WNBA championship, the city’s last pro franchise to win a title. Prior to Saturday, it had been 5,235 days since a local professional men’s team had won a championship – when the Giants beat the New England Patriots in the 2012 Super Bowl.
The Knicks’ previous championships came in 1970 and 1973, when Richard Nixon was president, the Vietnam conflict raged, and the current Madison Square Garden, an icon of New York City sports, was barely five years old.
David Lam manages the Stumble Inn in Manhattan, where people had been waiting inside since noon for Saturday’s 8:30 tip-off. By 6 p.m., some 300 patrons were starting to line up around the block. Mr. Lam has been in the industry for 25 years and says he’s seen nothing like the energy when the Knicks chased their championship.
“It’s brought us closer for everybody to be cheering for the Knicks,” Mr. Lam said as he checked IDs. “There’s a lot of unity.”