In the Knicks, New Yorkers see their own resilience reflected

As New York prepares to host the World Cup, the city is instead awash in Knicks blue and orange, reflecting a deep love for the gritty, unifying team chasing a historic NBA Finals victory.

The Knicks took a commanding 2-0 lead on Friday in the best of seven series against the San Antonio Spurs, and now the action shifts to the Big Apple for games three and four.

“The Knicks, this is New York at its very best right now,” said John Patrick Walsh, 65, who comes from a family of fans.

“Everybody’s a Knicks fan together. It’s a huge family, it’s all love,” Walsh, a voice actor, told AFP near Madison Square Garden, the home of the Knicks. 

The streets around the Manhattan venue have become a rallying point for thousands of fans to cheer on their team, as celebrity superfans including Spike Lee, Timothee Chalamet and Ben Stiller applaud courtside.

“It’s very energetic, very chaotic,” said Melanie Mendoza, a waitress at the Bourbon and Branch, a bar not far from the iconic Garden that is fully decked out in the team’s colors.

“Even if you don’t know anything about basketball, you kind of get into that atmosphere, that vibe. People go crazy, basically.”

Outdoor watch parties around Madison Square Garden were initially banned during the NBA playoffs after multiple arrests during raucous celebrations, but will take place for the rest of the finals. 

• ‘The city’s game’ –

After more than 50 years without a title and decades of false starts, the Knicks’ rebirth is fueling a rare level of citywide enthusiasm.

Sports sociologist Jay Coakley, of the University of Colorado, noted that basketball “is a fast game, so it represents kind of the pace of city life, especially New York City life.”

For him, that explains why so many support the Knicks despite other New York sports teams like the Yankees (baseball) or the Giants (American football) having far more success.

Coakley also noted that the Knicks offer a sense of belonging for New York’s vast immigrant population, as they join other residents to back the team. 

Amy Bass, a sports studies professor at Manhattanville University, said that New York’s urban landscape just fits with basketball.

“All anyone needs to play basketball is a ball and a hoop, a surface that you can dribble on, and New York City has an awful lot of that kind of space,” she said. 

“It is the city’s game, from Harlem to the Village.”

• Common language –

The Knicks have drawn on their turbulent history to project an image of resilience — similar to how New Yorkers like to see themselves. 

In the 1970s, when they won their only two NBA titles, the Knicks were known as a “blue-collar, hard-working, tough-minded team,” according to Adam Criblez, author of a book on the squad.

“Not that the other organizations didn’t, but the Knicks just captured the imagination,” said Criblez. 

The team’s roller-coaster run this season, with many dramatic wins secured in the final seconds, has reinforced that image.

Bass noted that the Knicks have become a unifying force in a city plagued by huge social and economic inequalities. 

“The city can be lonely, the city can be hard,” she said. 

“In a moment where social media and AI and politics create islands, this is something that feels organic, a sharing of language, of goals.”

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