On a late October day in 2021, hours after the New York Knicks beat the Boston Celtics in double overtime in their season opener, the rest of the world got a window into what current Knick Landry Shamet recently called “a specific species of human that should be studied.”
The viral video of Knicks fans celebrating the victory with now-iconic phrases such as “Bing Bong” and “KD, don’t you regret not coming to the Kniiiiccccckkkkks?” was filmed by Sidetalk, a self-described “one-minute street show” involving man-on-the-street interviews across New York City. In the years since that initial video, it has become something of a tradition for Knicks fans to congregate outside of Madison Square Garden and celebrate wildly after big wins. Sidetalk regularly releases videos from these scenes, most recently after the Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday to advance to their first NBA Finals in 27 years.
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Sidetalk allowed The Athletic to tag along while filming scenes after the Knicks’ Game 2 victory. We then spoke with Trent Simonian, the creator of Sidetalk and a film student at New York University, about Sidetalk’s breakthrough video, how he finds the authentic fans and how his task has changed as more people have caught on to the postgame scene.
Note: This interview was lightly edited for clarity.
This thing has completely taken off. How did it start?
It started for fun. We did not expect that there was going to be massive crowds outside of Madison Square Garden.
We showed up one time when the Knicks were still in their horrible phase, where they had just broken .500 in 2021. We showed up, there was like 16 fans outside of the Garden. We were still wearing masks, and we were just like, ‘OK, the Knicks are starting to win a little bit. Let’s go talk to the fans, see what they have to say.’ They were jumping around a little bit, and then we’re like, ‘Oh, that was actually really funny.’
Then they made the playoffs. The Trae Young thing happened, we went out there, they started going a little crazier. And then we realized, ‘OK, we might have a little something here. These Knicks fans are pretty passionate.’ They struggled for a little while, and they’re really excited to break out of the shell.
And as you’ve seen now, year after year, there’s just more and more people outside of the Garden.
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At what point did you see something happen and think, ‘All right, that’s not usual?’
Like I just said, year after year, there’s more and more people, and crazier and crazier stuff happens. Last year, someone climbed this, I don’t know, 100-foot billboard above us. So it’s just craziness.
And I think Knicks fans, as we’ve seen, are unlike any other fans in the world.
What’s your strategy for uncovering the moments? Because I talked about it with you; you have to be authentic. And people will do things to go viral. So what is your actual strategy for capturing the real, authentic moment?
We’re very cautious about making sure the video feels authentic. There’s a lot of fans out here who now show up with the intention of going viral, and we’re very aware of that and we don’t include that in the video.
At this point, the interview is interrupted by some fans chanting “Let’s Go Knicks!” A police officer responds, “Guys, can you give us a break? We gotta get out of here.” The game ended two hours ago.
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But yeah, we can tell when the fans are really good. … We can tell when a fan is a real fan, and they’re here and they’re genuinely excited about the Knicks. We can also tell when someone showed up with a rehearsed line, hoping to go viral. At the end of the day, we’re not going to put that in the video. We might let them say it so they can, you know, (think it will go in). It’s fun. We want everyone to have fun.
At the end of the day, though, we want to show the real Knicks fans, and that’s what we do. And I feel like our videos are very tastefully, you know, inclusive of the real Knicks fans.
Do you have a favorite moment?
I got two moments. I got the Trae Young looks like my … explicit. We got a guy cast in “Marty Supreme” from that, which is insane. Oscar-nominated.
I’ll say my favorite moment is the guy doing the seizure thing outside of the Celtics game. It’s just like, it’s one of the most viral GIFs on the Internet. Whenever the Knicks are playing and you go to the popular GIFs on Instagram, that one’s going on. It’s like the Knicks GIF. And I feel like it just very perfectly encapsulates in two seconds what these Knicks fans are like.
So you guys started this. You haven’t necessarily been the only ones to finish it.
That is true.
A lot of other people have jumped in as, we’ll call them copycats, trying to do the same thing that you do. What’s that experience been like?
I honestly like it. It’s flattering. It’s nice to see. There’s a lot of other microphones outside of Madison Square Garden now.
I like the line, “often imitated, never duplicated.” I think their videos are great. I think ours are different, and I’m really proud of what we do. I think it’s awesome that there’s so many fans out here. It does have some negatives that there are people here just to go viral, like I said earlier. But everyone’s here to have fun, which is nice.
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You’re a film student at New York University?
Yes.
This is, I imagine, something you didn’t really see coming.
Correct. Yeah.
You said you didn’t expect it. In general, are you surprised with what this has done for you with your actual career?
Definitely. Yeah. I mean, I had Sidetalk fully planned out before I had even moved to New York and gotten into NYU. I was like, ‘I want to move to New York. I want to interview people on the street.’ I obviously did not expect that our thing was going to be Knicks fans jumping around and screaming after regular-season and playoff games, but it’s been incredible.
We’ve worked with the NFL, we’ve worked with Nike, we’ve worked with Amazon and Netflix. Being able to just let people be themselves, say what they want to say and do it in a fun, authentic way, with people in New York and outside of New York loving to watching it — it’s been really cool. It’s been awesome to get to do what I want to do.
Because this has become such a tradition, there is a much larger police presence now outside of these games. What’s that been like for you?
It’s been really interesting. If you look over here, we’ve got several dozen cops standing over there.
We’re always very respectful. We’re never the ones instigating or telling people to climb stuff, or punch people or do anything crazy. We’re just here to film fans having fun. So I think the police know that we’re very respectful in that sense.
If they tell us to move down the street, we move down the street. If they tell us enough’s enough, shut the cameras down, we do that.
So again, at the end of the day, we just want people to have fun, and we’re not encouraging any bad behavior. And I think the police know and respect that.