{"id":1958682,"date":"2026-05-27T19:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1958682"},"modified":"2026-05-27T19:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:10:23","slug":"who-are-the-viral-creators-capturing-knicks-fans-pandemonium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1958682","title":{"rendered":"Who are the viral creators capturing Knicks fans\u2019 pandemonium?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

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 \u201ca specific species of human that should be studied.\u201d<\/p>\n

The viral video<\/a> of Knicks fans celebrating the victory with now-iconic phrases such as \u201cBing Bong\u201d and \u201cKD, don\u2019t you regret not coming to the Kniiiiccccckkkkks?\u201d was filmed by Sidetalk, a self-described \u201cone-minute street show\u201d 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<\/a> after the Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday<\/a> to advance to their first NBA Finals in 27 years.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sidetalk allowed The Athletic<\/em> to tag along while filming scenes after the Knicks\u2019 Game 2 victory. We then spoke with Trent Simonian, the creator of Sidetalk and a film student at New York University, about Sidetalk\u2019s breakthrough video, how he finds the authentic fans and how his task has changed as more people have caught on to the postgame scene.<\/p>\n

Note: This interview was lightly edited for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

This thing has completely taken off. How did it start?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It started for fun. We did not expect that there was going to be massive crowds outside of Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

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, \u2018OK, the Knicks are starting to win a little bit. Let\u2019s go talk to the fans, see what they have to say.\u2019 They were jumping around a little bit, and then we\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that was actually really funny.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n

Then they made the playoffs. The Trae Young thing happened, we went out there, they started going a little crazier. And then we realized, \u2018OK, we might have a little something here. These Knicks fans are pretty passionate.\u2019 They struggled for a little while, and they\u2019re really excited to break out of the shell.<\/p>\n

And as you\u2019ve seen now, year after year, there\u2019s just more and more people outside of the Garden.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

{“endpoint”:”https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql”}<\/p>\n

At what point did you see something happen and think, \u2018All right, that\u2019s not usual?\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like I just said, year after year, there\u2019s more and more people, and crazier and crazier stuff happens. Last year, someone climbed this, I don\u2019t know, 100-foot billboard above us. So it\u2019s just craziness.<\/p>\n

And I think Knicks fans, as we\u2019ve seen, are unlike any other fans in the world.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re very cautious about making sure the video feels authentic. There\u2019s a lot of fans out here who now show up with the intention of going viral, and we\u2019re very aware of that and we don\u2019t include that in the video.<\/p>\n

At this point, the interview is interrupted by some fans chanting \u201cLet\u2019s Go Knicks!\u201d A police officer responds, \u201cGuys, can you give us a break? We gotta get out of here.\u201d The game ended two hours ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But yeah, we can tell when the fans are really good. \u2026 We can tell when a fan is a real fan, and they\u2019re here and they\u2019re 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\u2019re 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\u2019s fun. We want everyone to have fun.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, though, we want to show the real Knicks fans, and that\u2019s what we do. And I feel like our videos are very tastefully, you know, inclusive of the real Knicks fans.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got two moments. I got the Trae Young looks like my \u2026 explicit. We got a guy cast in \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d from that, which is insane. Oscar-nominated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll say my favorite moment is the guy doing the seizure thing outside of the Celtics game. It\u2019s just like, it\u2019s 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\u2019s going on. It\u2019s like the Knicks GIF. And I feel like it just very perfectly encapsulates in two seconds what these Knicks fans are like.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Knicks<\/p>\n
\n
\n Knicks fans celebrate with brooms after their team swept the Cavaliers in the East finals. (David Dee Delgado \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So you guys started this. You haven\u2019t necessarily been the only ones to finish it. <\/strong><\/p>\n

That is true.<\/p>\n

A lot of other people have jumped in as, we\u2019ll call them copycats, trying to do the same thing that you do. What\u2019s that experience been like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I honestly like it. It\u2019s flattering. It\u2019s nice to see. There\u2019s a lot of other microphones outside of Madison Square Garden now.<\/p>\n

I like the line, \u201coften imitated, never duplicated.\u201d I think their videos are great. I think ours are different, and I\u2019m really proud of what we do. I think it\u2019s awesome that there\u2019s 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\u2019s here to have fun, which is nice.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

You\u2019re a film student at New York University?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

This is, I imagine, something you didn\u2019t really see coming.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Correct. Yeah.<\/p>\n

You said you didn\u2019t expect it. In general, are you surprised with what this has done for you with your actual career?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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, \u2018I want to move to New York. I want to interview people on the street.\u2019\u00a0 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\u2019s been incredible.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve worked with the NFL, we\u2019ve worked with Nike, we\u2019ve 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 \u2014 it\u2019s been really cool. It\u2019s been awesome to get to do what I want to do.<\/p>\n

Because this has become such a tradition, there is a much larger police presence now outside of these games. What\u2019s that been like for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been really interesting. If you look over here, we\u2019ve got several dozen cops standing over there.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re always very respectful. We\u2019re never the ones instigating or telling people to climb stuff, or punch people or do anything crazy. We\u2019re just here to film fans having fun. So I think the police know that we\u2019re very respectful in that sense.<\/p>\n

If they tell us to move down the street, we move down the street. If they tell us enough\u2019s enough, shut the cameras down, we do that.<\/p>\n

So again, at the end of the day, we just want people to have fun, and we\u2019re not encouraging any bad behavior. And I think the police know and respect that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201ca specific species of human that should be studied.\u201d The viral video of Knicks fans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1958682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1958682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1958682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1958682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1958682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}