{"id":1973627,"date":"2026-06-05T10:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T07:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1973627"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T07:00:36","slug":"the-knicks-are-delivering-a-lifetime-run-to-a-fan-base-madly-in-love-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1973627","title":{"rendered":"The Knicks are delivering a lifetime run to a fan base madly in love with them"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The New York Knicks are feeling the love from back home, because back home<\/i> has followed them around the country, from Atlanta to Philly to Cleveland to Texas. An army of blue-and-orange jerseys has executed a series of non-hostile takeovers on the way to a potential NBA championship, because the fans feel exactly what the players, coaches and executives feel.<\/p>\n

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They know this is the ride of a lifetime, the kind that can move you to shout at the top of your lungs one day and to cry tears of joy in solitude the next.<\/p>\n

As a columnist, I have written about five Yankees championships and two Giants victories in the Super Bowl, but what the Knicks are doing now \u2014 winning 12 straight postseason games, including seven straight on the road \u2014 is the greatest playoff run I\u2019ve witnessed over four decades in the biz.<\/p>\n

The 1998 Yanks are the best team that I\u2019ve covered.<\/p>\n

Super Bowl 42 is the best sporting event involving a local that I\u2019ve covered.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve never seen a New York team this hot, this connected and this cherished by the entire metropolitan area. The old-timers have been waiting for so long to savor another Knicks team that matched the 1970 and \u201973 title teams defined by their chemistry, their sacrifice and their joy. The new-timers who don\u2019t really know about Red Holzman and the way things were have adored the all-for-one-and-one-for-all ethos of the 2025-26 Knicks just as much.<\/p>\n

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So, with seemingly half of the city\u2019s population gathered outside Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night to celebrate the Game 1 victory over the San Antonio Spurs, the thousands of Knicks fans who poured into Frost Bank Center threw their own watch party on enemy turf. This isn\u2019t a first- or second-round playoff series. This is the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

A takeover like this just isn\u2019t supposed to happen in the finals.<\/p>\n

And the sweeping show of support makes a difference to the players and coaches. A tangible one on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge,\u201d Knicks coach Mike Brown said. \u201cDuring these games against good teams, especially on the road, you want to find places where you can get energy or a little boost of energy at any given time. To have the type of fans that we do that not only bring energy in the city of New York, on the streets, at MSG, but to have them come and take over a town, take over a hotel, take over an arena and hear them chant, \u2018Let\u2019s Go, Knicks\u2019 \u2014 or (when) Jalen\u2019s shooting a free throw, \u2018M-V-P\u2019 \u2014 that gives you a boost that you know you have people supporting you at a pretty high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

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pic.twitter.com\/JyLKZIImsA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 goat (@TrindonHo11iday) June 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Knicks fans are all over the place down here, wearing Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns jerseys from the riverwalk to the Alamo and back. They are also wearing Patrick Ewing jerseys and Carmelo Anthony and Jeremy Lin jerseys because this is an inclusive family affair for all generations, including those stars who made valiant attempts to win the franchise\u2019s first title since \u201973 and simply fell short.<\/p>\n

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And this isn\u2019t only a journey for the good people of the five boroughs and the surrounding suburbs in Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey. A 33-year-old man from Mexico City wearing a Knicks cap stopped at a hotel by the river to say he became a fan of the team while watching the 1999 finals on TV and still dreams of someday seeing a game inside Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

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

But Alex Platt was inside the Spurs\u2019 building for Game 1 of the finals, which he described as a memorable event. \u201cKnicks fans always have a lot of energy, so to be in the crowd with them was a great experience for me,\u201d he said. \u201cMy first favorite player as a little kid in Mexico was Patrick Ewing, but now it\u2019s Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Landry Shamet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a Knicks team that has this kind of chemistry. I\u2019ve never seen them this connected. A lot of my friends were saying the Spurs were going to win, but I told them they haven\u2019t seen the Knicks play. They are completely overwhelming the other teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The fans feel like a relevant part of this historic postseason march because the team has made them feel that way. Brown comes across as your next-door neighbor, always willing to welcome you in. Brunson, Towns, Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and the bench guys are an embraceable cast of stars and supporting actors because they get it.<\/p>\n

They get New York. They get the Garden. They get how important customer support is to the pursuit of anything meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very appreciative,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that you don\u2019t really think about in the moment, but our fans, they\u2019re amazing. And my family and I, we felt the love since day one. They\u2019ve been nothing but supportive. I truly would not take them for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This was sweet music to the ears of the most passionate Knicks fan I know, Peter Storm, a 54-year-old finance executive from Manhattan whose father, Sy, idolized Willis Reed. The Storms spent years watching the Knicks together in silence, refusing to let any family member in the TV room who planned on talking during games. Peter said he is pretty sure he will burst into tears if the Knicks win three more games against the Spurs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s how I feel about them,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved the \u201990s teams, but they grinded for everything, and nothing ever came easy for them. This year\u2019s team makes it look easy out there. It\u2019s the best Knicks team I\u2019ve ever watched because anybody can hurt you. If my father was here, he would say these Knicks remind him of the \u201973 team.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, before he died in 2017, Sy Storm told his son he wanted his team to draft Donovan Mitchell (and certainly not Frank Ntilikina). He was still upset that the Knicks traded for Andrea Bargnani in 2013 and that they drafted Michael Ray Richardson instead of Larry Bird in 1978.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father said the Knicks would never win a championship until they got a front office that thought outside the box, and now we finally have one,\u201d Peter Storm said. \u201cHe also told me if the Knicks ever did win it all, it would be the best sports moment of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Fans celebrate outside of Madison Square Garden after the Knicks defeated the Spurs in Game 1. (Adam Gray \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That\u2019s how it now feels for Knicks fans everywhere. Thirteen playoff victories down, three to go for what might end up being the mother of all ticker-tape parades.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the run of a lifetime in New York and beyond, and the best part of it all?<\/p>\n

Everyone is along for the ride.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The New York Knicks are feeling the love from back home, because back home has followed them around the country, from Atlanta to Philly to Cleveland to Texas. An army of blue-and-orange jerseys has executed a series of non-hostile takeovers on the way to a potential NBA championship, because the fans feel […]<\/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-1973627","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\/1973627","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=1973627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1973627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1973627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1973627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}