The Knicks are on the cusp of winning the NBA Championship after a decades-long drought, and New Yorkers are fired up as they head to bars, cookouts and watch parties across the five boroughs.
While Saturday's game is in San Antonio, crowds began to form outside Madison Square Garden by 1 p.m. Saturday, and anxious fans continued to queue up to enter the watch party zone through the evening. Attendees in the block-long lines said confusing instructions left them apprehensive about making it in before tip-off.
But the game-night jitters are not dampening the optimism of Knicks fans yearning for vindication a half-century coming.
From Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Williamsbridge in the Bronx, the city is awash in orange and blue as the team faces the Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, which New York leads 3-1. If the Knicks prevail on Saturday night, they’ll bring New York its first NBA Championship since 1973.
Liv Lewis, 21, said she felt “overly optimistic” about the outcome of the game and expected a celebration as she waited in line to enter a Knicks watch party outside MSG around 6:30 p.m.
“I want something crazy. I want to see people on people’s shoulders,” said Lewis, who dressed for the occasion in a custom-made Knicks shirt she trimmed with ribbon. “I just want to see New York in its element.”
Liv Lewis just wants to see NYC 'in it's element.'
The moment has all the trappings of destiny. Wednesday’s Game 4 featured an improbable and record-breaking 29-point comeback, which ended with Knicks forward OG Anunoby tipping in the ball just seconds before the final buzzer sounded, winning the game for New York by just 1 point.
Longtime Knick fans recall that it was the Spurs who dashed New York’s championship hopes during the Knicks’ last NBA Finals appearance in 1999 – setting the stage for a revenge arc 27 years in the making. (If you’re just hopping on the bandwagon, check out our guide to Game 5 here.)
“We're going to take care of business so we can have a parade on Monday,” said Brooklyn native Brent Stephenson, who stood outside the MSG watch party with a Knicks handkerchief poking out from under his fitted cap. “It's a blessing we're here."
Stephenson, 29, said he traveled from Pennsylvania to be in the city for the chance to watch his beloved team finish the job and clinch a title.
“If you're a basketball fan, this is all you could ask for,” he said. “It’s a crowd you want to be at."
Knicks fans want it all tonight.
Outside Williamsburg bar Lavender Lake, Niko Samaniego stood with fellow fans decked out in Knicks gear hoping the team would close out the beleaguered Spurs and preparing for the possible aftermath.
“If they win, we might have to hop on the ferry over to Manhattan because it's going to be riots in the streets and we kind of want to see that,” Samaniego said.
But he said he would still find a silver lining in a loss away from the Garden.
“Part of me wants them to win it back in New York," he said.
Diehard Knicks fan John Hennegan, 57, watched the game at Midtown bar Canuck True North with his adult children and friends, ready to celebrate victory after years of “heartbreak” – like the 1994 Knicks team that lost Game 7 to the Houston Rockets.
“The older you are the more emotional it’ll be,” Hennegan said. “I started thinking of all the people who won't be able to see something good happen.”
He said he would remember the night for the rest of his life if the Knicks clinch.
“This is a dream come true,” Hennegan said. “To be in the greatest city in the world, with all these people hopefully on the verge of the greatest night in New York sports.”
Knicks fans on Smith Street during one of many curbside watch parties.
The return of the MSG watch party follows a public spat between team owner James Dolan and Mayor Zohran Mamdani that led to Dolan canceling the Game 4 watch party on Wednesday.
Registration for Saturday’s MSG watch party as well as another happening at Central Park’s Wollman Rink quickly reached capacity by early Saturday afternoon.
And while the celebratory mood has been largely peaceful, it has sometimes veered into chaos. Midtown descended into mayhem when more than 10,000 people gathered just north of Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night despite the watch party’s cancellation.
Police said crowds of fans shut down streets, tried to climb atop scaffolding and vehicles, and threw objects at fellow attendees and officers. A 17-year-old boy was briefly in a coma after he was assaulted near MSG that night.
In all, 56 people were arrested and 10 officers sustained injuries on Wednesday, police said. An egg was even tossed at Spurs star Victor Wembanyama as he returned to his hotel that night, ESPN reported.
Gothamist reporters are stationed around the city for Game 5. This story will be updated throughout the night.
