For weeks now, the New York Knicks‘ run at their first championship since 1973 has brought together a city that rarely sees eye-to-eye on much. Fans decked out in Knicks merchandise filled the streets, subways and office towers with a sea of blue and orange, often fist-pumping strangers with all feeling buoyed by the Knicks pinch-me moments on the march to the championship prize.
On Saturday night, this team of destiny delivered New Yorkers the Larry O’Brien trophy, at last, a moment that drove fans out of bars and their apartment buildings into the streets to celebrate the Knicks 94-90 Game 5 win in San Antonio.
As the Knicks closed in, and then closed it out, during the fourth quarter, each new bucket was greeted with cheers and car honks from Brooklyn to the Bronx. The city’s beacon was the Empire State Building lit up in blue and orange.
As Sportico‘s Sara Germano, a die-hard Knicks fan, reported: “Down at Pier 17, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, hundreds of Knicks fans had camped out before a large projector screen. Euphoric shrieks filled the Harbor of the East River as soon as the Knicks clinched. A young boy of about 9 years old shook the shoulders of another, yelling, ‘we finally did it!!’ When the broadcast showed Jalen Brunson receiving the finals MVP award, someone lit off Orange and blue fireworks over the pier. Spectators spilled into the seaport, grabbing celebratory hot dogs and ice cream from trucks parked along South Street as revelers screamed and milled about taking in the balmy, euphoric night.”
