Saturday was a momentous night for New York City. The Knicks — the one professional team that (almost, sorry Brooklyn Nets fans!) everyone seems to root for in a region where professional sports allegiances are otherwise divided — won their first NBA championship in 53 years with a 94-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals.We had multiple reporters embedded with Knicks fans throughout the city as they celebrated their team’s championship. Here are their experiences.NOMAD, MIDTOWN AND FLATIRON, MANHATTAN — The streets of Manhattan were being prepped hours before the Knicks tipped off against the Spurs some 1,800 miles southwest in San Antonio.The mayhem that followed the Knicks 94-90 win required groundwork.Blockades were set up. NYPD officers stationed themselves across city blocks surrounding Madison Square Garden.And, most importantly, fans waited inside bars and apartments, offices and event spaces for the final buzzer to sound, signaling it was time to flood the streets to celebrate a title 53 years in the making.The scene in Midtown Manhattan, on Broadway between 31st and 32nd Streets, was pandemonium. Dozens of people scaled scaffolding two stories high to lead chants of “Knicks in five!” A handful of the most daring climbed streetlights, two of whom ripped a Victor Wembanyama jersey right down the middle before setting in ablaze as the hundreds of fans below cheered.It was a crowd at a standstill, but not standing still. Seemingly unable to move any closer to the Garden, they did the next best thing and partied in the street.Music played.Lovers kissed.New Yorkers — some native, others transplants and more just there for the night — relished.A few blocks south, at Broadway and 21st Street, the crowds were less dense, but not necessarily because there were fewer people. They were just all in motion, walking toward the next best thing to Frost Bank Center.“Where are you going?” I asked one group.“To Madison Square Garden,” one man yelled back.They had no idea what awaited them, or the fact that they’d be stopped blocks before they’d arrive at the Mecca. But it didn’t matter. All that did was getting as close to history as possible so that years from now, when someone asks, “Where were you when the Knicks won the 2026 NBA Finals?”They could say “With New York, at MSG.” — Annie Costabile, senior writer, WNBA and women’s basketballFans climb atop buses in the Times Square area after the Knicks’ championship. (Adam Gray / Getty Images)FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — It was just after 11:40 p.m. in Brooklyn, and a dance party had begun on DeKalb Avenue. Laura Ward, a resident of Fort Greene, pulled out a large bluetooth speaker and cued up Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.”“Hey!” a man yelled. “Can you turn that up?”“Yeah,” another guy said. “Does that go any louder?”Minutes earlier, a crowd in the hundreds had gathered around two screens in front of Dick & Jane’s, a cocktail bar hosting a neighborhood watch party. A few blocks away, at the intersection of Fulton Street and South Portland Avenue, a crowd of thousands gathered to see the broadcast projected on the side of a building adjacent to a restaurant.And just one block down, fans posed for photos outside 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, the production company of Knicks superfan Spike Lee, which sits next to Fancy Free, a sports bar with a spillover crowd.