NEW YORK — Jimmy Fallon was feeling ambitious.The morning after the New York Knicks won their first NBA Finals game in 27 years, Fallon and his team gathered for a production meeting. It was, by all accounts, a regular day for “The Tonight Show” crew.The group convened in the office of showrunner Chris Miller at NBC’s headquarters, per usual. Your average episode of “The Tonight Show” is booked weeks or months in advance, but when a major sports team wins a title, its star will join Fallon on the air within days. The conversation in Miller’s office that day was about how the show could land one of the NBA champs, either from the Knicks or the San Antonio Spurs, for a segment.Talent department head Lori Blackman-Master sat on a couch in Miller’s office, pitching Fallon, Miller and supervising producer Sarah Connell two plans: one for if the Knicks won their first title in 53 years, and one for if the Spurs returned to glory.“If it goes to the Spurs, I don’t wanna jinx it, but I have to say it out loud,” Blackman-Master, a New Yorker and Knicks fan, told her colleagues. “We’re thinking we’ll try to get Victor Wembanyama.”If the Knicks won, they could go after one or two of the local stars. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns had both been on the show before.With the meeting about to conclude, Fallon, a Knicks diehard, got up from a swivel chair to the right of Miller’s desk. Across from both Blackman-Master and Connell, he walked toward the door and tossed out an idea.“I think if the Knicks win, we do a full hour,” he said. “Like, let’s blow it out.”A fully formed concept was already in Fallon’s brain. He wanted the entire Knicks team, all 18 of them, on “The Tonight Show.”“Let’s have the entire audience be crazy Knicks fans,” he told his colleagues. “Let’s have the Knicks dancers come. Maybe we can even get Wu-Tang to come on and perform.”Then, Fallon left, aware that pulling off such a massive endeavor on such short notice would be a first for “The Tonight Show.”“The reaction is, ‘Well, that would be insane,’” Miller recalled in a conversation with The Athletic.But this year’s Knicks, the team that just dominated four straight playoff series en route to a title, the one that actually did show up in full for Monday’s episode, had a way of turning fantasy into reality. And Fallon, as Connell said, “has a way of making everything seem possible.”“Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon during Monday’s Knicks-focused episode. (Rosalind O’Connor / NBC)To book all of the Knicks and more would take determination.Inside Miller’s office is a giant board that displays guests for each upcoming episode. The next completely blank show was three months away. To make a complete episode revolve around the Knicks, “The Tonight Show” would need to bounce celebrities and do so on a moment’s notice.At the time Fallon exited the room, the Knicks led the NBA Finals 1-0. They could have won the series in four games. Or five. Or six. Or seven. Or they could have lost, and a call could have gone to Wembanyama’s representatives instead.