New York Knicks Win NBA Championship, Ending 51-Year Title Drought

Marvita Davis, 70, was a teenager in Harlem the last time the New York Knicks won a championship, in 1973.

“I was like, Oh, I like this game. I can get into this game,” recalled Davis, who went on to play basketball at Northeastern University.

She maintained her love of hoops – even though she had knee and hip replacements and can no longer play – and her love of the Knicks, despite their more than a half-century of futility. “I will support all my hometown teams, regardless of how bad they are,” said Davis, a retired computer programmer.

On Saturday night, that longstanding fanhood paid off when the Knicks finally won an NBA title again by defeating the San Antonio Spurs in five games.

Davis watched as the game was projected onto a screen on the front lawn of her apartment building with other residents in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. Others watched from bars in the East Village and fire escapes in the West Village and erupted as the clock hit zero.

“It’s euphoria,” Davis said.

That was the feeling throughout all five boroughs. Car horns, fireworks, “Let’s go Knicks” chants and Jay-Z’s Empire State Of Mind and Frank Sinatra’s Theme From New York, New York filled the streets, subways and bars until well after midnight. (Some shouted an expletive directed at Spurs star Victor Wembanyama too.)

“The city is alive, man, like never before,” said Nick Pineda, a 47-year Bronx resident who works in information technology and watched the game at Habana Outpost, a Brooklyn restaurant that also projected the game outdoors.

Firefighters drove through the city holding a Knicks blanket. Even bus drivers got some love from residents.

“B-52! B-52! B-52!” fans who filled sidewalks in Brooklyn chanted as a bus rolled past.

Predictably, as after most championships – even ones less than a half-century in the making – some fans climbed atop traffic lights and a police car.

Rashid Taylor, a 51-year-old Brooklyn native, said Jalen Brunson was the driver that guided them to the victory.

“They got the champion, fearless leader just taking them through all the fire,” Taylor said of Brunson, who scored 45 points in the Game 5 win. “This team is just heart and soul and passion and not backing down.”

There is only more celebration ahead. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a ticker tape parade on 18 June, and said city hall will present the team the keys to the city – a symbolic gesture to recognize New York’s notable citizens.