Ignacio Jimenez has a lot on the line in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
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He has lived on San Antonio\u2019s Southeast Side for 16 years, has been watching the playoffs at bars and from friends\u2019 living rooms, and even drove down Southwest Military Drive on a recent night honking his horn to celebrate his team clinching a spot in the Finals.<\/p>\n
That street has been a hotbed of honking when the Spurs have won pivotal games in the postseason. But\u00a0Jimenez may have been the only one laying on the horn that night.<\/p>\n
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That’s because he was celebrating the New York Knicks shutting out\u00a0the Cleveland Cavaliers and making it to the Finals.<\/p>\n
Jimenez said passersby cheered, apparently thinking he was professing his love for the Spurs, even though they weren\u2019t playing that night. When he rolled down his window and flashed his Knicks snapback, the cheers turned into jeers.<\/p>\n
But that may not be the worst of it. If the Spurs beat the\u00a0Knicks to win their sixth NBA championship, Jimenez will have to do something almost unthinkable: put on a Spurs jersey.<\/p>\n
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Jimenez, a New Jersey native and lifelong Knicks fan, made a bet with his wife, a South Side native and Spurs fan. The loser has to post a photo of them wearing the other team\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n
Jimenez, 48, watched the Knicks take a 2-0 series lead<\/a> Friday at Max and Louie\u2019s, a New York City-style diner on the North Side, wearing bright orange basketball shorts and orange-and-white Jordans. Around him were 40 fellow San Antonians stuck in the same awkward position: Knicks diehards living in a city where their opponent\u2019s logo is plastered all over restaurant windows, employees come to work in team gear and \u201cGo Spurs Go\u201d has turned into a daily greeting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s me against the entire city,\u201d said Charlie Rouson, who grew up in Queens and teaches English to middle schoolers on the West Side.<\/p>\n Rouson\u2019s seventh-grade students have made their feelings clear.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n ALSO READ: San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes teams up with UNICEF for day of play<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been telling me the Knicks are trash since before the playoffs started,\u201d said Rouson, 36.\u00a0<\/p>\n Servers in Spurs T-shirts shuffled in and out of the restaurant\u2019s back room, carrying chicken tenders, pizza, cheesecake and beer to fans wearing blue and orange hard hats, a nod to both the team’s disciplined, unflashy defense and New York’s working-class roots. Beneath the TV, strips of masking tape held up a blue Knicks flag.<\/p>\n William Gordon and his son Bryson Gordon, 5, watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Spurs and the Knicks at Max and Louie’s New York Diner on June 5.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Meat lovers pizza, along with other New York fare, is served at Max and Louie’s New York Diner while local Knicks fans watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n At the end of the first quarter, Spurs center Luke Kornet bumped Knicks star Jalen Brunson as he dribbled up the floor, knocking him to the ground and getting called for a foul. A man in a Knicks chain chimed in from the back of the room.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s attempted murder over there!\u201d Darrell Williams yelled.<\/p>\n Fans jumped up from their tables and shouted with him. They wanted Kornet to get a flagrant foul.<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 17-year-old daughter, Zaire, sat to his right wearing a rival \u2014 and bigger \u2014 silver Spurs chain.<\/p>\n Darrell Williams, 49, was born into a military family in New York\u00a0and moved around the country. He joined the military himself and was eventually stationed at Randolph Air Force Base. He has been in San Antonio ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n So he’s not surprised that his three children, who grew up going to games at the Frost Bank Center, root for the Spurs.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve gotta rep where they\u2019re from,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI get it.\u201d<\/p>\n Zaire Williams, however, thinks her dad has all but \u201cdisowned\u201d her after they drove downtown last week \u2014 when the Spurs hosted the Knicks \u2014to\u00a0take in the Finals scene<\/a> and ended up in dueling chants on the street.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE: For unlimited digital access and a paywall-free experience, purchase a digital subscription.<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m in the full-on Spurs gear. He\u2019s in the full-on Knicks gear, all ‘Go, New York, go! Go, New York, go!’\u201d Zaire Williams said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m over here like, ‘Go, Spurs, go!’ We\u2019re extremely divided right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Jimenez said he has gotten \u201cstrange looks\u201d while wearing his Knicks gear, covered in blue and orange from his cap to his sneakers. Otherwise, he said, his exchanges with Spurs fans have been mostly cordial.<\/p>\n Aaron Williams, left and bottom, wears Knicks memorabilia and takes a photo of Eric Reich, top, during a watch party for Game 2 of the NBA Finals at Max and Louie’s New York Diner on June 5.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n \u201cI like when a town can love their sports team and not take it to that level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Spurs-Knicks matchup carries particular weight for Knicks fans because it’s a\u00a0rematch of 1999<\/a>, the last time the Knicks were in the Finals. The Spurs, led by a young center named Tim Duncan, won the championship in five games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kevin Lindquist watched that series in Philadelphia, shortly after moving there from his mother\u2019s house in Queens, where he grew up with 14 relatives in a four-bedroom home. Lindquist had a soft spot for Duncan because Lindquist\u2019s father, like Duncan, hails from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n Kevin Lindquist hands out hardhats to other local Knicks fans at Max and Louie’s New York Diner head of Game 2 of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Kai Williams wears a Spurs hat on top of a Knicks hardhat while out with his dad, Aaron Williams, and other local\u00a0Knicks fans to watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals on June 5.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Shawn LaFontainein, left, and Dearick Ownes hang up a Knicks flag at Max and Louie’s New York Diner to watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals on June 5.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n A former Army combat medic who lives in Cibolo, Lindquist has been organizing the watch parties for local Knicks fans throughout the playoffs. Demand was so high for a spot to watch Game 2 that he rented out a second location in Schertz to accommodate more fans. He drove there from Max and Louie\u2019s during halftime to catch the second half.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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