New York City, hardly a city deprived of energy, is having a moment. In the past two weeks, the bars have been even more packed than usual. Several nights a week, usually at around 11pm, there has been a seemingly synchronized honking of horns.<\/p>\n
Walking around the city, it doesn\u2019t take long to find out why. People wearing New York Knicks<\/a> jerseys are high-fiving each other, and Knicks flags fly from cars, windows and bodegas, as people celebrate the team reaching the NBA finals \u2013 and having the chance to overcome five decades of (mostly) failure.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not the only thing fueling the vibe in the city. In January, New York installed one of its youngest-ever mayors, a man who energized weary voters not just in the city, but across the US and around the world. And as the Knicks have conquered all before them, Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, the 33-year-old democratic socialist and a noted sports enthusiast, has served as a high-profile cheerleader, goading opponents on social media and cheering the team on among the rank-and-file fans: fans who hardly need any encouragement.<\/p>\n Fans watch game six of the NBA playoffs at a bar in New York City on 31 May 2025. Photograph: David Dee Delgado\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful for the city. If it\u2019s a rainy day, but the Knicks are winning, then it\u2019s a sunny day,\u201d David Hamilton, a military veteran-turned-comedian and producer, said of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hopeful, very optimistic. It\u2019s probably cliche, but sports is that sometimes unifying distraction. You have distraction distractions, like binge-watching, but then you have like a unifying distraction. It\u2019s a big, joyous kind of moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Hamilton was at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday afternoon. There was no game: the Knicks, having defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in just four games, have earned a nice rest until the finals. But the fan store was open, and Hamilton had bought a classic jersey bearing the name Walt Frazier: the point guard who led the Knicks to their only championship wins, in 1970 and 1973.<\/p>\n Hamilton, 40, said he had seen the videos of Mamdani, dressed in his usual dark suit, cheering on the Knicks<\/a> from the (relatively) cheap seats at the Garden.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s something about this year in New York that feels grassroots, feels authentic. [The Knicks] feel gritty in the sense that they didn\u2019t go out and get polished stars for the team, or get all the celebrities to try to win a championship. Everybody\u2019s low-key a bit of an underdog,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s the same thing with Mamdani. He was this underdog who came out of nowhere, but has a \u2018for the people of the city\u2019 type of vibe. This team has the everyday, lunchpail, hard-working-type of feel, so you feel it top to bottom, and then the mayor, with his seats way up in the nosebleeds \u2013 it\u2019s this humanizing factor, and I think everybody feels better when we all feel like we\u2019re on the same plane.\u201d<\/p>\n New York City has enjoyed sporting success, and fervent celebrations, in recent years, with women\u2019s teams leading the charge. The New York Liberty won their first WNBA title in 2024 and held a parade attended by tens of thousands of people. Gotham FC won the NWSL Championship in 2023 and 2025. New York City FC, a men\u2019s team, won MLS in 2021.<\/p>\n New York Knicks players celebrate after winning game four of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, in Cleveland, Ohio, on 25 May. Photograph: David Maxwell\/EPA<\/p>\n But triumph has bypassed the Knicks, who have, at several times over the years, served as a byword for sporting incompetence<\/a>. That history of failure seems to have lent the enthusiasm an extra air, and if the team can win game one on Wednesday 3 June there are likely to be mass celebrations citywide.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredible. I think it\u2019s just something for us to rally around,\u201d said Emma Randall, 35. She was having a drink in a sports bar in Brooklyn before heading to watch the Liberty, but has been following the Knicks\u2019 progress with glee.<\/p>\n \u201cI work on a college campus, and that\u2019s a bunch of people who are transplants here to New York City, and it\u2019s a buzz there as well. And so that\u2019s exciting to bring us together, something to cheer for, something to be excited about, and proud of as well.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a buzz Mamdani has embraced, poking fun at the Cavaliers after the Knicks swept them in the Eastern Conference finals. \u201c@NYCSanitation I\u2019d like to report a sweep,\u201d Mamdani wrote on social media, in a post<\/a> liked by almost 300,000 people.<\/p>\n The mayor is riding high, sports-wise, with Arsenal, his team, winning the Premier League last week \u2013 Mamdani joined fans including Spike Lee at a bar in Brooklyn to watch the final game. Indeed, he seems to have a knack for tapping into supporters\u2019 emotions, in the way his campaign last year buoyed Americans hoping for an alternative to a Trump-dominated Republican party and what had seemed to be an increasingly cowed Democratic party.<\/p>\n \u201cI do love a good cause: the belief in each other, and in making the city a better place. And showing how it\u2019s so welcoming for everyone, and showing the rest of the world what it\u2019s like to live in this great city,\u201d Randall said.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s embrace of the Knicks hasn\u2019t been appreciated by all. He was criticized by the rightwing New York Post and Fox News for attending that game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but told an interviewer<\/a> this week: \u201cI\u2019ll never apologize for sitting in the nosebleeds.\u201d<\/p>\n Knicks fans celebrate in New York City on 25 May. Photograph: David Dee Delgado\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Despite the criticism, that seat high up in the stands is in stark contrast to Mamdani\u2019s predecessor, Eric Adams<\/a>, who during his tenure sat courtside \u2013 an area usually the preserve of celebrities and the ultra rich.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s just say he\u2019s not really one of us. He was never my cup of tea,\u201d Becca Bortz, a physician assistant who lives in Brooklyn, said of Eric Adams.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s experience of the games \u2013 managing to attend one, but otherwise watching from home using a friend\u2019s YouTube TV login<\/a> \u2013 is \u201cdefinitely more relatable\u201d, Bortz said. She added: \u201cI mean, it is a little bandwagony, but how can you not get onboard?\u201d<\/p>\n Bortz, 32, has been a Knicks fan her entire life. She\u2019s witnessed the highs and the lows \u2013 mostly the lows \u2013 and is stunned by the run of success.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I was six years old when they last made it to the finals, and I think I was one year old the time before that, and that\u2019s been it. That\u2019s my whole life with this team,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I\u2019m cautiously elated, I\u2019m being careful, but I\u2019m super pumped at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n No doubt Mamdani, the sports-fan mayor, will be among the New Yorkers leading the celebrations, just as pumped as the rest.<\/p>\n