As New York Knicks fans impatiently await Saturday evening, the hopes and dreams of millions have become fixed on one undeniable truth — the team is only one game away from winning an NBA championship.
The Knicks head into Game 5 of the NBA Finals with a 3-1 lead over their rivals, the San Antonio Spurs, and the prospect of their first championship win since 1973. The potential of ending the 53-year dry spell has stoked basketball fever to frenzied levels in New York City.
“After being a Knicks since I was a kid, it’s kind of like having your heart broken over and over again,” said long-suffering Knicks fan Jay Weichun, 45. “And this year, this season, this postseason run, I just made the decision, the conscious decision to believe, and that’s what I’ve been doing this whole postseason. I’m choosing to believe.”
Weichun lives in Chicago but was raised in Staten Island. He returned to his home borough earlier this week to watch the game among fellow New Yorkers on a projector in a friend’s backyard.
“My expectations are that they’re gonna come out and play with everything they have, with all the heart and grit and perseverance and dedication that they’ve been showing this whole playoff run, which has been magical and beautiful,” Weichun said.
Julian Roberts-Grmela/New York Daily News
Jay Weichun with his family photographed near MSG on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Julian Roberts-Grmela/New York Daily News)
A Finals record come-from-behind win in Game 4 that saw the Knicks erase a 29-point deficit has only steeled fans’ confidence that the team’s taking home the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy is all but inevitable.
“We just wanted to celebrate the Knicks’ biggest franchise in history, the biggest win we had,” said New Jersey resident Dylan Apaza, 27, who spoke to the Daily News decked out in Knicks gear outside Madison Square Garden. “As you know, we came over a 29-point deficit, which is huge. We love the New York spirit. We love the people here, and we’re just excited for the game.”
Dylan Apaza and his family outside of MSG on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Julian Roberts-Grmela/New York Daily News)
Some are so confident, they’re hoping for a loss in Game 5, which is being played at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, so that the Knicks can win clinch it all with a Game 6 victory back in New York.
“I want us to win tomorrow, but I’d rather come back to New York,” said Bronx resident Jason Matthews, 35. “To win it here, home for the first time in 50-something years, that’d be fire.”
And for Matthews, a merch vendor hawking Knicks T-shirts near MSG, a Game 6, or even Game 7 victory would only mean the gravy train keeps on rolling.
“Right now, I’m out here trying to get some money from this Knicks thing,” he said.
To ensure the game reaches as many New Yorkers as possible, Mayor Mamdani arranged for 130 LinkNYC kiosks across the five boroughs to stream Game 5. It’s the first time a live sports game will be broadcast using LinkNYC.
“The Knicks belong to all New Yorkers, whether you’re watching from the Garden or not,” Mamdani said. “Earlier this week, New Yorkers gathered around LinkNYC kiosks to watch one of the greatest comebacks in basketball history. This weekend, we’re running it back. More than a hundred kiosks will turn our sidewalks into watch parties and our streets into celebrations. Knicks in Five.”
Meanwhile, the NYPD plans to mobilize in force to make sure the excitement of a championship doesn’t get out of hand, as basketball fans look forward to a party more than a half century in the making.
“If the Knicks win a chip, the city will burn, but the city will also be the happiest it’s been in 50 years,” said Ro Phillip, a 23-year-old MTA worker from Brooklyn. “It would be insane. It would be incredible.”