{"id":254646,"date":"2026-06-04T01:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254646\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T01:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:56:17","slug":"billy-joels-new-york-state-of-mind-inspires-knicks-merchandise-for-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/254646\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel’s ‘New York State of Mind’ Inspires Knicks Merchandise for NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

He may have been absent<\/a> from The New York Times recent controversial list of the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters<\/a>, but Billy Joel<\/a> is getting his due with a unique collaboration released to coincide with the New York Knicks first appearance in the NBA Finals in nearly three decades.<\/p>\n

The New York State of Mind collection, by lifestyle brand Sportiqe, spotlights the title of one of Joel\u2019s most beloved songs by featuring it on the Drake<\/a> hoodie and Duke t-shirt with orange puff-ink script and a screen-printed Knicks logo. The collab was made possible through Joel\u2019s partnership with merchandise and lifestyle company Bravado.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfac SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/a> \ud83c\udfac<\/p>\n

The gear is available at the Sportiqe shop-in-shop inside NBA Store NYC and on Sportiqe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started taking piano lessons when I was 8 years old because I loved Billy Joel \u2013 the first song I ever learned to play was one of his songs,\u201d said Jason Franklin, co-founder of Sportiqe, in a statement. \u201cThirty-six years later, it\u2019s incredibly meaningful to launch this collaboration during the Knicks\u2019 long-awaited return to the Finals. Billy Joel didn\u2019t just describe New York \u2013 he became part of its identity. Great sports apparel lasts beyond the moment itself, and years from now, I hope these pieces still remind fans of where they were, who they were with, and what this historic run felt like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franklin\u2019s hope that the new line of gear provides lasting memories seems appropriate since the 1976 nostalgia-drenched song that inspired the line has become a timeless New York anthem.<\/p>\n

The History of ‘New York State of Mind’<\/p>\n

The song is featured on Joel\u2019s fourth album, Turnstiles, which marked his return to New York after a stint in Los Angeles, where he recorded his second and third efforts, 1973\u2019s Piano Man<\/a>and 1974\u2019s Streetlife Serenade.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018New York State of Mind,\u2019 I wrote actually while I was on a Greyhound bus on my way back from a gig somewhere,\u201d Joel said during an interview on SiriusXM in 2016, per the New York Post<\/a>. \u201cAnd I was really homesick for New York, and the words started coming to me on the bus, and the melody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the song wasn\u2019t released as a single, it\u2019s become one of the favorites of Joel\u2019s live set and it\u2019s among his most covered compositions. It also inspired the 2009 Jay-Z-Alicia Keys No. 1 hit “Empire State of Mind.”<\/p>\n

Joel famously performed “New York State of Mind” at the Concert for New York City in October<\/a> 2001 in honor of the first responders and others killed during the September 11<\/a> attacks that year. He also performed the song at the America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon, held on Sept. 21, 2001, just 10 days after the 9\/11<\/a> terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did it as blues, rather than doing it as a standard. We played it kind of downbeat and soft and slow, almost like an elegy,\u201d he told Newsday in 2015. \u201cIt was difficult to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel, 77, has kept a low profile since he canceled his tour last year and revealed<\/a> he has been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a condition that disrupts brain function due to a fluid build up in and around the brain.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks face the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday<\/a> at 8:30 p.m. ET from Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Jun 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Celebs<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may have been absent from The New York Times recent controversial list of the 30 Greatest Living…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5184,9,11,1104,10,49,51,50,99202,9138],"class_list":["post-254646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-billy-joel","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-new-york-state-of-mind","tag-san-antonio-spurs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}