The evening at Madison Square Garden began with a canceled party, a spat between New York City\u2019s mayor and the owner of the arena, and many, many missed shots by the Knicks. In other words, it looked like yet another disappointing chapter for the team\u2019s long-suffering fans.<\/p>\n
But after the Knicks rallied to secure the biggest comeback win in N.B.A. finals history, the director Spike Lee danced on the court while the pop star Taylor Swift waved a Knicks towel in the air. On the nearby streets of Midtown Manhattan, roars filled the air and some revelers stood on cars, food carts and scaffolding.<\/p>\n
The Knicks are now one win away from delivering basketball glory to a city starved for a championship. And the party is back on.<\/p>\n
The day began ominously when James L. Dolan, the Knicks owner, escalated a dispute with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n
In a radio interview, he blamed Mr. Mamdani and the police commissioner, Jessica S. Tisch, for heightened security around the arena. He canceled a watch party outside the Garden, declining to use a permit granted by the city. And he defended President Trump, who had sat in the owner\u2019s suite two nights earlier and was intensely booed when he appeared on the video screen.<\/p>\n
But in that same interview, Mr. Dolan promised victory in Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs, and in the finals.<\/p>\n
When the Spurs jumped out to what seemed like an insurmountable lead, Mr. Dolan\u2019s guarantee looked like a grave miscalculation.<\/p>\n
The Spurs couldn\u2019t miss. The Knicks couldn\u2019t stop them. Neither a video appearance from Ms. Swift, wearing a T-shirt that read \u201cStevie Knicks,\u201d nor a halftime performance from the Wu-Tang Clan seemed to brighten the crowd\u2019s mood.<\/p>\n
But in the second half, fans roared with each moment that looked even remotely optimistic. Outside the arena, police wearing riot gear clashed with some New Yorkers who showed up to a party that didn\u2019t technically exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vibe is just hard to describe,\u201d Mike Brown, the Knicks\u2019 coach, said after the game. \u201cThe energy in the crowd had a lot to do with our comeback.\u201d<\/p>\n
The madness crested in the final seconds as the Knicks tried to erase a one-point deficit. After what appeared to be the team\u2019s final shot attempt bounced off the rim, Knicks forward OG Anunoby soared to tip it into the basket.<\/p>\n
The Spurs\u2019 final attempt failed. Outside the arena, a city jumped for joy.<\/p>\n
Along Avenue A in the East Village, traffic was partially stopped near East 13th Street as revelers chanted \u201cKnicks in five!\u201d and \u201cGo New York, Go New York, Go!,\u201d the Knicks\u2019 anthem. Passing garbage trucks and buses blared their horns, cheered on by hundreds of rapturous fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone who\u2019s not from New York, this is insane,\u201d Cara O\u2019Donnell, a 24-year-old from Dublin, said. She photographed a throng of fans at an intersection near the Garden with an old-school film camera. Some people climbed a truck in celebration.<\/p>\n
Next to the Union Street subway stop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, people who had gathered outside Antojitos Dominican restaurant craned their necks to watch the bar\u2019s TV from the sidewalk as the Knicks gained on the Spurs in the game\u2019s last minutes.<\/p>\n
When the final buzzer sounded, the explosion of energy from the crowd could be heard underground in the station. \u201cJust like that!\u201d a man cheered.<\/p>\n
For some fans at the Garden, total victory felt near.<\/p>\n
The Journey song \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d blared in the arena minutes after the final horn. A security guard directed fans toward the stairwell with a simple, confident farewell.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood night. See you at the parade.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The evening at Madison Square Garden began with a canceled party, a spat between New York City\u2019s mayor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4567,52810,18068,1452,67480,96929,222,1445,99223,11815,78318,9,24,55,54,1104,56,9138,84799,83906,22027,1069,99231,37031,40669,1446],"class_list":["post-263326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-basketball","tag-brown","tag-dolan","tag-donald-j","tag-fans-persons","tag-james-l","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-mamdani","tag-mike-1970","tag-national-basketball-assn","tag-nba-championship","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ny","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-stadiums-and-arenas","tag-swift","tag-taylor","tag-trump","tag-victor","tag-wembanyama","tag-wu-tang-clan","tag-zohran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263326","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=263326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}