{"id":265264,"date":"2026-06-13T03:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T03:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265264\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T03:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T03:55:16","slug":"knicks-fans-scramble-to-find-way-to-san-antonio-for-game-5-after-storm-causes-travel-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265264\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks fans scramble to find way to San Antonio for Game 5 after storm causes travel chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knicks fans were heaving half-court shots to reach San Antonio ahead of New York\u2019s potentially championship-clinching showdown with the Spurs after stormy weather canceled flights Friday.<\/p>\n

Orange and blue-clad New Yorkers were ready to invade<\/a> the second-rate Texas city<\/a> for Saturday night\u2019s Game 5 of the NBA Finals, but travel plans were thrown into chaos thanks to a raging thunderstorm that swept through the tristate area. <\/p>\n

Brooklyn resident Toby Hyde was supposed to board a 5:33 p.m. flight to San Antonio from JFK Airport with a layover in Dallas until the plane was grounded, sending him scrambling for a backup plan. <\/p>\n

\"NewNY Knicks fans made it to NBA Finals games at the start of the series. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Knicks can come back from 29 down, an American can figure out how to get into Texas,\u201d Hyde, 44, said in reference to the Knicks\u2019 shocking Game 4 comeback<\/a> at Madison Square Garden to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big state, I\u2019ll be able to fly somewhere,\u201d he added while decked out in a Marcus Camby jersey. \u201cI\u2019ll probably be driving from somewhere, hopefully through Austin but I\u2019m willing to do Houston if it will get me there in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was eventually able to book a flight to Miami that is supposed to depart late Friday, then take off from the Sunshine State and reach Dallas by the morning and finally jet into San Antonio by early afternoon.<\/p>\n

Another crew of Knicks supporters were set to fly from LaGuardia Airport to Dallas before their plans were rejected like a Mitchell Robinson block.<\/p>\n

Now, five fans who bonded over the travel heartbreak were boarding a plane to Miami, which will connect to Austin before they drive the 80 miles to San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you see what Knicks fans endure,\u201d one of the newly united fans, Eric Kwiatkowski, 40, told the Post.<\/p>\n

Kwiatkowski\u2019s friend, Ramy Fakhr, 44, will only have the clothes on his back after he checked his luggage for the canceled plane.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have time to retrieve the suitcase before hurrying to the new flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I have to spend the whole weekend without any clothes. This is all I\u2019m wearing. Well, I\u2019m gonna borrow some of Eric\u2019s clothes,\u201d said Fakhr.<\/p>\n

\"FansFans were ready to invade San Antonio for Game 5. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But a chuckling Kwiatkowski cut in, \u201cHe\u2019s not getting any of my clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queens resident Joe P. and his pal also saw their travel plans run afoul after they were planning to fly into Dallas, then take a plane to Austin before driving the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

The two friends bought tickets Thursday, but were still trying to figure out new travel arrangements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not been able to afford any of the tickets for the NBA finals in the Garden, because I think, it\u2019s $10,000, $12,000 for nosebleeds now, so that\u2019s a little bit out of my budget,\u201d Joe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cheaper to go to San Antonio, and fly back then to go to the game in NY.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jalen Brunson-led Knickerbockers could clinch the team\u2019s first championship in more than 50 years as they take on the most hated man \u2013 or alien<\/a> \u2013 in New York, Victor Wembanyama, and the Spurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knicks fans were heaving half-court shots to reach San Antonio ahead of New York\u2019s potentially championship-clinching showdown with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7472,15617,57,9,11,1104,10,9416,9138,58],"class_list":["post-265264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-dallas","tag-flights","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265264","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=265264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}