{"id":266050,"date":"2026-06-14T03:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T03:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/266050\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T03:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T03:03:20","slug":"brawls-biting-and-bliss-in-a-city-craving-a-knicks-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/266050\/","title":{"rendered":"Brawls, Biting and Bliss in a City Craving a Knicks Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

One person bit a police officer and punched another after the New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of the N.B.A. finals. A second person was carrying a loaded gun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Outside a watch party in Bryant Park on Monday, when the Spurs won Game 3, several men yanked trees from their roots and threw glass at police officers. One Spurs fan was beaten and had his jersey ripped off<\/a> as he walked back to his hotel. When one New Yorker admonished fans who were shaking a street sign loose, they attacked him, too. <\/p>\n

And on Wednesday, after Game 4<\/a>, a 17-year-old boy had a seizure and fell into a brief coma after he was punched and kicked in the head by a group of people on 35th Street, according to police. The assault followed an argument over the game, they said.<\/p>\n

These convulsions of violence have generated headlines, but for a city of more than eight million people, such episodes have been relatively sparse. Still, they have revealed a certain frenetic energy beneath the glee and euphoria running through the city this week.<\/p>\n

Raucous celebrations are as time-tested a tradition as organized sports themselves. In Philadelphia, the fandom is so passionate that the city has taken to greasing light poles before big games.<\/p>\n

But these days in New York, where the Knicks have not had a run at the finals in almost three decades \u2014 let alone a title in 53 years \u2014 it feels like a pressure valve has been suddenly released, and the long-deferred elation of victory has exploded on streets and sidewalks.<\/p>\n

The episodes have brought a growing public-safety challenge to the fore, as officers try to keep order in a moment when passion can tip into mayhem as swiftly as a buzzer-beater.<\/p>\n

Fifty-six people were taken into custody on Wednesday night after the Knicks beat the Spurs in the last seconds of the game. Thousands of people flooded the streets around the Garden, jumping on top of vehicles and damaging the windshields of four police vehicles, according to the police and videos posted on social media. Several fans pulled a taxi driver<\/a> from his cab, injuring his arm, back and head. Elsewhere, someone threw garbage<\/a> at Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs\u2019 star, as he walked to a hotel.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the police called the behavior on Wednesday \u201cincredibly reckless and dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis demonstrates exactly why the N.Y.P.D. has increased our presence in and around Madison Square Garden,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner, who in his tenure saw three of the city\u2019s four sports teams win championship titles, said officers can sense when elation turns to aggression.<\/p>\n

Just after the victory, \u201ceveryone is laughing and screaming and having a good time,\u201d he said. \u201cThen, there is a lull in the crowd, and it\u2019s almost like a mentality of what are we going to do next? That\u2019s when the trouble starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks, the behavior among some Knicks fans has been so rowdy that the city briefly canceled watch parties outside Madison Square Garden before the finals. A day before Game 4, the actor Ben Stiller, a Knicks die-hard, went on social media to implore New Yorkers to stay calm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people don\u2019t intend to engage in vandalism or crowd violence,\u201d said Karen Altendorf, an assistant professor of sociology at Bucknell University. But the collective nature of crowds leads some people to behave poorly because they think they are unlikely to be held individually accountable, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much easier to get swept up than we know, realize or admit,\u201d Ms. Altendorf said.<\/p>\n

Adam Damico, a retired police detective, worked in Midtown in 1994, when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, and in 1999, when the Knicks last went to the finals.<\/p>\n

When the Rangers won the Cup, elated fans filled Seventh Avenue, chanting as they marched to Times Square then back to the Garden, an almost dignified demonstration of jubilance, Mr. Damico said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave them Seventh Avenue,\u201d he said, recalling how the police shut down the street to cars and let the fans hang out until 2 or 3 in the morning. \u201cThere was no vandalism. It was a very festive crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other factors like alcohol use can exacerbate the chaos, experts said. And unlike in the 1990s, when there was no social media, many young fans today<\/a> are looking for a viral moment and may be eager to produce provocative, or even violent, stunts in exchange for internet fame.<\/p>\n

Outside Midtown Manhattan, the scene has been far tamer. Even the trash talk has been wholesome.<\/p>\n

In Harlem, Brian Howell, 65, watched Game 1 on a 65-inch television perched on the back of a truck. Several other fans around his age were watching from beach chairs when a Spurs fan pulled up on his motorcycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to make you feel like \u201999 tonight,\u201d the Spurs fan called out, referring to the finals in which the Spurs beat the Knicks in four games to one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll talk to you in four games,\u201d Mr. Howell shot back.<\/p>\n

Crowds, and especially large gatherings of sports fans, tend to run emotional, said Fergus Neville, a senior lecturer at the University of St. Andrews Business School in Scotland. But that emotion is usually positive, with most people remaining peaceful, even when a smaller, marginalized minority might seek out conflict.<\/p>\n

The trouble comes when law enforcement can\u2019t distinguish between the two groups and acts indiscriminately toward the crowd, Mr. Neville said. From there, the tension can spread like wildfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where you get widespread disorder and escalation,\u201d Mr. Neville said. \u201cIt can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Davis, the former police commissioner, said Boston police officers learned it was better to allow fans to revel and keep the officers in riot gear out of sight, ready to be deployed only if necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times you just have to let it play out,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes the fighting would start because we were there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the headaches, many officers are as anxious<\/a> as the rest of the city to see the Knicks pull off a win on Saturday.<\/p>\n

After the Knicks won Game 2, one officer assigned to the Garden looked over the crowd, grinning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m getting paid to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chelsia Rose Marcius, Nate Schweber and Miles G. Cohen contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One person bit a police officer and punched another after the New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4567,101097,59471,222,9,24,55,54,1104,56],"class_list":["post-266050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-basketball","tag-bryant-park-manhattan","tag-harlem-manhattan","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266050","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=266050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}