{"id":272688,"date":"2026-06-20T16:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/272688\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T16:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:16:07","slug":"bronx-man-celebrates-knicks-win-by-visiting-his-dads-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/272688\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx man celebrates Knicks win by visiting his dad&#8217;s grave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Knicks superfan celebrated the NBA Finals win by visiting his father\u2019s grave, and draping a Jalen Brunson jersey over it.<\/p>\n<p>Bronx native Chris Maldonado went to see his dad Jose, who died 15 years ago at 68, at Mount Hope Cemetery in Yonkers on Tuesday \u2014 bringing the No. 11 jersey, a finals hat, Knicks logo chain and orange and blue flowers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did it, Dad. You did it. You made me a Knick fan,\u201d  he says through tears on an emotional gravesite video posted on the Instagram page @newyorkers.<\/p>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@knicks_talkwith_bigchris\/video\/7652067939704704270?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnnP3vu1W0UmijhpyMQraHc49u3KiI2sKUkIOl8AIcQH_SS7wV1ee0DZ6Nens_aem_zka6BOXDekC9XA7iYc-aFA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">now-viral clip<\/a>, he also tells his dad, \u201cThis guy right here, he brought us to the promised land,\u201d referencing Brunson, whose jersey he placed over the tombstone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people hit me up saying, \u2018Oh, please tell me you didn\u2019t leave the Brunson jersey.\u2019 And I said, \u2018No, it was just for the time I spent out there,&#8217;\u201d Maldonado, 47, told The Post, adding that he also took back the hat and chain, but left the flowers.<\/p>\n<p>The Knicks were the one team he and his father \u2014 a native of Puerto Rico who came to New York at 16 and would read The Post every single day \u2014 could agree on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGrowing up, I always liked the other team. My father was a Yankees fan, and I was a Mets fan. He was a Jets fan, and I was a Giants fan. The one team we always agreed on in my house was the Knicks,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Bronx native Chris Maldonado celebrated the Knicks win by visiting his dad, Jose, at the cemetery.  Chris Maldonado<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI set up a chair and I sat there for an hour and played his music and my mother\u2019s music,\u201d Maldonado told The Post. Chris Maldonado<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven when I moved out and got married, we would talk on the phone, or I would go over there for the game and sit with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maldonado, who started a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@knicks_talkwith_bigchris?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnLOzdla2Kx85dGXkyuj8yzJGGjeyJg5GOXcaWAYENFwH9pLOlp3z8_dhvt2E_aem_Lxx2CBtMYxmaY3NffOYiyA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knicks TikTok page<\/a> this season, recalled how he and his three siblings would wait for his father to get home from work to watch Knicks games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy father worked a lot of jobs because there was four of us, and he was old-school. He didn\u2019t want my mother to work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Maldonado\u2019s mother, Madeline, would cook special meals on game days.  Chris Maldonado<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd when he would get home, we\u2019d be waiting on him to watch the game. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we played basketball together. When I was a kid, he would take me and all my friends to the park and play ball with us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jose was also a huge Patrick Ewing fan, and wouldn\u2019t let his son but Michael Jordan sneakers because he played for the hated rival Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody wanted Jordan sneakers, and my father refused to buy me Jordans. But as soon as the Patrick Ewing sneakers came out, I had a pair,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n<p>At the gravesite, Maldonado also spoke to his mother, Madeline, who died four years ago, who would cook special dinners on game days. <\/p>\n<p>The Bronx native, who now lives in New Jersey, watched the Knicks\u2019 Finals win with his son and grandchildren. Chris Maldonado<\/p>\n<p>He also watched the win with his wife, Vanessa, saying the moment was \u201cjust magical.\u201d Chris Maldonado<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll the games you watched with us, Ma. All the times you had to hear me and Daddy screaming. And then when I moved out, I used to call the house. You used to pick up the phone so excited after a Knicks win. And I would tell you right away, \u2018Let me talk to daddy,&#8217;\u201d he said in the clip. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe loved anything that made bonds between us. Anything that we shared that was special to us, she was all about it,\u201d Maldonado said.<\/p>\n<p>Maldonado, who now lives in New Jersey, watched the Knicks win the Finals with his wife, Vanessa, and their 28-year-old son, 6-year-old grandson and 4-year-old granddaughter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a beautiful, just magical moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if I could have been able to share that moment with my dad, that would have just made the moment perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Knicks superfan celebrated the NBA Finals win by visiting his father\u2019s grave, and draping a Jalen Brunson&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,68,97812,40242,105070,4777,37011,80162,9,24,1104,63,319,2085,6015,129,131,130,1688],"class_list":["post-272688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-exclusive","tag-fathers-day","tag-fatherhood","tag-gravesites","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs-2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-sports-fans","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-viral-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272688","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=272688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}