NEW YORK (PIX11) \u2013 A New York man is crediting the Knicks for his lucky shot that led to a multimillion-dollar lottery prize, officials announced Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bernard Bonaparte, a Queens man, wanted to be at the ticker-tape parade with millions of other Knicks fans celebrating the NBA champions. Instead, he went to Connecticut to claim a $3.4 million jackpot prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t \u00a0\u201cIt was the Knicks! The Knicks won! That\u2019s what it is,\u201d Bernard exclaimed to Connecticut lottery officials as he claimed his multimillion-dollar check. \u201cThe Knicks won. That\u2019s what\u2019s important right now; it feels good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The basketball team inspires<\/p>\n Inspired by the Knicks\u2019 string of wins, Bonaparte decided to try his luck and purchased a CT Lottery Lotto ticket. His gamble paid off.<\/p>\n Bonaparte\u2019s winning ticket matched all six numbers in the lottery drawing on Friday, June 12\u2014just a day before the Knicks ended their 53-year NBA Championship drought. The New Yorker said that he, too, was strategic when playing the lottery, purchasing the ticket at a Gulf gas station at 1324 E. Putnam Ave. in Old Greenwich, which has become a popular spot for lottery players.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to lottery officials, the store sold a $25,000 winning scratch-off ticket just a few weeks ago. In 2025, it sold a $1 million winning scratch-off ticket, and in 2024, it sold another worth $4.3 million.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s latest millionaire says he plans to buy a house, ideally in a warmer climate, but adds that no matter where he goes, he will remain a loyal fan, telling officials, \u201cI love New York, and I love the Connecticut Lottery!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (PIX11) \u2013 A New York man is crediting the Knicks for his lucky shot that led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-273188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273188","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=273188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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