One of the biggest conversations about the Finals games in New York City isn’t the dramatic outcomes but what happened afterward, and Spurs fans know how they want to deal with things when San Antonio welcomes Knicks fans back for Game 5.
“The perfect revenge” for the violence that ensued in the Big Apple on Monday and Wednesday nights is some “southern hospitality,” according to one Reddit user commenting on a post that urged San Antonians to “BE NICE AS F” to visitors from New York. After the Spurs won 115-111 in Game 3, a watch party in Bryant Park in Manhattan turned chaotic, ending in 21 individuals taken into custody (eight of whom were charged) and five NYPD officers injured. Videos of that night show fist fights, Knicks fans chasing after people in Spurs jerseys, and after a bus the crowd seemed to believe was transporting the Spurs players.
It prompted responses from multiple Spurs players, longtime Knicks fan and actor Ben Stiller, and (somewhat controversially) New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, among others. After a tough one-point loss to the Knicks in Game 4, however, Knicks fans were seen heckling Spurs players and even throwing a reported egg at Wembanyama as the team returned to their hotel.
As the series prepares to return to San Antonio for Game 5, locals say Spurs fans need to do the opposite and show some class.
“LIKE SERIOUSLY, open doors for them, win or lose, genuinely say ‘that was a good game’ then let them say what they thought,” one Reddit user wrote in a post on the r’sanantonio subreddit. “F’n buy them a beer. Because when they go back and realize Spurs fans are the sh, and their fans are a-holes…that’s the real win.”
Other locals agreed, saying that not to retaliate with more violence shows fans of other teams that San Antonio and the Frost Bank Center are safe to enjoy any game, as well as showing that the city is deserving of events like the NCAA Final Four. “May i suggest cascarones to receive our guests?” one commenter jokingly wrote.
Some said that if Game 5 is won, Spurs fans can give Knicks faithful the Tim Duncan treatment and hit them with a “nice try” or “almost.” But the consensus under the post was that no matter what, San Antonio has “a challenge to swallow your pride and carry yourself with class. And carrying ourselves with class is what we should show the world. Win or lose, this is who we are. Then we go honking and sh*t afterwards.