![](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/84a9336661ee917cd40259fd406f479460-neighborhood-news-knicks.rhorizontal.w1100.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
It was agony and ecstasy outside Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, before game five in the Eastern Conference Finals against the loathed Indiana Pacers. The Knicks<\/a> went into the evening facing elimination, down three games to one. The operators of a video-camera setup invited fans to record derisive videos about Tyrese Haliburton, currently Public Enemy No. 1 in the five boroughs. (Or at least on Seventh Avenue.) A fan with face tats was recording himself strutting south, attracting a parade of flexing, cheering bros. \u201cDax is right; there\u2019s so many people smoking weed,\u201d a suit blurted into his phone.<\/p>\n The Knicks were so bad for so long that in 2022, when the team won one first-round game against the Atlanta Hawks, fans acted like they\u2019d taken home the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy. Since then, they\u2019ve increasingly dared to hope, and this season\u2019s mania especially calls back to the 1990s, when the Patrick Ewing\u2013John Starks squads captured the city\u2019s id. That the franchise could maybe make it to the Finals \u2014 well, it could at least erase the memory of Pacers center Roy Hibbert\u2019s smothering block of Carmelo Anthony in 2013. Bigger venues had to be found for watch parties, some now held in Central Park. A mildly disgusting TikTok trend had fans slugging shots of honey. On StubHub, the starting price for game one of the Pacers series was $878. Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a> has been at every game, home and away, keeping up with Spike Lee<\/a>.<\/p>\n Across the street from the Garden, David Berger and Josh Hill were lingering. \u201cI made a very financially irresponsible decision to be here tonight for this,\u201d said Hill, who\u2019d spent $1,100 to fly in from London the night before. \u201cIt\u2019s that kind of New York Knick stupidity.\u201d Added Berger, \u201cif you told me the Knicks were gonna host the Conference Finals, I would\u2019ve been like, That\u2019s unheard of. It\u2019s not ideal that it\u2019s 3-1. I\u2019m realistic. I\u2019m not a crazy person. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that far-fetched.\u201d Over by the barricades, John and Terry Angelo were discussing when the old Garden was torn down. It was 1969, four years before the Knicks last won a championship. \u201cI\u2019ve been a Knicks fan ever since Walt \u2018Clyde\u2019 Frazier, and I was at that Finals game when he scored 30-something points,\u201d John said wistfully.<\/p>\n By halftime, when the Knicks led 56-45, some fans streamed out of Stout, the West 33rd Street bar hosting a watch party. \u201cI feel good, but the thing with the Knicks is, man, they never just let you enjoy a basketball game. You\u2019re always just sweating it out till the very end,\u201d Nico Tobon said. \u201cI\u2019ve been a Knicks fan my whole life, I\u2019m used to pain.\u201d<\/p>\n Not tonight, though. Fans looked for something to latch their anxiety to (Karl-Anthony Towns sitting after his fourth foul), but it never materialized. The DJ played \u201cSandstorm\u201d; a Josh Hart rebound provoked a \u201cWe\u2019re not worthy\u201d gesture from a fan. As the game wound down, a \u201cFuck Tyrese\u201d chant broke out next door, and the crowd rushed to the barricades at Seventh Avenue. The cops corralled the revelers \u2014 a mix of diehards, content creators, and others out for a good time \u2014 threatening arrest if they didn\u2019t disperse. People climbed light poles and flexed atop the 34th Street subway canopy. Trae Young caught strays; \u201cKnicks in seven\u201d was the default message. \u201cThis is step one of looting,\u201d one fan said, before darting off. By 11:30, it had died down. At Rose Pizza in Penn Station, a few fans who\u2019d stuck it out for the shenanigans waited for slices while Patrick Hernandez\u2019s disco romp \u201cBorn to Be Alive\u201d<\/a> played. On Friday, at least, the Knicks still were, too.<\/p>\n Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. Want more stories like this one? Subscribe now<\/a>
\n If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the June 2, 2025, issue of
\n New York\u00a0Magazine.<\/p>\n
\n to support our journalism and get unlimited access to our coverage.
\n If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the June 2, 2025, issue of
\n New York Magazine.<\/p>\n