{"id":752661,"date":"2026-06-04T23:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752661\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T23:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:51:14","slug":"basketball-is-new-york-citys-game-spike-lee-explains-why-this-knicks-team-feels-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752661\/","title":{"rendered":"“Basketball is New York City’s game” – Spike Lee explains why this Knicks team feels different"},"content":{"rendered":"

Madison Square Garden built its reputation on atmosphere, not trophies. The\u00a0New York Knicks<\/a>\u00a0fans know that better than anyone. For decades, the arena carried the weight of playoff heartbreaks, wasted primes of stars, and front office decisions that seemed allergic to getting it right.<\/p>\n

But this season, what’s happening right now, is hitting differently for the Knicks faithful. After sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> in the Eastern Conference Finals, New York<\/a> is going back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. Twenty-seven years. That’s how long this fan base has been waiting for a sentence like that one.<\/p>\n

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The last time the Knicks were in the Finals, Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston dragged them on pure will during a lockout-shortened season. They lost to the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>. And somehow, the Spurs are waiting on the other side again.<\/p>\n

Is the symmetry poetic or cruel? That surely depends on how the series ends for the Knicks fans.<\/p>\n

Spike Lee shares what makes these Knicks special<\/p>\n

Nobody has sat through more of this franchise’s chaos than Oscar-winning filmmaker\u00a0Spike Lee<\/a>. Every bad contract, every coaching change, every playoff exit. He watched it all from his courtside seat. So, when he says the energy feels different this year, it is worth paying attention to.<\/p>\n

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Lee appeared on CBS\u00a0Morning recently\u00a0and spoke\u00a0freely\u00a0about what he has been seeing across the city.<\/p>\n

“New York City is on fire. No pun intended,”\u00a0Lee\u00a0said<\/a>.\u00a0“Everybody is amazing, people smiling, talking to strangers. Everyone’s orange and blue, it’s like, what sports can do.”<\/p>\n

That’s the thing about a team that actually gives people a reason to believe. The city lights up.<\/p>\n

The road back to his moment wasn’t a straight line.\u00a0The Carmelo Anthony<\/a> era peaked in 2013 with 54 wins\u00a0before the Indiana Pacers<\/a> ended it\u00a0in the second round.\u00a0The 2021 playoff run briefly woke the fan base up before Trae Young<\/a> put it back to sleep.\u00a0A deeper run in 2025 brought them closer before\u00a0going\u00a0down against the Pacers.<\/p>\n

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Now, after an 11-game playoff winning streak, they’ve completed the climb.<\/p>\n

“We got a squad, we got a coach,”\u00a0he added.\u00a0“Basketball is New York City’s game. Football? I don’t know.”<\/p>\n

Hard to argue with that currently.<\/p>\n

Related: Andre Iguodala once called out the NCAA’s financial hypocrisy: “You’re supposed to risk your health for a compensation package of $40,000 in gift certificates”<\/a><\/p>\n

Three more wins for the Knicks<\/p>\n

What separates this Knicks team from previous runs is not just the results. It’s the sheer dominance with which they got here. No one transcendent star dragging everyone else along. They dismantled the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> and then swept the Cavaliers, doing so with a scoring margin that topped that of the amazing 2017 Golden State Warriors<\/a> during their playoff run.<\/p>\n

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These Knicks are showing up on gamedays, proving it’s not just a hot streak.<\/p>\n

“It’s our time, I believe it,”\u00a0Lee said.<\/p>\n

For a fan base that spent the better part of three decades watching title runs happen everywhere but New York, this belief was not that common. There was always a reason to hold back. That instinct has not fully gone away. It doesn’t after 27 years. But it’s quieter now than it’s been in a long time.<\/p>\n

Heading into Game 1 in San Antonio<\/a>, many felt the run might actually hit a roadblock.\u00a0The Spurs had eliminated the defending champions\u00a0Oklahoma\u00a0City Thunder and arrived in the Finals behind their star\u00a0Victor\u00a0Wembanyama.\u00a0Yet the Knicks found a way to take on their home floor and walked away with a 105-95 win. With the result, the Knicks are just three wins away from capturing their first NBA championship since 1973.<\/p>\n

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Spike Lee felt it.\u00a0Now they\u00a0just\u00a0have to finish it.<\/p>\n

Related: “He was country strong” – Reggie Miller shares why nobody in today’s NBA would be able to stop prime Charles Barkley<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madison Square Garden built its reputation on atmosphere, not trophies. The\u00a0New York Knicks\u00a0fans know that better than anyone.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,3628,193,2955,164,113,126,3866,2587,6,1136,191,179,114,207,969,474,5567,494,693],"class_list":["post-752661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-basketball","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-eastern-conference-finals","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-latrell-sprewell","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-pacers","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-spike-lee","tag-trae-young","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116694527701832349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}