‘Unfortunately, They Made Us Fall in Love’
Talking to fans at the Garden as the Knicks’ thrilling run came to an end.
It was always going to be an uphill battle. After a Game 6 in which the Knicks lost 116-103 to the Pacers and the pesky heartbeat of the team, Josh Hart, suffered an abdominal injury, the Knicks had their work cut out for them. Before tipoff, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski dropped a bomb that gave fans more reason to hope: Hart and OG Anunoby, who’d been out since Game 2, were both going to play. It seemed like it could really happen this time.
At Halftime: Still Hoping
Robert Quinn, a newish fan, says he had been a little nervous, but says, “knowing my Knicks? We got this.” But it’s looking grim: Pacers 70, Knicks 55 at the half. Victor Ng, an on-and-off follower of the team since the Patrick Ewing glory days of 1994, had bet on a very specific outcome: Knicks by four points. Now he’s saying, “I think FanDuel took my money.” But he turns philosophical all the same: “Being a fan is being on a rollercoaster. This season, they’re up and down but at least it’s ending up on a high note. So I can’t complain.” Then he adds, “if they can tie, they can win. If they’re not pulling within 8, they’re not coming back.”
Bella, age 10, usually leans toward hockey, but she’d been pulled toward basketball by the playoff run. “They’re New York, I root for New York, I’m with New York.” She has a message: “to the Knicks, no matter what happens today, you’re an amazing team and we’re supporting you all the way.”
At Mustang Harry’s, a block south of the Garden, fans are straining to see the TVs through the windows. Rich Templeton, a lifelong fan, has already been to two more bars nearby, Stout and The Triple Crown, and he says this patch of sidewalk was the best vantage point he’s found. “They’re coming back,” he says. “Donte [DiVincenzo] is gonna lead them back. Donte and [Jalen] Brunson. Donte’s got a little spunk to him and he can shoot the 3 ball.” How does he see the night going if the Knicks pull out a comeback victory? “It’s not Philadelphia, so I don’t expect things to be burned or anything, but I think it’ll be a nice lively atmosphere.”
Tom, an 18-year-old who flew in from Naples, Florida, disagrees: “If they win I think the city’s gonna burn the fuck down. Empire State Building’s going down, and Penn Station is burning to the ground. Simple as that.” He and his two friends have courtside seats, he says, arriving at halftime. They’re optimistic for a comeback but also realists. “It’s always a letdown, as Knicks fans. That’s what makes us loyal fans.”
Back by the entrance to the Garden, a pair of vendors are hawking NEW YORK VS. EVERYBODY and JALEN MVP BRUNSON shirts. Another seller says of his prices, “If we win, this goes up.”
Fourth Quarter: The Beginning of the End
Halfway through the fourth quarter, hope is fading. Fans start trickling out of the Garden onto the steps where Michael and his friend Kevin are standing. Michael says he’s walked past the arena on his commute every day for the past ten years. When we ask him whether he and Kevin are Knicks fans, Michael says, “We wish we weren’t after this game.” Kevin adds, “we overcame so much this season … just for it to end it like this.”
Draco, a content creator and 76ers fan who watched as the Knicks eliminated his team two weeks ago, came up from Philly this morning “just to watch them lose.” He walks over to us, livestreaming from his phone, and also starts interviewing Michael and Kevin. “Y’all have so little faith in your team right now. There’s still six minutes left in the game. And y’all really leaving right now, what’s going on?” But they’re still proud. Michael says, “We grind, we grit, we work hard and I feel like at the end of the day like that’s what matters. We support them. We love them as players and as people you know, we protect them, we take care of our own.”
Jeff Knight, a 38-year-old who’s been a fan since he was 6, tells me he’d headed for the exit after news spread inside the arena that Brunson had fractured his hand. Another fan, Adam Silvers, had been sitting in section 201, where the injury news spread as people got updates on their phones. When he got word, Silvers thought, “well, that’s the end of that.” He’d spent more than $800 on his tickets.
Rami Evgi, a season-ticket holder for 30 years, says he knew the Knicks were going to lose from the beginning of the game. He left early because he couldn’t bear to see the ugly end. He’d flipped every other playoff ticket he had for the money, but he’d saved game 7 for himself. Even with the loss, he says, it was still the best Knicks season since 1999, when the Knicks lost to the San Antonio Spurs in the finals. This season, he says, was sweet because it was a surprise, “I didn’t even know if they would make the playoffs. If everybody was healthy, nobody could have stopped us.”
Amber, a brand-new fan at 26, had seen them win in Philadelphia. She too is down, but she’s already relishing the memory: “They’ve done so well, honestly. A lot of the players got injured, but with the few players they have left, they did amazing. We’re sad, but honestly they did a good job.”
Pat, 35, and Tracy, 36, are New Yorkers who paid $12,000 each for their center-court season tickets. But Tracy is, like her dad, a Celtics fan. “She is happily married to me, I believe,” Pat reassures us, and possibly himself. “She roots for the Knicks unless it’s against the Celtics.” Ever since Julius Randle got hurt in January, “it was always like, agh, the season’s probably not going to be great. But then everyone kept trying their guts out. And unfortunately, they made us fall in love. And then you know, just sucks to see someone try so fucking hard…”
One of the first Pacers fans to leave the arena, when his team was up 17 with three minutes to go, is a lone guy in a golden-yellow team hoodie. A bunch of random Knicks fans immediately circle him, yelling “get the fuck out of here you bitch-ass” and “fuck the Pacers.” (It was more aggro posturing than actual threat.) The Pacers fan doesn’t seem to mind the taunting — his team was through, after all. A family of six dressed in Pacers jerseys, with three young children plus an infant in Mom’s arms, says they feel “amazing,” barely aware that Knicks fans are screaming at them to go home. Joe and Jack Judson, also Pacers fans, aren’t fazed by being outnumbered. Joe says, “that’s the thing about New York fans, they’re passionate.” The two spent $10,000 per ticket and Joe estimates that the trip cost about $27,000 altogether. Jack, his son, says it’s the best game he’s ever been to. He’s a rising senior at Purdue University in Indiana, and says his buddies back home are “electric.” His phone has been blowing up.
…And Afterward
After the final buzzer — Pacers 130, Knicks 109 — a swarm of mostly young men gather at the top of the escalators to Penn Station at 33rd street. United in their loss, they start chanting “Fuck Trae Young,” a player who is not on the Indiana Pacers nor is even in the playoffs. The animosity is still fresh from when Young’s Atlanta Hawks beat the Knicks in the first round in 2021.
Silvers is optimistic: “This is probably year one for this core. They probably got three or four years in them. They got a lot of draft picks and a lot of capital. So they can go out and get a pretty big name. And Randle will be healthy and he gives the Knicks 25 and 10 easily every night.” Knight thinks the Knicks should part ways with Randle in the offseason, “based on how the Knicks played without him. Brunson took his game to a different level once Randle was out.” Silvers thinks “maybe they get someone like a Kevin Durant if he thinks MSG is cool enough now.” Evgi thinks they need “another good guy, not Kevin Durant or Devin Booker, but a surprise, like Hartenstein. Just a good player.”
Cops are patrolling the area, dispersing the crowds and drawing them down from lampposts. A fan jokes to his friend, “Knicks in 8,” suggesting that this was still their year. The crowd shifts to “fuck Tyrese,” the Pacers star, then “fuck Embiid,” the 76ers star. Anything is worthy of comment — including the entire sport of hockey, as they shift over to yelling “let’s go Rangers.” An altercation with a Knicks fan prompts an officer to shove him back, and several other cops step in to push the crowd away and firmly suggest that they all go home. The last chant before the police disperse them is “fuck the Celtics.” The city does not burn. The price of the T-shirts drops from $20 to $10.