New York City, hardly a city deprived of energy, is having a moment. In the past two weeks, the bars have been even more packed than usual. Several nights a week, usually at around 11pm, there has been a seemingly synchronized honking of horns.
Walking around the city, it doesn’t take long to find out why. People wearing New York Knicks jerseys are high-fiving each other, and Knicks flags fly from cars, windows and bodegas, as people celebrate the team reaching the NBA finals – and having the chance to overcome five decades of (mostly) failure.
That’s not the only thing fueling the vibe in the city. In January, New York installed one of its youngest-ever mayors, a man who energized weary voters not just in the city, but across the US and around the world. And as the Knicks have conquered all before them, Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist and a noted sports enthusiast, has served as a high-profile cheerleader, goading opponents on social media and cheering the team on among the rank-and-file fans: fans who hardly need any encouragement.
“It’s beautiful for the city. If it’s a rainy day, but the Knicks are winning, then it’s a sunny day,” David Hamilton, a military veteran-turned-comedian and producer, said of the atmosphere.
“It’s very hopeful, very optimistic. It’s probably cliche, but sports is that sometimes unifying distraction. You have distraction distractions, like binge-watching, but then you have like a unifying distraction. It’s a big, joyous kind of moment.”
Hamilton was at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday afternoon. There was no game: the Knicks, having defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in just four games, have earned a nice rest until the finals. But the fan store was open, and Hamilton had bought a classic jersey bearing the name Walt Frazier: the point guard who led the Knicks to their only championship wins, in 1970 and 1973.
Hamilton, 40, said he had seen the videos of Mamdani, dressed in his usual dark suit, cheering on the Knicks from the (relatively) cheap seats at the Garden.
“I think there’s something about this year in New York that feels grassroots, feels authentic. [The Knicks] feel gritty in the sense that they didn’t go out and get polished stars for the team, or get all the celebrities to try to win a championship. Everybody’s low-key a bit of an underdog,” Hamilton said.
“And it’s the same thing with Mamdani. He was this underdog who came out of nowhere, but has a ‘for the people of the city’ type of vibe. This team has the everyday, lunchpail, hard-working-type of feel, so you feel it top to bottom, and then the mayor, with his seats way up in the nosebleeds – it’s this humanizing factor, and I think everybody feels better when we all feel like we’re on the same plane.”
New York City has enjoyed sporting success, and fervent celebrations, in recent years, with women’s teams leading the charge. The New York Liberty won their first WNBA title in 2024 and held a parade attended by tens of thousands of people. Gotham FC won the NWSL Championship in 2023 and 2025. New York City FC, a men’s team, won MLS in 2021.
But triumph has bypassed the Knicks, who have, at several times over the years, served as a byword for sporting incompetence. That history of failure seems to have lent the enthusiasm an extra air, and if the team can win game one on Wednesday 3 June there are likely to be mass celebrations citywide.
“It’s incredible. I think it’s just something for us to rally around,” said Emma Randall, 35. She was having a drink in a sports bar in Brooklyn before heading to watch the Liberty, but has been following the Knicks’ progress with glee.
“I work on a college campus, and that’s a bunch of people who are transplants here to New York City, and it’s a buzz there as well. And so that’s exciting to bring us together, something to cheer for, something to be excited about, and proud of as well.”
It’s a buzz Mamdani has embraced, poking fun at the Cavaliers after the Knicks swept them in the Eastern Conference finals. “@NYCSanitation I’d like to report a sweep,” Mamdani wrote on social media, in a post liked by almost 300,000 people.
The mayor is riding high, sports-wise, with Arsenal, his team, winning the Premier League last week – Mamdani joined fans including Spike Lee at a bar in Brooklyn to watch the final game. Indeed, he seems to have a knack for tapping into supporters’ emotions, in the way his campaign last year buoyed Americans hoping for an alternative to a Trump-dominated Republican party and what had seemed to be an increasingly cowed Democratic party.
“I do love a good cause: the belief in each other, and in making the city a better place. And showing how it’s so welcoming for everyone, and showing the rest of the world what it’s like to live in this great city,” Randall said.
Mamdani’s embrace of the Knicks hasn’t been appreciated by all. He was criticized by the rightwing New York Post and Fox News for attending that game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but told an interviewer this week: “I’ll never apologize for sitting in the nosebleeds.”
Despite the criticism, that seat high up in the stands is in stark contrast to Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, who during his tenure sat courtside – an area usually the preserve of celebrities and the ultra rich.
“Let’s just say he’s not really one of us. He was never my cup of tea,” Becca Bortz, a physician assistant who lives in Brooklyn, said of Eric Adams.
Mamdani’s experience of the games – managing to attend one, but otherwise watching from home using a friend’s YouTube TV login – is “definitely more relatable”, Bortz said. She added: “I mean, it is a little bandwagony, but how can you not get onboard?”
Bortz, 32, has been a Knicks fan her entire life. She’s witnessed the highs and the lows – mostly the lows – and is stunned by the run of success.
“I think I was six years old when they last made it to the finals, and I think I was one year old the time before that, and that’s been it. That’s my whole life with this team,” she said.
“So I’m cautiously elated, I’m being careful, but I’m super pumped at the same time.”
No doubt Mamdani, the sports-fan mayor, will be among the New Yorkers leading the celebrations, just as pumped as the rest.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
