No city is more closely identified with basketball than New York.
That’s the number of public outdoor basketball courts in New York City. If you factor in private gyms, high school gyms and community centers, the number of places to hoop in the city skyrockets to well over 1,800. With courts nearly everywhere and a rich history of playground legends, there’s no sport that is as synonymous with a city as basketball is with New York City.
Don’t get me wrong, other cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle have all impacted the game and produced legendary pros. But no city can say that its connection to basketball runs so deep that it helped to reimagine how one of the game’s positions is played. No city except New York.
“It had to be a point guard,” said Kazeem Famuyide, the co-host of “7PM in Brooklyn” with famed New York Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony, and co-host of Hot 97’s “Mornings with Mero.” “We'd wished for so many players to be our savior. But for this city, it had to be a point guard. A point guard that is doubted. It had to be this way.”
Famuyide is absolutely right. This story of the Knicks rising back to championship prominence would’ve been sweet had Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell, Carmelo or any other star player since 1973 led the team to a title. But it makes this victory especially poetic that it was Jalen Brunson, an undersized, underrated and often overlooked point guard — whose father was on the last Knicks team to reach the NBA Finals in 1999 — who restored glory back to The Big Apple. Because if basketball is what we do, point guards are how we do it.
For those not fully in the know, there’s a movie that explains the impact New York City players have had on the position. Elite point guard play has always been part of the equation for Knicks championship success. Before Hall of Famer Walt “Clyde” Frazier was a famed announcer, he was getting buckets in Orange and Blue, leading the Knicks to titles over the Los Angeles Lakers in 1970 and 1973. But the search for a leader at that spot left the team without guidance, direction or focus. Until now.
Brunson now wields the power of the Point God in NYC. Along with Karl-Anthony Towns, a fellow New Jersey native, Josh Hart, Miles Bridges and the hero of game four, OG Anunoby, they’re a team full of counted-out overachievers that the city has embraced as its own.
They also happen to have one of our own on the roster.
“I don't know a lot of Puerto Ricans in the NBA like that,” said Randy J. Cruz, co-owner of the Hoops in the Sun basketball tournament, of Knicks guard Jose Alvarado. “There have definitely been some over the years, but especially him being here in New York is just phenomenal, man. I’m proud of that kid. Him being a New York City kid, born and raised, playing at Christ the King, and working and grinding his way to find a spot on the Knicks. Now he gets to call himself a champion. He earned that. He deserved that. And, you know, he just put on for the Boricuas.”
Having a Brooklyn-born talent on the roster is just one of the improbable storylines that makes this Knicks team so lovable. Not only do they play an exciting style of basketball, but they also have the deepest alumni section in the NBA. Legends like Ewing, Sprewell, John Starks and beloved players like J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert came out to support this year’s team. The feeling is that once you play in the jersey, you’re a Knick for life. It's the kind of loyalty and commitment that matters to true fans.
Scott Williams, co-owner of downtown bar Las’ Lap, says his journey as a Knicks fan began at age 6. Williams, who attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals, was fully confident this team could do it. But what he couldn’t predict is what it would do to the city.
“They’ve definitely brought the community together,” Williams said. “It was really awesome to see. Whether you’re at a bar with a random group of people around you or you're just walking down the street, everyone's just like, ‘Yo, lets go Knicks.’”
That positivity has touched Knicks fans of all backgrounds and all ages.
“Me and my husband are huge Knicks fans, so if the game's on, everyone's watching at the same time,” said Mylean Rulloda, whose 3-year-old daughter Rya became the star of the “Always Knicks” campaign. “Rya just gravitated towards Brunson for some reason. She became obsessed with him even before I gave her the little doll, and then once I gave her a doll, that's it, it was over. She just loves him.”
Brunson’s BFF being a doll-totting toddler who can’t wait to show the Knicks captain her team-inspired nails symbolizes the emergence of a new generation of Knicks fans that doesn’t remember the excitement of the Larry Johnson four-point play or Houston’s game-winner against the Miami Heat — or the pain of John Starks going 2-for-18 or the Bulls stopping Charles Smith over, and over, and over, and over again at the rim.
It isn’t necessary to go through decades of near misses to appreciate this Knicks team.
Brielle Bennett, a freshman guard from Brooklyn’s Nazareth High School and the storied Exodus AAU program, says that the lesson she has taken from this Knicks team is to never give up. “Even after Josh Hart missed that layup, they kept playing. They didn't give up even though they were still down. That was a huge part in them winning. That just speaks for itself. And now that the Knicks won, it's just gonna add even more confidence to us and more pride to us. Being able to call our hometown team the champions in the NBA.”
That swagger and energy will likely trickle down to players at all levels of NYC’s hoops pyramid.
“I think [the Knicks winning] plays a part in the hypeness going into the summer,” said Brian Gardenhire, founder of LES Express basketball tournament. “New York City street basketball is its own entity, right? But with tourists and celebrities who enjoy streetball as well, and even with the NBA players, I think this championship only broadens its horizons and elevates it because there's just so much excitement.”
New Yorkers have proven for the last 53 years that they will support the Knicks through ups and downs. But this Knicks team, led by a humble, hardworking star and made up of players from different backgrounds who are bonded through hard work, will forever be beloved because it embodies so much of what makes New York great.
“The pandemic really took some level of community away from New York City,” said Famuyide. “This playoff run was the first time since before 2020 that I can remember enjoying one thing with an entire city. This level of community is something that we've really missed and we’ve got to thank these Knicks for it, man. It really goes to show you that this is a basketball city which loves the game and what this Knicks team represents.”
