Knicks and the City: Rhapsody in Blue and Orange

New York Times

6 days ago

The roar can be heard for blocks, echoing off buildings and funneling through the streets of Manhattan. You may have heard it cascading up Seventh Avenue. Maybe you saw people decked out in orange and blue lining up outside Radio City Music Hall or crashed into them while trying to catch a late train at Penn Station.
Knicks fans have taken over some of New York City's iconic venues to watch their team's deepest playoff run in 25 years, riding the waves of joy and pain together even if they cannot afford tickets for the games at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks have organized watch parties at the Oculus at the World Trade Center, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park and, of course, the Garden itself. Team watch parties are hardly new or exclusive to New York. The Knicks hosted watch parties during the team's away games during the N.B.A. finals in 1999, and the area outside the Garden has been a spot for impromptu celebrations after big wins for the last few years.
If you can get one, a single ticket to a Knicks playoff game at home costs hundreds of dollars, and substantially more if you want to sit closer to the celebrities who line the court. But for the thousands of fans on the outside, the plaza in front of the Garden at West 33rd Street has been the main outdoor venue to watch the game on a large screen for free.
During Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Celtics, the defending champions, Hunter Berker wore his black-and-green Celtics jersey amid a human sea of blue and orange.
After the Celtics surrendered a 20-point lead and lost the game, Knicks fans surrounded him, gloating and chanting, 'Knicks in four!'
'It's a little less cool than it was earlier,' said Berker, who lives in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. 'It's on edge now. But you can't just leave. You've got to represent.'
For those without hundreds of dollars for a spot on the very top row of Madison Square Garden, a $10 pass to Radio City Music Hall was a great alternative for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Radio City Music Hall, the elegant home of the Rockettes, was festive and expectant — at least for about three and a half quarters. Then the Pacers staged a historic comeback, tied the game on a crazy, high-bouncing, buzzer-beating circus shot, and won in overtime. Stunned Knicks fans filed quietly out onto Sixth Avenue.
It was not the rain that depressed Knicks fans watching Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals — it was the Pacers taking command of the series by winning their second game at Madison Square Garden. Many fans withstood the inclement conditions to watch together in Central Park. (During one rainy away game in the second round, the Garden allowed fans in for free for a watch party. The Garden usually hosts watch parties for $10 during away playoff games.)
The game was in Indiana that night, but back in New York, the city and its fans remained positive and even exuberant, if a bit nervous. Things did not start out well. The Knicks fell behind, and worried fans at the Oculus at the World Trade Center stared blankly at the screen or hid their faces in their hands. But then the mood completely changed when the Knicks outscored Indiana by 16 points in the fourth quarter to win, 106-100.
The team, like its fans, is nothing if not resilient.
Still, the task remains daunting. The Knicks lost Game 4 in Indiana, putting them one loss away from elimination. Game 5 is Thursday night at the Garden.
If you hear a lot of cheers flowing through the city's streets late at night, chances are it's the signal that there will be a Game 6, too.