I’m walking through Manhattan. I reach Midtown and there it is – Madison Square Garden, rising directly above Penn Station.
If Manhattan makes you feel like you’re standing at the center of the world, then MSG is the heart of that center.
It’s September. The lobby is enormous, the team store immaculate. Everything shines. Yet something is missing. Concerts, major events and all the other things that make Madison Square Garden famous are impressive, but for those of us who love basketball, MSG means one thing above all else: the New York Knicks.
“It’s cool, but it’s not worth going during the NBA offseason,” a friend texted me.
He was absolutely right.
Unlike my visit, Madison Square Garden is the center of the basketball universe this June. The Knicks won their first NBA championship since 1973, ending a 52-year wait and delivering a title generations of fans had dreamed about.
That’s the victory the record books will remember.
But New York had already claimed a different one.
At a time when division and conflict seem to define so much of the world, New York is proving that the phrase “sports unite people” is more than an empty cliché.
United by the Knicks.
Newly minted Champion, Jose Alvarado, was seen dancing in Williamsburg with a Hasidic Jew. pic.twitter.com/CBp6vl9WPO
— Frum TikTok (@FrumTikTok) June 17, 2026
“I see Hasidic Jews breakdancing with Black kids. This is the biggest unification this city has seen since 9/11,” rapper Fat Joe said, perfectly capturing the mood that has taken over New York in recent weeks.
Scrolling through social media often feels exhausting these days. The images coming out of New York, however, are a rare ray of sunlight.
“My mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, my Christian’s Dior… Knicks in four!” says one now-viral video.
Knicks fans are insane 😭😭😭
“My Mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, my Christian’s Dior… Knicks in 4!!!” pic.twitter.com/WiAC1GdoRL
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) June 4, 2026
New York’s mayor is Zohran Mamdani. Bagels are one of the city’s defining symbols. And Christian Dior? Well, the rhyme was simply too good to pass up.
I don’t know how anyone could watch that clip without smiling. Personally, I’ve watched it at least twenty times.
The now-famous line was delivered by 23-year-old MD Asnaf Hosain, overcome with joy after the Knicks’ second victory in Texas over the San Antonio Spurs.
“I woke up the next morning and all my friends were sending me the video. I was like, ‘Holy cr*p'” Hosain recalled.
The best and the worst in people
Not all of the scenes were positive, unfortunately. After Game 3, several individuals tore a Victor Wembanyama jersey off a fan in Bryant Park, forcing police to intervene. Similar scenes followed Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League triumph earlier this year, a reminder that sports can bring out both the best and the worst in people.
Still, those moments cannot overshadow the positive wave that has swept through the Big Apple.
New York wins you over almost immediately. There’s an energy to the city, a feeling that you’re part of a giant current moving in the same direction. That’s why people forgive the dirt, the noise and even the rats.
It’s a city that is incredibly difficult to live in, yet one that everyone wants to experience.
The word is “connection”
Spike Lee was paraded through Fort Greene in Brooklyn like he was the pope. pic.twitter.com/EOyyor5H85
— Christopher Hale (@ChristopherHale) June 14, 2026
At a time when the world seems obsessed with what divides us, Knicks fans – of every race, religion and nationality – are celebrating what brings them together.
That sense of togetherness is exactly what Spike Lee, filmmaker, lifelong Knicks fan and perhaps the unofficial voice of Knicks fandom, was talking about when he said:
“I’m walking down the block… You see somebody, you don’t stop. Y’all give fist on the go… There’s a connection. The word is connection. It’s a beautiful thing.”
The Knicks won the title.
But New York’s greatest victory came long before the final buzzer.
