With just over three minutes for game 4 of the confrontation of the semifinal of the Este Conference between the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics, the Knicks striker, Mikal Bridges, hit a brief Pull-Up jumper to give New York a 111-104 advantage.
After continuing for up to 14 points in the third quarter, the Knicks fought to take the lead, and the last quarter of the last disputed was fundamental for the series, either New York would go up 3-1 or lose its second straight and go to Boston tied 2-2.
However, for the third time of the series, the Knicks would finally exceed a two -digit two digit deficit and profits. And the middle -ranking jumper of Bridges was the shot that made everyone in Madison Square Garden realized what was about to happen.
The most famous sand in the world broke out when a team of the Celtics dejected called for a waiting time and took his bank. All, from the celebrity court to fans in the last row, were standing, enjoying what the Knicks announcer, Mike Breen, called the most important victory of the franchise in 25 years.
That is because during most of this millennium, there has never been a better time to be a New York Knicks fan.
“At this time, it is an incredible moment in New York City and the best time to be a New York,” says NBC News, Bronx’s hip-hop legend, Nib Joe. “When Knicks win and thrive, it’s like a feeling of euphoria and magic.”
However, Joe adds: “But from 2001 to 2020, those were some painful memories. The Knicks would sometimes be competitive, but they always lost games in the clutch and simply break your heart.”
“Sometimes they would raise blood pressure too high, but that is what makes you appreciate the last two years of greatness.”
Knicks fans certainly seem to appreciate this current team after spending two decades in the NBA desert. The Knicks dismantled the Celtics on Friday, whom they were very favored when entering the series, by a score of 119-81 to advance to their first finals of the ESE conference in 25 years.
After a race at the end of the East Conference in 2000, New York spent the next 20 years staggering. From ’01 to ’20, the Knicks played in just 30 postseason games, publishing an unfortunate 9-21 record.
Only in the last five years, the Knicks have played in 39 playoff competitions, winning 21. It may not be a complete return to glory, but at least it is a return to the relevance for a franchise that reached the playoffs in each season in the 1990s.
The 2025 playoff career has presented the returns against the Celtics, as well as a 21-0 race against the Detroit Pistons to win the game 1 in the first round and a series of three by the owner Jalen Brunson. Those moments are now part of Knicks Lore.
Joe, a MSG match that was in the building for the iconic work of 4 points of Larry Johnson in 1999 (“I still put chicken skin thinking at that time”) is just one of the faithful to see that his patience is worth it.
“I travel to my team through all ups and downs,” he says.
So do Michael Ompod, a 29 -year -old boy from Clifton, New Jersey, who has spent most of his life with his favorite basketball team as a laugh.
“I mean, when I was younger, it was the team to make fun,” says Ompod. “I was intimidated by Net fans in the past. And for us doing good, it means a lot to me. As something in the air is different.”
For a long time, it was quite easy to intimidate the Knicks fans, since the team was often mired in a combination of poor management, ineptitude or a poor general game on the court.
The 20 years before the recent success of the playoffs brought with it the ignominious years of Isiah Thomas, the failed promise of the era of Carmelo Anthony, the constant songs for the owner James Dollan to sell the team, and some of the most disconcerting contracts in the history of the NBA (sorry, Jared Jared).
New York first hinted at a resurgence in 2021 when striker Julius Randle won the most improved player and took the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
The Knicks lost the playoffs in 2022, but that summer signed Brunson, possibly the best free agent firm in the history of the team. Brunson signed a four -year contract and $ 104 million in ’22, which ended up being an absurdly good value for a player who has proven to be a superstar and the face of the franchise.
Since then, Brunson has signed an extension of four years that gave New York a second discount, taking less than a maximum contract to give the main office more flexibility in the construction of its surroundings.
And the Knicks have taken advantage of a cunning movement after a cunning movement, acquiring two-way wings like Bridges and Og Anunoby, while exchanging Randle and Guard Donte Divinzzo for the great man of the star Karl-Anthony Towns before the season.
The result was the best team in years. New York won 51 games in the regular season, it is more since 2013.
“It still feels surreal that we have come so far,” says Ompod. “I mean, coming from a Knicks fan, I love that we are fine, but a part of me is like, ‘Oh, this is really happening.’ I mean, if the Knicks could win, everything is possible.”
Recent success is also creating a new generation of academics, such as Terrence Lacewell, a 22 -year -old from West Long Branch, New Jersey.
Lacewell comes from several generations of Knicks fans, but has lived most of his life during the delicate years of the team. He listened to stories of his grandfather and mother about the 90s and what it was like to see the battle of New York with the Chicago Bulls and the Houston Rockets.
In game 4, with a Randle shirt and sitting in the last row of section 420, Lacewell experienced a legendary Knicks playoff in Madison Square Garden for him.
With only the freedom of the WNBA winning an important championship for New York since 2012, Lacewell believes that there is an additional motivating factor for the city, which has not seen a Knicks title since 1973.
“We all get up for a contender,” says Lacewell. “We are so desperate that everyone is supporting the New York team.”
The director Spike Lee, an accessory in the first row for decades and perhaps the most famous fan of the team, was also in game 4, the extended arms when Bridges sent the crowd to a frenzy at the end of the room.
When asked what to be a fan of the Knicks, Lee thinks of the first team championship in 1970. It shows the championship ring that belongs to Red Holzman, the coach who took New York to his only two titles in the 70s, and said he had to take it out of the vault to use for game 4.
“That’s all, that’s all I have to say,” Lee said. “I was in game 7, May 8, 1970, Willis Reed’s game. In addition, the Walt Frazier game. He was 13 years old.”
Lee, now 68, can finally have the opportunity to update that collection of rings this summer.
