New York Anticipating Possible Knicks Party 53 Years in the Making

New York City is bursting to party like it’s 1973 all over again, in anticipation of a Knicks NBA championship win for the first time in 53 years.

Just how obsessed are New Yorkers about that possibility?

When it comes to the average basketball fan in the five boroughs looking to score tickets for Monday’s Game 3 or Wednesday’s Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, well, they will have to dig deep.

On Sunday at Forbes.com, a SeatGeek spokesman for the ticket platform said tickets for Game 3 were selling for an average $7,768. per person. Game 4, which could be the championship-winning game if New York outscores the Spurs on Wednesday night, prices are averaging $7,257. To put the present New York basketball hysteria in perspective, the Knicks ticket prices are averaging higher than what Super Bowl LVI in 2022 cost, per SeatGeek.

If San Antonio comes up short on Monday, their chances to come back and score four straight wins to claim the title would be nothing less than historic. No NBA team has ever climbed back from a 3–0 deficit in finals play. Teams with a 2–0 advantage in the finals have won the NBA championship 32 of 37 times.

Monday’s finals game at Madison Square Garden is the first since June 25, 1999, when the Knicks dropped Game 5 to San Antonio, and lost the championship round in five games. New York, an original NBA franchise that began in the inaugural season of 1946, had to wait 24 years before winning their first championship in 1970 over the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. Three seasons later, still with the same core of players from the ’70 squad, the Knicks celebrated their second NBA title on May 10, 1973. Fourteen players and coaches from those teams have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns has been a main factor in Games 1 and 2 of the finals, and will be counted on Monday to continue to keep Spurs 7-foot-4 center Victor Wembanyama in check. Towns led all Knicks scoring in Game 2 with 21 points, while pulling down 13 rebounds. New York’s captain Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges both shot for 20 points in Game 2, and hit for a combined six 3-pointers. Wembanyama, who wears a size 20.5 sneaker, registered 29 points and collected nine rebounds. For the Spurs to have a winning game on Monday, the Frenchman must bring his A-game.

Speaking to The New York Post on Sunday, Wembanyama didn’t seem to be concerned how the Knicks defense has been covering him in the Finals.

“It’s almost like I [don’t] have anything to figure out. It’s almost like I have to play normal, not even good,” he said. “It’s just like doing the right things is enough. When we play bad, is when we shoot ourselves in the foot. This is why I’m not worried. We’re going to be so much better. I’m going to be so much better.”

While Knicks captain Brunson is the only starter averaging 34 minutes playing time in the playoffs, New York’s coach Mike Brown has been keeping his bench players busy. Brunson in the first two finals games is shooting 33.9 percent (19–56) overall, and 23.5 percent from 3-point range (4 for 17). Brown is using a nine-man rotation for the most part. Leading up to the finals, in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks forced 66 turnovers in the four-game series. In Game 1 against the Spurs, the Knicks had three steals in the final seven minutes of play. Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride, and Brooklyn native Jose Alvarado are who Brown has been leaning on off the bench.

Be it the starters or New York’s bench brigade, San Antonio has little wiggle room for mistakes in Game 3. Their coach Mitch Johnson understands the gravity of his roster playing a perfect game on Monday. Speaking on Sunday to NBA.com, Johnson laid out exactly what has to happen for the Spurs to stay in the fray.

“We’re at a stage now where the next game is going to be the biggest game until we’re not playing. We have to continue to execute and compete and finish plays, and move on to the next play, and understand there are going to be circumstances, there are going to be outcomes throughout the game that may not go our way. We’ve got to be better at the things we can control and the things we can influence.”

ABC TV, the exclusive rights holder for the NBA Finals, and its sponsors have to be happy with the viewership numbers being generated. Nielsen’s Big Data, a TV audience measurement provider, tells of Game 1 generating an average audience of nearly 17 million (19.93 million). The Knicks-Spurs June 3 game was ABC’s most-watched NBA Finals Game 1 since 2018, per NBA Communications.

If Game 5 is necessary, the finals will shift back to San Antonio on Saturday, June 13, at Frost Bank Center.