The Big Apple is hoops crazy.
Forget the subway series and the World Cup — New York has become one big, orange-and-blue basketball town as the Knicks are headed to the Eastern Conference Finals and a shot at their first NBA title in over 50 years.
“It’s nuts — everybody’s buzzed,” said Ian Conroy, co-owner of Mustang Harry’s a few blocks from Madison Square Garden. “It’s definitely a basketball town right now. The city loves the Knicks anyway, no matter what. There’s definitely character with this team.”
The Knicks pounded their way to the conference championship by pounding the Philadelphia 76ers in a shocking four-game sweep, and are now waiting for the winner of the semifinal series between the Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Depending on how long that series takes, the first conference title game will be Sunday or Tuesday.
For Knickerbocker fans, who haven’t celebrated an NBA title since 1973, it won’t be soon enough.
“I think that the amazingness of the energy that comes when the Knicks do well, I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Washington Square Park chess player Anthony Kozikowski. “It’s a unifying mechanism.
“Last year when we went to the [Eastern Conference] Finals, we’d go to the after parties in front of the Garden and it’s insane,” Kozikowski said. “I have season tickets to the Yankees. When you go and go to Yankee games and the Knicks scores get posted, the whole fucking stadium erupts. It’s so intense to see that happen because this is a Yankee town, and the love for the Knicks right now is touching.”
The weekend will be packed with New York sports, including the season’s first major league subway series matchup between the Yankees and the Mets, and a Major League Soccer Hudson River Derby between the New York Red Bulls and the New York City Football Club.
And should the Knicks make it to the final series, which kicks off on June 3, they’ll be going head-to-head with the World Cup soccer tournament when it storms into the New York metropolitan area.
But it’s all hoops in the five boroughs for now.
“People are filling the Garden,” said Legends bartender Eaymon Connolly. “You see way more merchandise on the street every day. People are calling to make reservations here. Mets and Yankees are having a poor start so they’re trying to jump on what’s doing well.
“It’s a great atmosphere,” he said. “Everyone is buying into it. It’s camaraderie.”
Longtime Knicks fan Glen Garcia of Queens was prepping for the series, picking up a team shirt for his wife at the NBA store.
“I think any time that you get a team that’s playing as good as they’re playing you’re going to become a fan,” Garcia said. “This is probably the best team they had since the 70s when they won the championship. This team, there is something special about them. They win game after game.”
He said the Knicks’ team colors of blue and orange don’t necessary mix well with New Yorkers, with some switching over the “cooler” black and while donned by the Brooklyn Nets.
“Now they’re playing so good it’s like I’m putting on the colors anyway,” Garcia said.
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