If one were to take a stroll through New York City these days, one would see that the entirety of Gotham is overcome with basketball fever.
From Harlem to Bed-Stuy and from Laurelton to Chinatown, it is very common to see someone decked out in blue and orange nowadays. After all, it is not every year where one of a city’s favorite basketball teams qualifies for its championship round.
But that is what happened in the case of the New York Knicks. The last time the Knicks were in the Finals was in 1999 when the Knickerbockers matched up against the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs would win what would be the first of five championships throughout a dynasty that spanned three decades.
In 2026, a new cast of characters for the Knicks would make short work of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yes, the Cavs had Donovan Mitchell but the Knicks had Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges and a stacked team that ensured Cleveland would be no match for the team that plays in Midtown Manhattan.
Now, the Knicks await if they will face off against the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder. As of this writing, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder has a 3-2 lead over Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs.
The 2020s has been defined in New York sports by a basketball renaissance between the Knicks and the team they used to share its Madison Square Garden digs with – the Liberty.
Remember the beginning of the decade? Lib Loyals would probably rather forget the beginning of said decade. The 2020 season in the bubble was a dreadful one for New York but the Liberty did get a look at one of the future faces of its franchise in Sabrina Ionescu – albeit only for a small amount of games as she was injured for most of that rookie season.
The Liberty’s ascent continued in the 2021 season by virtue of a postseason berth – which would also be the case in 2022. In addition, the team finally completed its move to the Barclays Center after two forgetful seasons in the Westchester County Center. Also, the team was sold from James Dolan and MSG to Clara Wu and Joe Tsai.
In addition to Ionescu, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton would also join the team. Laney-Hamilton, of course, is a local fan favorite considering she played her college ball across the Hudson at Rutgers.
It was in 2023 when New York took a massive step from being just a playoff team to a championship contender. Courtney Vandersloot would trade her former Chicago Sky threads for those of the Liberty. Jonquel Jones would trade her former Connecticut Sun threads for seafoam.
And Breanna Stewart – a New York native as well and Syracuse’s very own – would return to the Empire State with the goal of winning the Liberty’s first ever championship after having already adorned her fingers with a pair of rings alongside Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd at the Seattle Storm.
At the same time, the Liberty were assembling a superteam at the time another superteam was being established – the Las Vegas Aces which featured Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and, of course, A’ja Wilson.
These two superteams met in the Finals in 2023 and a thrilling finish went the way of Vegas as it claimed its second WNBA championship. A hungrier Liberty team returned in 2024 looking to finish its unfinished business from 2023.
New York and Las Vegas would not meet this time in the Finals, but in the semifinals and the Liberty would prevail en route to a five-game get-together with the Minnesota Lynx in the Finals.
A grueling five-game series that could have gone either way would go the way of the Liberty and it claimed its first championship in franchise history. Jonquel Jones was named Finals MVP.
At the same time that the Liberty were starting its ascent back up the WNBA’s ranks, the Knicks were doing the same as consistent winning basketball was returning to Madison Square Garden for the first time since the Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley days of the 1990s. Following the franchise seemingly hitting rock bottom by winning only 17 games in 2018-19, New York was claimed at least 47 wins in four consecutive seasons. And this year, Mike Brown and his Knicks have struck Eastern Conference championship paydirt and are four wins away from striking the mother lode.
New York may be a baseball town first and foremost, but basketball is not that far behind – especially for younger sports fans in the Tri-State area. That is why when the Liberty made its run to the Finals that it was such a big deal citywide – especially considering the arduous journey the Liberty went through to return to prominence.
What made that Liberty run of 2024 so magical was how it united the city. As everyone knows, New York City is a sharply divided sports town with at least two teams in all of the major men’s leagues. It did not matter if one sports Yankees pinstripes, Giants big blue, Jets gang green, a Rangers blueshirt or the NYCFC colors. With only one major professional women’s basketball team in the city, the region from Montclair to Montauk sports Liberty seafoam, black and copper.
The Liberty’s ascent back to prominence was also a big deal considering how fans felt abandoned with the Westchester move. The move to Brooklyn along with the consistent winning again paved the way for fans to rediscover their love for the Liberty.
Speaking of Brooklyn, the third team in this equation – the Brooklyn Nets – were also supposed to be part of the Big Apple’s hoops renaissance. Assembling a big three of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving is supposed to put a team in position to win multiple championships. The problem was that big three did not have a coach it respected and the Nets experiment collapsed faster than one can say “New Jersey.”
Winning is the ultimate way that a disillusioned fanbase can rediscover their love for a team. It happened for the Liberty and it is happening now for the Knicks. A basketball renaissance is taking place across the Tri-State area. While Manhattan is the focal point of said renaissance, the seeds were planted on the other end of the East River at Atlantic and Flatbush.
