“My mayor’s Muslim / My bagel’s Jewish / My Christian’s Dior / Knicks in four!”
Those four lines of pure New York City poetry were popularized by a fan, MD Ahnaf Hossain, 23, who bellowed them into a camera after the Knicks trounced the Spurs during an N.B.A. finals game in San Antonio.
Versions of the phrase had floated around on social media before, but it is now rocketing across the internet and beyond, now splashed on hastily whipped-up souvenir shirts and hats, and echoing as a blue-and-orange war cry across the city.
In an interview, Mr. Hossain, who goes by MD, said he understood why the words resonated.
“I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, with all people,” Mr. Hossain said. “Our mayor really is Muslim right now. The bagels are one of the most iconic foods of New York.”
He clarified that the reference to Christian Dior was an homage to a lyric written by his favorite rapper, Pop Smoke.
Mr. Hossain, who just graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in finance and is looking for a job, said he emigrated to the city from Bangladesh with his parents when he was 1 year old.
The son of a taxi driver and a paraprofessional, he demurred when asked about his take on President Trump’s attendance at Monday night’s game, given the president’s policies on immigration.
“I think the sportsmanship is bringing a type of love we haven’t seen in the city for a long, long time,” he said.
He was fully willing to answer a more pressing question, however: his favorite bagel.
“I have to say everything,” he said. “Everything’s on it — just like New York City.”
Sarah Maslin Nir is a Times reporter covering anything and everything New York … and sometimes beyond.
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