Fun City!
That’s what Mayor John V. Lindsay optimistically called New York even during tough times in the mid-1960s, a few years before the New York Knicks won their first championship, in 1970. On Wednesday, they will go for their third, against the San Antonio Spurs and their insanely talented big man, Victor Wembanyama.
People have smiles on their faces, and I know for sure it’s because of Da New York Knicks and their incredible playoff run. This is something that I have heard and seen with my own ears and eyes. More than with any other New York team, when the Knicks are winning, it is amazing how it feels on the street. People are wearing Knicks hats and T-shirts. It’s orange and blue skies. When the Knicks are winning, this is truly Fun City — born again!
I was there for that first championship. It was May 8, 1970. I was 13. Like many other kids, I became a fan because of my father, Bill Lee, a jazz/folk upright bassist and composer, although Daddy didn’t know I used to sneak through a side door into Madison Square Garden. But that night, during Game 7 of the series against the Los Angeles Lakers, I didn’t have to.
My father’s lawyer, Peter Eikenberry, had season tickets to the Knicks, and invited me to join him for Game 7. My father had a concert that night. My mother, Jackie, said, “You really should go to the concert,” but my father said, “Naw, Spike’s going to the game.” So I went.
I watched as our captain, the center Willis Reed, who was injured in Game 5, limped out of the tunnel onto the Garden floor. He muscled his way through his injury and set the place on fire. The Knicks won. It became known as the Willis Reed game, one of the greatest moments in New York sports history. Bill Bradley, Walt Frazier and Dave DeBusschere were on that squad. Then came another championship, in 1973, when Earl Monroe was on the team, and two failed trips to the finals, in 1994 and 1999, followed by years of playoff drought.
Since that 1999 series, a lot of terrible things happened to New York: 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, the pandemic and the recent ICE raids targeting immigrants, a direct affront to Ellis Island. The Knicks may not have grabbed a ring in that time, but they helped unite New York. They did it the way you can only in a city that is home to maybe the most basketball courts in the world, where basketball means more than any other sport, where it belongs to the city’s culture. Indiana? Hell to da naw!
The Knicks players are part of us. They represent us. And this team? It’s closely connected to Knicks championship history. Walt Frazier, the point guard from the 1970s, is still around, doing broadcasts. That is my guy! Walt “Clyde” Frazier! They play with a togetherness and selflessness that would make the former coach Red Holzman proud. His principle was always: Find the Open Man.
Great Knicks players who never got that ring, like Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Latrell Sprewell, John Starks, are supporting this team, and you see them sitting together, cheering on these new age Knicks, who appreciate that. There’s a brotherhood there. I got to thank the owner, James Dolan, for bringing all these heroes back. They cement the bond the fans have with the team. We know they’re part of this team, and we love these guys.
We see ourselves in them.
In this championship run, the Knicks center-forward Karl-Anthony Towns has epitomized the selflessness New Yorkers showed during tough times by sacrificing his scoring to feed the ball to his teammates. Josh Hart and OG Anunoby are the lunch-pail guys, just like DeBusschere on those championship teams. Jalen Brunson is maybe the flashy one, like Frazier, but he’s pretty quiet. New York’s Puerto Ricans can be proud of Jose Alvarado.
The Knicks are the soul of this beautiful and diverse city. There’s a reason people come here, you know. Maybe it’s to see a Broadway play — or maybe it’s just to get a slice or a chopped cheese! It says a lot that we just voted in our first Muslim mayor. All those people who said they were packing up and moving to Florida … Yeah, right!
But New York is also a cruel city. People are hurting. It’s no joke. It can be a tough place for those who don’t have the income. The city has become increasingly unaffordable, as have the games. All those Knicks fans taking over the arenas in Atlanta, Philly and Cleveland? Why were they there? Maybe because it was cheaper to book a round-trip flight to Atlanta and Cleveland or drive or take a train to Philly, rent a hotel room and buy a ticket than just buying a ticket at Da Garden.
Yes, it’s a fact that in the greatest basketball city in the world we haven’t won a championship in 53 years. Generations of Knicks fans haven’t been privy to a championship. But we did have those finals appearances. Leon Rose, the team’s president, assembled this group of players and an incredible bench. He brought in Mike Brown to replace Coach Tom Thibodeau — no disrespect, Coach Thibs, all love — and the players all bought into his system.
Now, I have no ill feelings toward San Antonio, and I love, love, love Pop, their former coach and now president, Gregg Popovich. I’m also a big Wemby fan. I have one of his game-worn rookie jerseys, signed to me, on the wall of my office/museum. I love the fact that he played chess in Washington Square Park. Wemby is a 7-foot-4 man of the people. But remember, we had to get past two of the greatest big men in history to win championships — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, at the time known as Lew Alcindor, of the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1970 eastern finals, and Wilt Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1973 finals.
No disrespect to My Brother Wemby, but he’s going down like Kareem and Wilt did. Peace and love.
I dreamed a vision that it’s going to happen in Madison Square Garden. I don’t believe that the basketball gods are going to let us win the deciding game in San Antonio. By the decree of God, Jehovah, Allah and Black Jesus (that was Earl “The Pearl” Monroe’s nickname), whatever you want to call it, on this day, June 16 in the year of our Lawd 2026 the New Yawk Knickerbockers will defeat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 at da world’s most famous arena to win the N.B.A. championship. New York is Fun City again.
Spike Lee is a filmmaker.
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