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      What Carmelo Anthony Meant to New York City

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      Anthony, a Brooklyn native, rejuvenated a beleaguered Knicks fan base and embraced the city’s culture, on and off the court.There were many moments that evoked roars inside Madison Square Garden when the Knicks faced the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals this month: when Jalen Brunson hit a 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, prompting a Heat timeout, or any of the five times RJ Barrett sank a 3, sending the Garden’s white-knuckled Knicks fans into a frenzy.But the loudest roar that night came during a stoppage in play when a large video screen showed Carmelo Anthony sitting courtside. Anthony stood with one hand raised as most of the fans gave him a standing ovation, showering him with applause and cheers as if he had just made a game-winning shot.Anthony never won a title for the Knicks or even made a conference finals in his six and a half seasons with the team, but the moment was a reminder of how much he still means to New York. The city had yearned for a star after years of mediocrity and got one in Anthony, a Brooklyn native ready to make Knicks games exciting again.Anthony came to the Knicks in 2011, after they had missed the playoffs for six years in a row.Barton Silverman/The New York TimesWhen Anthony announced his retirement Monday, many fans began to wonder when the Knicks would retire the No. 7 he wore while he played for the team.“New York is the type of place that will melt you if you ain’t ready for it,” said the rapper Chuck D, who grew up on Long Island and co-founded the rap group Public Enemy. “But Melo came in and danced with the pressure of New York.”He added: “Most ball players in New York, they don’t come from New York. So he brought a New York state of mind to a place that didn’t really have the ballplayers that knew how to adapt to it. So we’ll always love Melo for that.”The Denver Nuggets drafted Anthony third overall out of Syracuse in 2003 after he led the school to an N.C.A.A. Division I national championship. In Denver, Anthony quickly established himself as one of the best players in the league.Anthony taking a shot during a game against the Indiana Pacers in 2013.Barton Silverman/The New York TimesAnthony did not fit the mold of other Knicks fan favorites, who were aggressive on defense. But he was one of the league’s best on offense.Adrees Latif/ReutersAt 6-foot-7 and about 240 pounds, Anthony was known for his 3-point prowess and his nifty footwork. On offense, he made moves on the high and low posts, outmuscling smaller guards and forwards while having the speed to blow by defenders.But all of Anthony’s offensive success didn’t translate into much in the postseason for the Nuggets. In seven and a half seasons, Anthony’s teams made the conference finals just once, and he pressured the Nuggets to trade him to New York in 2011 in a deal that gutted the Knicks’ roster. Nuggets fans never forgot about Anthony’s exit, and they booed him each time he visited Denver.“I gave my all here,” Anthony said at a news conference after he was booed in 2021. “I’ve never said anything bad about Denver — about the fans, the organization, players — never complained.” He added: “So it will always be a special place for me regardless of the boos.”It also seemed like the front office had not forgotten about Anthony’s departure. Anthony was one of the best players in Nuggets history, and the No. 15 that he wore seemed destined for retirement. But in 2014, the Nuggets gave Anthony’s number to a little-known second-round pick whose selection was revealed while a Taco Bell commercial played during ESPN’s broadcast of the draft.That player, Nikola Jokic, has become one of the best players in the N.B.A. and already has done more in a Nuggets uniform than Anthony had, winning two Most Valuable Player Awards. On Monday, Jokic led the Nuggets to their first N.B.A. finals.“I hope they are able to retire both of their jerseys,” Nuggets forward Jeff Green told ESPN. “Nikola and Carmelo, I know it can be done, and it’s deserving for what he has done for the franchise.”Anthony’s best chance for a jersey retirement is most likely in New York.For many fans in the city, especially those who are Black or Latino, Anthony felt like a reflection of them on the court. Fans gravitated to Anthony, who is African American and Puerto Rican, because of his style: his signature cornrow braids — though he didn’t have them in New York — the tattoos that covered his arms, his love of hip-hop music.Anthony spoke at the third annual College Signing Day at the Harlem Armory in 2016.D Dipasupil/FilmMagic, via Getty ImagesAnthony appeared at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Sports Awards in 2015.Kevin Mazur/WireImage, via Getty ImagesAnthony was also omnipresent in the city outside of basketball. He attended everything from high school basketball games to hip-hop events, and still does. A year ago, he was in the audience at the Garden during a music battle between the rap groups The Lox and Dipset, rapping lyrics word for word.In November 2005, Anthony called into Angie Martinez’s radio show on Hot 97, where The Lox were ranting about a contract dispute they had with Diddy, in what seemed to be an attempt to help make peace.“What can he do to help?” Martinez asked about Anthony.“You see his contract?” the rapper Jadakiss replied.“I’m all the way in Oklahoma City,” Anthony said. “We’re about to go to the game. They told me you all were on the radio, so I had to call up.”Anthony’s call went down in New York City radio folklore, but it was also a moment that was a reflection of who he had always been.“Culturally, he means everything,” said Charlamagne Tha God, the host of the radio show “The Breakfast Club,” who remembers Anthony calling into Martinez’s show, and being one of the most accessible stars.“Certain moments like that stand out to me when we talk about culture,” he said, “because those are moments when you saw the intersectionality between hip-hop and in basketball, and I think there are not too many people who represented that intersectionality better than Carmelo Anthony.”One of the peculiar parts about the romance between New York fans and Anthony was that his approach to basketball was vastly different from what the greatest Knicks teams had been known for.During some of their best years, the Knicks were a physical team with defenders who would wear opposing players down with aggressive guarding and hard fouls when they attacked the basket. Players like Charles Oakley and John Starks became fan favorites because of how they embraced the bully and villain style of play.But Anthony was not of that mold. He was notorious for seeming uninterested in guarding players most of the time. While on offense, he scored frequently but was something of a black hole: When the ball went to him, he wasn’t going to pass it.Anthony has the Knicks’ record for most points in a single game, with 62 against the Charlotte Bobcats in 2014; it’s also the third-most any player has scored in N.B.A. history without an assist.Anthony scored a Knicks record 62 points against the Charlotte Bobcats in 2014.Bill Kostroun/Associated Press“Yes, he was selfish at times. And you know, he was a ball stopper,” said Casey Powell, who is known as CP The Fanchise as the founder of Knicks Fan TV. “But he was a bucket, man.”He said that Anthony didn’t have many options for players to pass to on those Knicks teams and that players like Starks and Oakley were beloved because they played hard, “but Carmelo, it was his actual talent that drew fans to him.” Knicks fans had not had a player of Anthony’s caliber since Patrick Ewing led the team to the finals in the 1994, he said.“Even though they didn’t win much when he was here, he inspired a lot of kids, a lot of African American kids, a lot of Latino kids, and he just gave us hope,” Powell said. “So sometimes the conversation around Melo is how he didn’t win, and he’s a selfish player, but there’s more to him than on the court. Off the court, he delivered.” More

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      Carmelo Anthony Retires From NBA After 19 Seasons

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      Anthony, known as one of the top scorers in league history, had struggled in recent years and did not play the 2022-23 season.Carmelo Anthony, the former Knicks star and one of the greatest scorers in N.B.A. history, announced his retirement on Monday, calling the farewell after 19 seasons “bittersweet.”Anthony, 38, last played in April 2022 as a reserve for the Los Angeles Lakers and spent the final few seasons of his career in more limited roles.“Now the time has come for me to say goodbye, to the court where I made my name, to the game that gave me purpose and pride,” Anthony said in a glossily produced video posted to social networks on Monday. The video included career highlights, with the song “All That I Got Is You” by Ghostface Killah featuring Mary J. Blige in the background.Anthony said he was “excited about what the future holds.”Thank you #STAYME7O pic.twitter.com/4au8cOd13s— Carmelo Anthony (@carmeloanthony) May 22, 2023
      The Denver Nuggets drafted Anthony third overall out of Syracuse in 2003 after he led the school to a Division I N.C.A.A. national championship. Anthony might have been drafted higher if not for a player he would form a close friendship with: LeBron James, who went first overall to Cleveland.Anthony immediately demonstrated his prowess for scoring. His elite footwork, burly physique and quick release on his jumper from anywhere on the court made him difficult to guard. Paul Pierce, the Hall of Famer, said earlier this year that he would have rather guarded Kobe Bryant or James than Anthony.Anthony led the Nuggets to the playoffs in his rookie year. He jab-stepped, up-faked and posted up his way to 10 All-Star Games and six All-N.B.A. teams. Anthony ended his career with 28,289 total points — good for ninth in N.B.A. history. He also won three Olympic gold medals and one bronze.Anthony against LeBron James in 2012. Both players were drafted in 2003, with James picked first overall and Anthony picked third.Barton Silverman/The New York TimesMany Knicks fans are particularly fond of Anthony, who was born in Brooklyn and pressured the Nuggets to trade him to New York in 2011 so he could team up with a fellow All-Star, Amar’e Stoudemire. The move gave the fan base some optimism after a decade of incompetence from the front office.The partnership never fully bore fruit, thanks mainly to injuries to Stoudemire. But Anthony did provide memorable performances at Madison Square Garden, including a game in 2014 in which he scored 62 points, a franchise record. Anthony also led the Knicks to one of their only playoff series wins of the century, in 2013 against the Boston Celtics.All told, Anthony played for six teams: the Nuggets, Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers and Lakers.Anthony’s career had several speed bumps.He developed a reputation for lax defense and hogging the ball. His former Nuggets coach, George Karl, wrote in his 2017 memoir that Anthony “only played hard on one side of the ball.” And while Anthony’s teams reliably made the playoffs, he made it as far as the conference finals only once, in 2009 with the Nuggets.Anthony with the Denver Nuggets in 2011.Amy Sancetta/Associated PressLike many All-Stars before him, Anthony struggled to adjust to a drop-off in his game as he entered the back half of his career. After the Knicks traded him to Oklahoma City before the 2017-18 season, he appeared to have the best chance of his career to win a championship because he was teaming up with Paul George and Russell Westbrook, perennial All-Stars. But he scoffed at the idea of coming off the bench, and many fans blamed him when the team fizzled out early in the playoffs.Soon, Anthony’s career was hanging in the balance. He appeared in just 10 games for Houston in the 2018-19 season before he was sidelined and later traded to Chicago, though he never played in any games for the Bulls and was quickly waived. He revitalized his career in Portland over the next two seasons by accepting the bench role that he had laughed at in Oklahoma City. He ended his career playing next to James in Los Angeles.Off the court, Anthony became increasingly outspoken on social issues, including police violence, after appearing in a homemade video titled “Stop Snitching” early in his career. The video discouraged people from talking to the police about crimes.After George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in 2020, Anthony formed a philanthropic investment fund with Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade to invest in communities of color, as well as to push for causes like changes to the criminal justice system.In his retirement video, Anthony said that he did not believe his legacy to be his on-court feats because his “story has always been more than basketball.”“My legacy? My son,” Anthony said, addressing his teenage son, Kiyan Anthony. He added: “Chase your dreams. Let nothing hold you back. Let nothing intervene. My legacy now and forever lives on through you.” More

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      Knicks Knocked Out of Playoffs in Game 6 Loss to Miami Heat

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      It was the first time the Knicks had been to the Eastern Conference semifinals in a decade.MIAMI — A Knicks season that began with mild expectations and turned into what some fans called the team’s most exciting run in more than 20 years ended Friday night with a 96-92 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.After the Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks — the East’s No. 1 seed and the N.B.A. title favorites — in the first round, a path to the Eastern Conference finals for the Knicks seemed plausible. The fifth-seeded Knicks had just defeated the Cavaliers, the talented fourth seed led by guard Donovan Mitchell. In contrast, the Heat arrived in the second round without guard Tyler Herro, who averaged 20.1 points per game in the regular season but broke his hand against the Bucks.But as the Knicks’ series with Miami began, the difference between these two teams became clear: The Heat have a legitimate star player in Jimmy Butler, who can will his team to victories seemingly when he chooses. The Knicks do not.Most N.B.A. fans have likely gotten used to Butler elevating his game in the playoffs, and this postseason he has followed suit. He gashed the Knicks with high-scoring games and stellar defensive efforts. He was averaging 24.8 points, 6.5 assists, and 7.0 rebounds per game against the Knicks going into Game 6.A six-time All-Star, Butler often plays to that level during the regular season but has been arguably the best player in these playoffs, leading a group that features undrafted starters who many casual N.B.A. fans might have to Google search to know.On the other hand, the Knicks’ best players, Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, have fluctuated between looking formidable enough to lead this team to the Eastern Conference finals and looking unequipped for this stage. Brunson acknowledged his struggles in this series’ Game 1 loss, when he shot 0 for 7 on 3-pointers and said he was “horrific.”Randle, who was the Knicks’ lone All-Star selection this season and made an all-N.B.A. team, did not look like that player in these playoffs. In the regular season, he averaged a double-double of 25.1 points and 10.0 rebounds per game but was averaging just 16.8 points and 8 rebounds in the playoffs heading into Game 6. Randle is nursing an ankle injury that caused him to miss Game 1 against the Heat, but he has had concerning playoff struggles before.The Knicks’ last appearance in the playoffs came two seasons ago, when Randle again looked great in the regular season, making his first All-Star team and averaging a double-double with 24.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in the regular season. But in the first round of the playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks, he faltered, averaging 18.0 points and 11.6 rebounds, despite averaging 37.3 points in the teams’ three regular-season matchups — his most against any opponent. The Hawks eliminated the Knicks in a swift five games.After the Knicks went down 3-1 in this Heat series, Randle questioned the team’s desire.“Maybe they want it more,” Randle said in response to a question about the Knicks’ poor offensive rebounding and little aggression for loose balls. “I don’t know. That’s who we’ve been all year, and we’ve got to find a way to step up and make those plays if we want to keep this season alive.”The Knicks responded in Game 5, holding off a late comeback attempt from the Heat in a game when Brunson looked like the best player on either team.While the loss on Friday was particularly disappointing since it seemed the Knicks could have made a deeper run, they still overachieved this season, and performances like Brunson’s in Game 5 are a sign that this team has some of the right pieces moving forward.Last season, the Knicks finished 11th in the East, with questions about the futures of Coach Tom Thibodeau and Randle. In the off-season, the Knicks, as usual, missed out on the top free agents and didn’t trade for Mitchell, who has said he thought the Jazz would deal him to the Knicks, not the Cavaliers. Instead, the Knicks signed Brunson, a former Dallas guard, in a move that cost them a 2025 second-round pick for tampering.With Brunson, the Knicks became one of the more surprising teams in the N.B.A. this season, as Brunson and Randle formed an exciting one-two punch. Beating Mitchell’s team in the first round was something of a statement to those who have questioned the Knicks’ decision not to trade for him.“Being here, we’re playing with house money,” Teddy Foran, 24, who grew up in Stamford, Conn., said after Game 1 against the Heat. He became a Knicks fan while watching games with his father growing up.He added: “What we did in the off-season with keeping the young core was great. Not selling out for Donovan, as you see, if you sell out for Donovan, you’ll lose in five in the first round. So you know if we lose the second round, it’s all right.”Many fans had gathered and partied on Seventh Avenue after wins as Brunson and Randle guided the Knicks on their deepest playoff run since 2013, when they also lost in the second round. The team last made it to the N.B.A. finals in 1999 and the conference finals in 2000. But maybe these Knicks have finally done enough to make this team attractive to the marquee star players they have desperately been chasing and missing out on each off-season. More

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      Pat Riley, Once Front and Center, Reigns in the Background

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      Riley’s decades in the N.B.A. have given him plenty of stories to tell. But the formerly flashy coach of the Knicks, Heat and Lakers is keeping a low profile — “the boss he thinks you should be.”The network camera was drawn to Pat Riley after Jimmy Butler’s 22-foot jumper landed like a kick to the collective groin of the Milwaukee Bucks late in Game 4 of Miami’s first-round playoff series upset. While Butler, soon to complete a 56-point masterpiece, pranced in full-throated fashion, there sat Riley, a gray-haired Buddha, arms folded across his suit jacket and tie, smiling without celebrating, blinking but not moving.No surprise, really. By this point in a long basketball life, what has Riley not already seen that would make him compromise on his veneer of calculated, unflappable control?Circulating online, the clip was another striking visual to add to the Riley collection. From the 1966 national championship game in which a Texas Western squad dominated by Black players defeated his all-white Kentucky team to his tenured role as the Heat’s president, Riley has been tethered to basketball history of tectonic magnitude.True, the 1970s version of Riley is most memorably recalled as a role player practically riding piggyback on the great Jerry West while leaving the court upon the Los Angeles Lakers’ clinching of the only title West ever won as a player. From the 1980s on, Riley moved front and center, stylishly coifed.Riley coached the Heat to a championship in the 2005-6 season, with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal leading the team on the court. Miami beat the Dallas Mavericks in six games.Rhona Wise/European Pressphoto AgencyHe has played, coached or been chief executive for a team in a championship game or series for an extraordinary seven consecutive decades — the most recent being the Heat’s 2020 N.B.A. finals loss to the Lakers. Had there been an award for most venerable personality, the man who inspired Michael Douglas’s Gordon Gekko look for the 1987 film “Wall Street” would have to be its inaugural designee.Riley’s run as a coach and executive is arguably the most remarkable of all, given the generational shifts he has withstood. West is a front-office Lakers legend but was a reluctant three-season coach. Phil Jackson has more than double the head coaching titles (11-5), but he took on only star-laden rosters and was a bust as Knicks president. Red Auerbach deserves credit for coaching or assembling 16 of the Celtics’ 17 title teams, but most were achieved in a nascent league in which players had no freedom of movement.Riley coached the Lakers from 1981 to 1990, winning four championships with the future Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, right, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, left.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesRiley didn’t win a championship during his four seasons with the Knicks in the early 1990s, but they made it to the N.B.A. finals in 1994, when they lost to Houston in seven games.Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE, via Getty ImagesRiley did inherit a championship cast in Los Angeles, but he steered it to dynastic prominence and four titles. He made the Knicks matter again in the 1990s, however tortured — his word — he remains from not getting them across the finish line in the 1994 finals. He turned Miami’s nowhere expansion franchise into a contender and three-time champion.But we likely won’t hear much, if anything at all, from Riley on himself, the injury-plagued Heat or the Knicks during their Eastern Conference semifinal series. It’s not breaking news that he has ceded the organizational microphone to Erik Spoelstra, the coach he handpicked to succeed him in 2008 and who has remained in place well beyond the four-year Miami residency of LeBron James and the franchise’s last title in 2013.As far back as 2012, I sampled the Heat locker room for a column on how Riley had stepped away from the spotlight that once couldn’t resist him. Dwyane Wade, who joined the Heat in 2003, said, “For the most part, he stays back, stays out of the way when it comes to the players, and he’s been doing that for a couple of years.”Riley rarely speaks publicly anymore, but he has come out to support Wade, right, who spent more than a decade with the Heat.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesRiley declined a request to talk about why his once-commanding voice is now seldom heard with rare exceptions — typically to acknowledge revered service, as in the recent cases of Wade’s election to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Heat veteran Udonis Haslem’s upcoming retirement. Feelers to others affiliated with the Heat were met with a familiar refrain: Riley does not want anyone but Spoelstra and his players speaking publicly during the playoffs.Better then to consult someone whose employment doesn’t depend on him. Jeff Van Gundy, a Riley protégé who became his coaching antagonist after Riley’s stormy departure from New York in 1995, said: “He morphed into the boss that he always wanted, the boss he thinks you should be. Stay behind the scenes. Do your job.”Dave Checketts, who in 1991 hired Riley to coach the Knicks, recalled a phone conversation in which West, with whom Riley occasionally clashed during the Lakers’ Showtime era, warned him, “You’re going to have to figure out how to handle the press because Pat will lose his mind when someone says something he doesn’t want out there.”Said Checketts: “And Pat did say when he came, during hours and hours of conversation, that we needed to speak in one voice. That’s why I give him tremendous credit for what he’s done in Miami — he’s lived by what he’s espoused. And Spoelstra has been a great spokesman, too.”Six years ago, during my last extended conversation with Riley, he did veer off the agreed-upon interview topic — Magic Johnson’s brief ascension to the Lakers’ presidency. When I complimented him for refusing to tank, for remaining competitive despite losing James to Cleveland and Chris Bosh to a medical issue, Riley said:LeBron James, Wade and Chris Bosh spent four seasons together on the Heat, winning two championships. Riley was team president, after handing the coaching reins to Erik Spoelstra in 2008.Hans Deryk/Reuters“Players come and go, great players. When LeBron left, that was the most shocking thing to me — not to say he was right or wrong — and the most shocking thing to the franchise. But our culture is the same. You have your up years and your down years, but what can’t change is the way you do things.”That wasn’t necessarily the whole truth. After the Heat lost to San Antonio in the 2014 N.B.A. finals, Riley, undoubtedly referring to James’s looming free agency, told reporters: “You’ve got to stay together if you’ve got the guts. And you don’t find the first door to run out of.”James still exited, stage left. An old Riley tactic — challenging players’ manhood — fell on deaf, new-age ears. Most spiels grow old. And Riley, 69 at the time, is now a more muted 78, a stealth operator, Godfather Riley more than Gordon Gekko Riley. Yet he remains indisputably relevant, still resplendent, while watching and waiting for the auspicious occasion that will merit his last hurrah. More

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      Blue Wigs and Bad Words: Knicks Fans Are Ready for the Playoffs.

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      There was a loud commotion near a hot dog vendor inside Madison Square Garden moments before a playoff game between the Knicks and the Miami Heat on Sunday. A group of Knicks fans spotted another Knicks fan and started cursing. Other people turned their heads, cautiously moving away from the group; a fight seemed to be brewing.But as the fans walked toward each other, locked arms and began jumping around, it became clear that this was not about to be a brawl. At the center was Darryl Thompson, in a blue custom-made Knicks shirt with a four-letter word in orange and the name of the Heat’s best player: Jimmy Butler. All of the cursing? That was just the fans, uh, reading the shirt’s message out loud.“I made it,” Thompson, 37, said proudly. “It took about 30 minutes. I came up with an idea instantly and all that. I called some personal people to get it pressed up for me. We just made one. We don’t want this floating around.”

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      Moments like that filled Sunday’s Game 1 between the Knicks and the Heat, the first second-round playoff game at the Garden in a decade. During the Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Knicks fans stormed Seventh Avenue outside the arena, climbed poles, danced and drank after victories.But on Sunday, the Knicks lost at home for the first time this postseason, 108-101, after being up by 12 points at halftime. Seventh Avenue was desolate afterward, lined with police officers who were prepared for a raucous crowd but instead watched fans jump through puddles in the pouring rain as they headed for trains home. Game 2 is Tuesday at the Garden.Here’s a look at some of the fans from Sunday.Greg Dell, 48Greg Dell said he loves Knicks fans for their loyalty.Underneath Greg Dell’s Knicks hat is his hairless head, which he uses to show people how long he has been a fan of the team. “Since 12 years old,” he yelled, “back when I had hair.” The Knicks’ shortcomings over his 36 years of fandom have likely contributed to some of the hair loss, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything else, he said. And once you turn 12 years old, he added, you can’t change your team unless you move to a new city.Dell said this has been the most exciting Knicks season he can remember since the team went to the 1999 N.B.A. finals because they finally feel like a legitimate contender. He said he was “throwing away” the Game 1 loss and predicted that the Knicks would wrap the series up in six games.“It’s like dating,” he said. “If you want to find a loyal person — your spouse, your girlfriend — ask them their favorite team. If they say the Knicks, they’re loyal. They’re not cheating on you. They’re not leaving you. That’s us.”Miguel Garcia, 45Miguel Garcia fondly remembers watching Knicks games with his brothers when they were growing up.Miguel Garcia and his two brothers, Danny and John, grew up in the long shadow of the Garden at 43rd Street and Ninth Avenue, close enough to hear some of the noise from around the arena on game days.Their first Knicks memory was from Game 3 of the 1999 Eastern Conference finals when forward Larry Johnson was fouled as he made a 3-point shot and then swished the ensuing free throw to give the Knicks a 92-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers.On Sunday, they entered the Garden clad in different colored wigs they purchased from Party City because they “had to go crazy” for the special day.“You know, I have no hair, so I needed to put something on,” Garcia said.

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      Francis Vasquez, 28Francis Vasquez said he would “die for his Knicks.”Francis Vasquez stopped others nearby from talking, seemingly so they could understand the importance of what he was about to say. Vasquez lifted one hand as they watched: This one was for God, he said, before lifting his other hand just slightly beneath that one, which, he said, was for the Knicks.Greg Dell and Vasquez met on Sunday after the game at a bar, and Vasquez said their relationship was reflective of what he loved about Knicks fandom.“I could feel his energy, and he could feel my energy,” he said, “so that just builds a connection.”Vasquez grew up in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, where he built an unrelenting support for a team that has never rewarded him for it with a title. Still, Vasquez said, he would “die for his Knicks.”“Don’t let us win the championship; it’s going to be a riot that day,” he said. “I’ll probably get locked up that day.”The Romito FamilyNick Romito, left, came to Sunday’s game with his wife, Leah Romito, center, and their son, Axel, who is the biggest fan in the family.Leah Romito had never been interested in basketball. But over the last two seasons, her 8-year-old son, Axel, has fallen in love with Knicks forward Julius Randle and guard Jalen Brunson, turning her into a fan, too. On Sunday, she followed her son’s directions, yelling and cheering as if she had been born into Knicks fandom like many of the others in the Garden.It was the first game she had been to with Axel. Brunson scored 25 points, but Randle sat out because of an ankle injury. “It’s sad,” Axel said. “Very sad.”Lakeisha Reid, 46Lakeisha Reid said she appreciated how friendly everyone was at Sunday’s game.Lakeisha Reid paid $1,500 to go to the game with her girlfriend. She said she has been a Knicks fan since she was a teenager, drawn to the excitement that the former star center Patrick Ewing, who attended Sunday’s game, brought her father and to people across New Jersey, where she grew up.Sunday was her first-ever Knicks game, so she planned an eye-popping outfit for the occasion that featured shiny blue pompoms. “You only live once,” she said, “and I was like, ‘We want to do it right.’”Reid said she was most surprised by the friendliness of the crowd, which she described as “crazy but polite.” Reid remembered fans yelling for others to sit down and people listening without debate. One fan switched seats with her girlfriend to make her more comfortable.“Up north we’re known for being a little hard, and sometimes we could be a little loud, but at the game it was just the up-north love, the vibe,” she said. “It was just no drama. It was beautiful.”Satchel Aviram, 27Satchel Aviram said he’s looking forward to Game 2, despite the loss on Sunday.Satchel Aviram grew up in Westchester County, N.Y., loving the Knicks for as long as he can remember. He appreciates the fan base primarily because Knicks fans are loyal through the few ups and the innumerable downs, unlike Nets fans, he said.“The second the Nets lose, they know it’s over. When the Knicks lose, we know we’re going to fight,” Aviram said. “The team is behind the Knicks always, and the city is behind the Knicks.”Aviram said the rain and gray skies could have been reflected in a gloomy feeling among fans after the loss, but instead he said he felt a positive “electricity” in most fans looking forward to Game 2.“We’ve been down for so long that it’s meant so much for the city that we’re finally battling,” Aviram said, “and it seems like we finally have it figured out that we can go forward.”

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      Knicks Absorb First Blow in Throwback Battle With Miami Heat

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      Losing Game 1 at home was a setback for the Knicks, but it’s not a reason to count them out. They still have their depth and defense.The Knicks walked off the court at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon with their shoulders slumped. The energy that gripped the arena at the start of the game against Miami had dissolved into a mélange of people shuffling out, Heat fans boasting and a few Knicks fans shouting insults, mostly at the game officials and the Heat fans.Perspective is difficult to have in a moment like this.“I was horrific,” said Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, who scored 25 points but missed all seven of his 3-point attempts.On Sunday, the Knicks lost to the Heat, 108-101, in Game 1 of the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference semifinals. They lost even though the Heat star Jimmy Butler didn’t have the kind of scoring explosion he used to knock off the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.But despite the dour mood that engulfed the Garden after the game, it would be unwise to bury the Knicks for their performance. In some ways, everything the Knicks are doing in the playoffs is a bonus. Perhaps more important, there is still time for them to survive this series.“I don’t think anyone thought this game was going to be, or the series was going to be, won or lost in the first game,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. He added later: “I don’t think there’s an opportunity that we let slip away. It’s going to be a tough, physical series and every game’s different.”Neither the Heat nor the Knicks were expected to last very long in the playoffs.RJ Barrett, center, led the Knicks with 26 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists.John Minchillo/Associated PressThe Knicks finished the regular season as the fifth seed in the East, facing a Cleveland Cavaliers team that had traded for the star the Knicks wouldn’t — Donovan Mitchell.The Heat faced even longer odds as the eighth seed against a Bucks team expected to compete for the championship and led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is a finalist for this year’s Most Valuable Player Award.Instead, the Heat and the Knicks easily dispatched their first-round opponents, each needing just five games to do it. Miami benefited from an injury to Antetokounmpo and the dynamism of Butler. Butler scored 56 points in Miami’s Game 4 win against the Bucks and 42 in the series-clinching win two days later.That meant containing Butler would be critical for the Knicks, a team driven by its defense and depth.The Knicks had home-court advantage and a tactical advantage in that Coach Tom Thibodeau knows Butler well. He coached Butler with the Chicago Bulls for Butler’s first four seasons in the N.B.A., and again when Butler played for the Minnesota Timberwolves.On Sunday, Butler had 25 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. More critically, the attention he commanded on the court made things easier for his teammates, many of whom have thrived under playoff pressure before.The Knicks’ shooting was also particularly damaging for them. Brunson wasn’t the only one who struggled from 3. Overall, the Knicks made only 20.6 percent of their 3-pointers, including just 3 of 16 in the first half.With 5 minutes 5 seconds remaining, Butler struggled to rise from the court after turning his ankle while tangling with Hart. He refused to leave the game. With Butler hobbled, the Heat relied on guard Kyle Lowry and extended their lead to 11 points from 3.“That certainly is inspiring that he would not come out of the game,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And to be able to finish the game just infused a bunch of confidence to the rest of the guys that we have to finish this off.”Historically, when the Heat and Knicks have played each other in the playoffs, the battles have more closely resembled boxing matches than basketball games. Their physicality was legendary in the 1990s, with the Knicks’ Patrick Ewing and Miami’s Alonzo Mourning, both of whom were at Sunday’s game, going at each other in the paint.Sunday’s game was higher scoring than those contests from a quarter-century ago, but was similarly physical.“I wouldn’t just assume that each game is going to look like this,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve played these guys four times during the regular season. Two of the games were in the mud like this, the throwback Heat and Knicks that you would expect. And then we had two shootouts.”But he also said he expected the series to be a “cagefight.”What the Knicks have done already this postseason is cause for optimism for their future.They were not supposed to make a deep playoff run this year even with Brunson, who was a finalist for the league’s Most Improved Player Award. The Knicks are widely considered to be one superstar away from being championship contenders. If they win this series and get to the conference finals, they will have surpassed most expectations.They have avoided the kind of ridiculous drama that characterized the decade-long desert they wandered through until creating a stable environment with Thibodeau at the helm.The Knicks beat the Cavaliers soundly, justifying their unwillingness to gut their roster in order to trade for Mitchell.Their depth propelled them against Cleveland. It is why they have often succeeded even when playing short-handed.On Sunday, they were playing without Julius Randle, who is out with a sprained ankle. Thibodeau refused to use that as an excuse for why they lost the game.“We have more than enough,” he said after the game.The Heat were also missing a key player — guard Tyler Herro, who broke his hand during the first round and is expected to be out for several weeks.Butler did not address reporters after the game, and Spoelstra said he didn’t know the status of Butler’s injury. But if it is serious, it could change the complexion of the series. Still, the Knicks saw what the Heat did in the first round against the Bucks and know how difficult they can be.“They’re never going to give up,” Knicks forward RJ Barrett said. “That’s one thing I personally enjoy about this series. It’s going to be hard-fought. It’s going to be tough. You’ve got to go out there and kind of take it.” More

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      Knicks vs. Heat: Brawls, Nail-Biters and a Clinging Coach

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      It was a basketball rivalry born not of a thrilling comeback or a hard-fought series, but of a fight. And then it became even fiercer — after yet another fight.It took two upsets in these N.B.A. playoffs — the fifth-seeded Knicks over the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and the eighth-seeded Miami Heat over the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks — to get here. But the Knicks-Heat rivalry that burned through the late 1990s has unexpectedly been renewed in an Eastern Conference semifinal series that begins Sunday afternoon.The personnel of the teams is different from a quarter-century ago, but many of their fans are not, and their long memories will naturally be going back to the days of Pat Riley, Charles Oakley, Patrick Ewing and Tim Hardaway. And more than a few will have vivid images in their minds of a 5-foot-9 coach clinging to the leg of a 6-foot-10 player.1997: The Fracas That Started It AllKnicks forward Charles Oakley, left, was ejected from Game 5 of the 1997 Eastern Conference semifinals after bumping Heat center Alonzo Mourning. A melee followed moments later.Rhona Wise/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe elements were there. Riley, who had led the Knicks for three seasons, had become the coach of the Heat, and there was bad blood over the move. The Heat eventually had to send the Knicks a first-round pick after they were found to have tampered with Riley while he was still under contract.The Eastern Conference semifinals did not cool things off. The Knicks led, three games to one, but the Heat were on their way to a win in Miami when, with two minutes left, things broke down.It started when Charles Oakley of the Knicks bumped Alonzo Mourning of the Heat and was ejected. On the next play, Charlie Ward of the Knicks squatted and bumped into P.J. Brown at knee level. Brown then picked up the 6-foot Ward and threw him out of bounds. This started a melee with plenty of grabbing and at least one obscene gesture. Riley ended up in a screaming match with Dontae’ Jones of the Knicks, who wasn’t even dressed for the game, and Jones exchanged words with some Miami fans.The most crucial factor was that most of the Knicks team left the bench, and although they did not become deeply involved in the tumult, this violated a sacrosanct N.B.A. rule designed to limit combat to those already on the court. Five Knicks were suspended — Ward, Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, John Starks and Larry Johnson — and only one Heat player, Brown. It was a record for heavy postseason suspensions.Because so many Knicks had been suspended, the penalties were staggered: Three Knicks were to miss Game 6 and two Game 7. Short-handed, the Knicks lost both games, blowing their 3-1 lead and the series. Miami lost in the next round to the Chicago Bulls.1998: ‘That’s Cold. That’s Cold.’After a fight broke out in the waning seconds of Game 4 of a 1998 first-round series, Knicks Coach Jeff Van Gundy grabbed Alonzo Mourning’s leg while sprawled on the court.G. Paul Burnett/The New York TimesEveryone wanted a rematch, and they got it in the first round, because the Knicks — hampered because Ewing had played only 26 games that season as a result of a broken wrist — were the seventh seed. The New York Times’s headline on its preview of the series was “Gentlemen, Sharpen Your Elbows.”With a second to go in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, and the Knicks about to even the series at two games apiece, Mourning and Johnson tangled beneath the basket. Punches were thrown, and it all ended with Coach Jeff Van Gundy of the Knicks on the court, hanging on to Mourning’s leg.“I am not an idiot,” Van Gundy said. “I wasn’t attacking nobody. I was trying to get between the two guys so there weren’t any punches thrown.”“I’ve never been one to let a guy swing at me,” Johnson said, “especially when it’s a punk like that. There’s 1.4 left. That’s cold. That’s cold.” Both combatants were suspended for the finale of the five-game series.This time, though, the Knicks seemed to benefit and won Game 5, 98-81, and the series in Miami. They were eliminated in the next round by the Pacers.1999: A Giant-KillingKnicks guard Allan Houston shooting the winning basket late in Game 5 in a first-round series against the Heat in 1999.Wilfredo Lee/Associated PressRound 3 came in a strike year when the regular season had been only 50 games. The shortened season threw up some strange results, and the Knicks only barely sneaked into the playoffs as the eighth seed. That gave them another first-round matchup against the Heat, who were tied for the conference’s best record.The teams traded wins, setting up a decisive Game 5 in Miami. For once, the most memorable moment of the series involved basketball rather than fisticuffs.Trailing by 1, the Knicks inbounded the ball with 4.5 seconds left. Allan Houston got off a jumper from the free-throw line. It bounced off the front of the rim, bounced off the backboard — and went in.“It seemed like it hung for two minutes, not two seconds,” Houston said. “It’s the biggest shot ever for me.”“If we didn’t get the bounce, we’d be talking about something totally different right now,” he added.The Knicks became the second eighth seed to beat a No. 1, a feat matched a few times since, including this season, by the Heat. They went on to make the finals in the topsy-turvy season and lost to the San Antonio Spurs.2000: A Whisker of a DifferenceLatrell Sprewell after securing a crucial rebound, and the Knicks’ victory, in the 2000 Eastern Conference semifinals.Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE, via Getty ImagesFor the fourth time in four years, there was a Knicks-Heat series, and for the fourth time it went the distance. In terms of pure basketball enjoyment, this conference semifinal probably ranked first of the four matchups. The teams alternated wins for the first six games, which were decided by margins of 4, 6, 1 (in overtime), 8, 6 and 2 points.Game 7 was in Miami, and it was fought hard. With 12 seconds left, the Heat, trailing by 1, inbounded the ball. But Ewing and Johnson prevented Mourning from getting the ball, and Jamal Mashburn declined to shoot. That left the potential Heat game-winner to an unlikely marksman: Clarence Weatherspoon, who missed his jumper.Latrell Sprewell got the rebound for the Knicks but was ruled to have stepped out of bounds with two seconds left. But the referee Dick Bavetta overruled the call, and the Knicks won the game and the series, their third straight over the Heat.Angry Heat fans pelted the court with debris. “That’s why they call him Knick Bavetta,” Hardaway said. “It’s not right.”The Knicks lost in the conference finals to the Indiana Pacers.The Last Two DecadesLeBron James battling Carmelo Anthony for a rebound during a 2012 playoff series.Barton Silverman/The New York TimesRivalries like Knicks-Heat don’t last forever, at least at that level of white-hot intensity.After four consecutive playoff meetings, they have met only once in the intervening years, in 2012. The drama was not the same, and the Heat, with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, won in five.But now the rivalry is back. The eighth-seeded Heat shocked the Bucks in five games, helped when Giannis Antetokounmpo left Game 1 early and missed Games 2 and 3. The series was capped by a 16-point fourth-quarter rally and an overtime win in Game 5, with Jimmy Butler scoring 42 points.The Knicks beat the Cavs in five, as well, their first playoff series win in a decade. Their defense held Cleveland to 94.2 points a game, and Jalen Brunson averaged 24 points.Butler, Brunson and their teammates will decide the series, not Oakley or Mourning. And maybe it will be cleanly played and a showcase for outstanding fundamentals.But forgive some fans for secretly rooting to see Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau hanging from Bam Adebayo’s legs. More

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      NHL and NBA Playoffs Give New York Fans a Lot to Celebrate

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      All five professional winter season teams in the New York metropolitan area made the playoffs for the first time since 1994.For four consecutive days, people in sports jerseys of various colors moved in, out and around Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. For some, it was their destination. For others, it was a changing point. But for fans of five teams in two sports in one metropolitan area, it was a hub for that incomparable and captivating springtime buzz: the playoffs.Across the United States and Canada, many cities are hosting playoff games in professional basketball and hockey. But nowhere was the action more abundant than in the New York metropolitan area, where all five professional winter season teams were in the postseason.It was the first time the five local teams had been in the playoffs at the same time since 1994, the year Madison Square Garden was the pulsating star at the core of the sports universe. The Rangers and the Knicks traded nights at the Garden from April to June that spring, right through to the finals of the N.H.L. and N.B.A. playoffs, and the Rangers won the Stanley Cup. Along the way, all five teams played dates in that one arena during the playoffs.This year, by Sunday, three of the teams had played at the Garden, but all five — the Islanders in Nassau County, N.Y.; the Nets in Brooklyn; the Knicks and the Rangers in Manhattan; and the Devils in Newark, N.J. — competed somewhere in the relatively condensed metro area in first-round playoff games.“There’s a buzz in the area, for sure,” Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock said after his team pounded the visiting Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1, on Friday.It was the first playoff game held at two-year-old UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., about a 35-minute ride from Penn Station on the Long Island Rail Road. The same night, basketball fans could ride that rail line (or the subway) to Penn Station, walk upstairs, and see the Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-79, at the Garden in Game 3 of that series.The crowd and the building were ready for the moment, and Knicks guard Jalen Brunson called the atmosphere “unreal.”“Being in this environment, there is no other replica,” he said. “There is nothing that comes close to it.”Rangers fans flocked to New Jersey for the first two playoff games against the Devils.Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesThese playoff runs for the New York area’s teams, which have been germinating for a couple of years, began on Thursday, when the Devils and the Rangers played in Newark for Game 2 of that series. Some fans from New York hopped on a New Jersey Transit train from Penn Station, including many Rangers fans who infiltrated the Prudential Center, home of the Devils. At the same time, barely 14 miles away, the Nets, who once shared an arena with the Devils in East Rutherford, N.J., hosted the Philadelphia 76ers at Barclays Center, and lost Game 3.The basketball playoffs continued in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon, but they came to an end for the Nets, who were eliminated in a first-round sweep by the 76ers.But anyone looking for more playoff action could have taken the No. 2 train back to Penn Station to see the Rangers welcome the Devils in Game 3 on Saturday night at the Garden, where the Devils won in overtime, 2-1, cutting the Rangers’ lead in that series to 2-1. On Sunday, the Knicks beat the Cavaliers, 102-93, at the Garden to take a 3-1 lead in that series. At UBS Arena on Sunday, the Islanders lost to the Hurricanes, 5-2, and now trail in that series, 3-1.Eight playoff games in four arenas in four days involving five local teams: It’s a New York-New Jersey playoff bonanza.“It’s awesome for local fans,” Islanders winger Kyle Palmieri said. “I grew up as a local fan, and I watched all these teams.”He also played for two of them. Palmieri was born on Long Island, in Smithtown, N.Y., and moved with his family to Montvale, N.J., as a boy. He played for the Devils from 2015 until he was traded to the Islanders in 2021, just in time to participate in the Isles’ last game at the old Nassau Coliseum — a 3-2 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on June 23, 2021.Now, even with his focus on his own club’s series against Carolina, he can marvel at all the local teams playing at once.“It’s a special thing to have everyone involved,” he said. “It doesn’t happen too often.”More than 140,000 attendees were expected through Sunday’s playoff games. One of them was Lucas Whitehead, 27, a Canadian who was in the area to attend a conference at the United Nations. He bought an Islanders jersey and marveled at the atmosphere for the UBS Arena’s first playoff game.“The energy in here was like nothing I’ve seen before,” he said after Friday’s game. “I’ve been to a lot of arenas. We went to M.S.G. and the Prudential Center, and I’ve been to a lot in Canada. This was the craziest.”But the Garden came to life again on Saturday, for the Rangers-Devils game. The Rangers fans made their presence felt in Newark, but at home, when their team scores and the crowd sings their goal song and the walls vibrate, it can create a swell of momentum for the team.“It’s amazing — it’s one of the cooler experiences you’ll have,” Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said after practice on Friday, about two hours after the Knicks practiced at the same building in Westchester County, N.Y. “It’s hard to explain it to someone who’s not on the ice and doesn’t get to be part of it in that moment.”As the playoffs move into May, the number of local teams will dwindle. But there could be more excitement ahead. If the Rangers and the Islanders win their series, the two rivals, whose fan bases generally loathe each other, would meet in the second round, their first postseason encounter since the Rangers swept the Islanders in that fateful spring of ’94.That would suit Filip Chytil, the Rangers center who is originally from the Czech Republic. Before joining the Rangers in 2017, Chytil played one year professionally for the Czech team PSG Zlin and said its rivalry with H.C. Kometa Brno was fiery. But playing the Islanders in New York would be even more intense.“That would be great,” Chytil said Friday. “It’s a big ‘if’ at this moment. But we wouldn’t have to travel very much. Just take a bus.”Or, if the team prefers, there are plenty of trains in and out of Penn Station. More