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06/07/26 03:19:00
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06/07 15:17 CDT The NBA Finals are back in New York, and everyone seems caught
up in the hoopla except the Knicks
The NBA Finals are back in New York, and everyone seems caught up in the hoopla
except the Knicks
By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --- Madison Square Garden has seen just about everything in
sports and entertainment, from the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight to the
first Wrestlemania.
It just hasn't seen much of the NBA Finals.
The New York Knicks have brought the finals back to their home court for the
first time since 1999 and can make sure they don't leave again this year. Fans
are spending astonishingly high prices for tickets and the potential to witness
a celebration more than five decades in the making.
With a 2-0 lead over Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, the Knicks
are halfway to their first championship since 1973. They are the biggest thing
in the Big Apple, and it seems everyone is caught up in the hoopla except the
Knicks themselves.
"I know the fan base is really excited, as they should be," captain Jalen
Brunson said. "But as a team, us inside the locker room, we have more work to
do."
Game 3 is Monday, with President Donald Trump in the building. Whether they've
played in the arena or sat way up in the cheap seats --- not that there is such
a thing this time with tickets reselling for more than $10,000 --- people know
this night will be different.
"I think it's going to be through the roof," Spurs guard Dylan Harper said. "I
think it's going to be everything that I've kind of seen or dreamed of times
10."
It will be the first NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden since June 25,
1999, which ended with the Knicks watching the Spurs celebrate their first
championship after winning Game 5.
That series, and one in 1994, were the only finals games played at MSG since
the Knicks won the 1973 title. They were rarely close again until this 13-game
winning streak, the second longest by any team in one playoffs, with the
atmosphere around the city seemingly becoming more raucous with each victory.
"Fans have earned the right and deserve the right to see finals basketball be
played here at Madison Square Garden," Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said.
"For this to be the first game in a long time that they have seen finals
basketball, it's up to us to bring it, give them something to cheer for, give
them something to get loud for and also give them something to believe in."
Wembanyama, Brunson and the rest of the players will be only part of the scene
Monday, sharing it with the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals
game and the celebrity fans who surround the court. Some of them were already
there Sunday for practices, with Knicks coach Mike Brown finally getting to
meet actor Ben Stiller, then having his news conference extended when rapper
Fat Joe insisted on a chance to speak from the back.
Wembanyama got to show his stuff at MSG in his second season, when the Spurs
were given the leadoff game on the NBA's marquee Christmas schedule and he
scored 42 points. Opportunities like that, which the Spurs increasingly have
been treated to since drafting the 7-foot-4 phenom from France, could help them
with what they will face Monday.
"This arena's like no other. The added circumstances will be on top of that,"
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. "We've been fortunate to play some games in
this arena recently that have been, again, not finals, but a Christmas game.
Again, I just think added attention around Victor and being in this arena a few
times, we've experienced that. I would expect tomorrow will be more than that."
The Knicks have been so dominant during this run that they haven't gotten to
see MSG much. They have played only four home games since May 4, when they
opened the second round of the playoffs. So even the home team struggles to put
into words exactly what Monday will look and sound like.
"I've seen a lot of crazy atmospheres," guard Deuce McBride said. "I don't
think I'm going to know what to expect, but I'm just proud to be here, I'm so
blessed to play here and I know the fans are going to bring it and we're going
to do everything we can."
The arena that shook when Willis Reed walked onto the court for Game 7 in 1970
will be rocking again Monday. The current MSG had opened just a couple of years
earlier, and the previous one never even saw the NBA Finals. The Knicks made it
three straight years from 1951-53, but those games were played at the 69th
Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue because the Garden was hosting the circus.
Game 3 kicks off a massive sports week in the New York region, with a World Cup
game scheduled for Saturday in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey, which will
host the final. Knicks forward Josh Hart had signed on in an ambassador role
for the local World Cup committee but knows the Knicks have put even the
world's biggest sporting event on the back burner for the moment.
"I love football, man, so obviously a little bummed I can't go to some of those
matches, but I have something a little more interesting right now going on in
my life," Hart said. "It also adds to the energy of the city."
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
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