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Being reigning champions is weird for Knicks fans. We could get used to this.
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET
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Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Oct 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET
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Enduring disappointment and heartbreak, staying loyal through shame and misery, and fanning the flames of hope had all become as much a part of being a die-hard New York Knicks fan as wearing orange and blue … and maybe hating Knicks owner James Dolan.
Then NYC’s hometown team won the 2026 NBA Championship.
The New York Knicks will raise their first championship banner at Madison Square Garden in 50 years as they open their season on Tuesday night. And fans, still riding the high of the team's ultimate win, are slowly getting used to cheering for defending champions.
“I had like a little moment of, ‘Oh no, like, what about my identity as a Knicks fan? We're supposed to suck, and I'm supposed to be miserable about it,’” said lifelong fan and Connecticut native Zach Rudes, 41, who watched last season’s final game in the middle of the night where he now lives in Spain. “I think being a fan of a perpetually cursed team kind of became part of my identity.”
Being a Knicks fan, he said, was “very Murphy's Law.”
Manhattan resident Daniel Barth, 30, was glad to shake off the sense of misfortune associated with the fandom.
“I feel a sense of relief to just kind of let go of that suffering,” Barth said. “To see them finally get over that hump and achieve the championship success, which I have wanted to see for this team for years, is just such a gratifying experience. It's like a healing experience.”
Fans cheer during the New York Knicks Championship ticker tape parade and victory rally June 7.
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Before this summer, the Knicks hadn’t won a championship since 1973. There had been some glimmers of hope — like when they made it to the finals in 1994 and 1999. Or in the 2010s, when the team acquired All-Star Carmelo Anthony. Then, when basketball executive Leon Rose was hired as team president in 2020, the Knicks really began to shape up.
“I think that's when that winning culture started and like that's when we got into the habit of actually winning consistently year after year,” said Queens native Donté Ledbetter. “I think that's what a lot of Knicks fans want to see. … I mean, it's quite embarrassing every time you bring up the Knicks; at least in the past, people would be like ‘Oh sorry.’ But now we're not a laughingstock anymore.”
Knicks fans had the last laugh this June. Captain Jalen Brunson and the team achieved what fans had dreamed of for 53 years — in Game 4 of the finals against the San Antonio Spurs, the Knicks completed the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. In Game 5, they sealed the deal.
Tens of thousands of fans spilled out onto the streets around Madison Square Garden. Dense crowds stretched from Fifth to Ninth avenues. The city erupted in a cacophony of shouts, fireworks, car horns, music and jubilant chants of "Knicks in five!”
For many diehard fans, years spent in the trenches with their team made the win that much sweeter — a feeling that will be hard to beat.
“I genuinely, I never thought I was gonna see it, honestly,” Bronx resident Brian Brennan said.
“This was the year where everything changed for me as a Knicks fan. The past pain, the heartbreak, the bad seasons, the brutal playoff losses — that made it worth it to go through that, and to go through those scars, to get those scars, to come out on top, and to finally be able to say that we have that, really made it even more special for me.”
The New York Knicks celebrate during the Championship ticker tape parade and victory rally.
Angelina Katsanis/Getty Images
New York City had become one giant watch party. What had once been a tortured club of basketball fanatics had gone mainstream. Everyone was a Knicks fan. Times were changing.
“I think that a part of me almost has this melancholy to a former time where there was a really tight-knit community of Knicks fans,” 34-year-old New Jerseyan Patrick Conor said. “But on the other end of things, it's so wonderful to see a whole new generation of fans being born through the championship, through the playoff runs, and that they get different experiences.”
With the start of the new season, New York Knicks fans are cautiously optimistic, if not wary, of the team's future, especially because of Dolan's leadership. He’d long been criticized for the team’s previous decades of poor performance (not to mention his surveillance of fans and politicians at MSG, and high ticket prices). His latest infractions, according to fans, involve not wanting to shell out the cash it would have cost to keep key player Mitchell Robinson. Karl-Anthony Towns’ future also remains uncertain, with reports that his contract negotiations with the team are at a standstill.
“We're still like a little anxious and paranoid, you know what I mean? Like gun-shy that it's all gonna collapse,” longtime loyal fan Keif Roberts said. “A lot of Knicks fans, myself included, are a little bit wary of what direction we're gonna go now. I know that James Dolan doesn't wanna get into the second apron [a penalty for spending above the NBA salary cap], and that he's been talking about that.”
For many fans, a ticket to MSG has always been more of a treat than a regular occurrence; ticket prices have been trending higher with demand as more people join the fanbase. The cheapest ticket for opening night at MSG on StubHub, a resale website, was listed at just over $1,000 late this week. Longtime fans say the prices are prohibitive for working-class New Yorkers.
“If actual New Yorkers who actually take the time to play basketball even after work or before work just for the love of the game and they can't even afford tickets, it's kind of unfortunate for them because they're the biggest fans,” fan Kevin Coronel said.
Still, fans do what they can to see their team play in person. Patrick Conor, 34, said he always tries to make it to at least one game at MSG per season with his siblings, and this year will be no different.
“ Maybe it's a Wednesday night against a team that's not as good — I won't throw out any team names,” he said. “But this is such a special and exciting time that I think there are certain situations where you have to say, ‘You know what? It's more important to be in the Garden than it is to think about a couple bucks.’"
Monica Melton contributed reporting.
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