The Knicks are one game away from their first NBA championship in 53 years, a remarkable ascendance for a once beaten-down franchise that has the entire New York City area in a frenzy.
Tens of thousands of fans have gathered at watch parties across the tri-state to root for their orange and blue. Some of those parties turned raucous. More than 80 people were taken into custody, nearly 30 of them charged, amid utter fan chaos outside Bryant Park and Madison Square Garden within the last week.
The MSG watch party was called off for Game 3 on Monday, given the attendance of President Donald Trump. It was supposed to be back for Game 4 on Wednesday — the city and Knicks announced it, a permit was issued, barricades were set up. Closer to gametime, though, there were still no screens.
After a rift with the city over security measures for Game 4, the Knicks are again holding a watch party outside Madison Square Garden. Up to 3,000 fans can attend, the team said. Advanced registration is required and all fans in attendance will be screened by police. Other watch parties are being held at Radio City Music Hall and Wollman Rink in Central Park.
Registration for both filled up quickly.
Tickets for the Radio City event, sold on the Knicks website for a $10 donation to their Garden of Dreams charity, were going for hundreds of dollars on the secondary. The Garden and Wollman Rink events are free.
On Saturday, Knicks fever collides with the New York City area’s first World Cup game in 32 years. The match at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey kicks off about three hours before the Knicks game, but traffic and transit restrictions extend to Manhattan, and soccer fans returning to the city by train will be arriving at Penn Station — right underneath the Garden.
Complicating matters: a 5 Seconds of Summer concert at the Garden that is expected to bring another 15,000 to 20,000 people to the area and prevents a watch party inside the arena and a scorching heatwave that has city officials advising people to stay indoors. On Sunday, the city is hosting another big event, the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
With the confluence of events on the pitch, court and stage, the city has declared a Gridlock Alert for Saturday, with severe traffic congestion expected in midtown Manhattan. Street closures and limited access to parts of Penn Station will be in effect for each of the eight World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium.
Starting at noon, two streets adjacent to the Garden — 32nd and 33rd — will be closed to vehicle traffic and used as queues for people waiting for trains from Penn Station to the World Cup. They will reopen three hours after the match ends.
The city is also barring truck deliveries from 30th Street to 60th Street from noon to 11 p.m., closing streets around the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey and converting some streets to bus-only corridors, including 42nd Street, which traverses Times Square. Of late, the tourist haven has been co-opted as yet another place for New York fans to cheer.
If the Knicks win Game 5, the next stop for their roving faithful will be a celebratory parade in Lower Manhattan, through a skyscraper-filled stretch of the city known as the Canyon of Heroes.
If not, the Knicks and their fans will be back at the Garden on Tuesday for Game 6.
