NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) – The New York Knicks are desperate to deliver for fans when Madison Square Garden hosts its first NBA Finals game in 27 years on Monday, with the five boroughs finally daring to dream of an end to their title drought.
The Knicks have bucked the odds to take a 2-0 head start on the road in the best-of-seven series against the favored San Antonio Spurs, keeping alive an extraordinary postseason run as they hope to lift the trophy for the first time since 1973.
“We got to be desperate for these fans,” said the six-time All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, who has tamed the 7-foot-4-inch French superstar Victor Wembanyama in an extraordinary clash of NBA titans.
“Fans have earned the right and deserve the right to see Finals basketball be played here.”
The self-styled “World’s Most Famous Arena” commands a mythic quality in American pop culture, playing host to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s “The Fight of the Century” and Marilyn Monroe’s lusty rendition of “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy.
It has not, however, seen an NBA Finals game since the Spurs beat the Knicks in 1999, with its legions of A-listers from Spike Lee to Ben Stiller sitting patiently in Madison Square Garden’s “Celebrity Row” for more than a quarter-century of thwarted dreams.
Coach Mike Brown beamed as he interrupted the start of his own press conference on Sunday to report he had finally met the comedian Stiller – “I gave him a handshake and a hug,” said Brown – and recalled his first moments inside the American sports cathedral.
“I was like holy crap I can’t believe this is where I’m going to be coaching,” said Brown. “I see my family right there and obviously all the stars – it makes it feel different than almost any other building you’ve been in.”
The arena was already buzzing on Sunday, as local police, Secret Service and stadium security braced for the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump, who is expected to attend Game 3.
Trump’s attendance at the U.S. Open men’s tennis final in New York City last year saw thousands of ticketholders stranded outside the gates well into the match due to the layers of added security, and authorities urged fans who shelled out thousands of dollars for a ticket to arrive at least two hours early for Monday’s game.
The NYPD said there would be no watch parties permitted outsidethe arena, enraging fans after a crowd of roughly 6,500 showed up to watch the Knicks’ 105-104 Game 2 win on big screens outside the venue on Friday night.
“There will be no watch parties outside of Madison Square Garden for Game 3 only,” a spokesperson for the NYPD press office added in a statement. “This was done fully in coordination with the Secret Service because of the presidential visit. We expect watch parties at Madison Square Garden to resume for Game 4.”
The Secret Service previously said there would be hard street closures around the arena, which sits atop the bustling Penn Station.
Wembanyama, whose blunder in the waning moments of Game 2 helped the Knicks to that 2-0 lead, likened the media circus in New York to what he experienced at his home Olympics in Paris two years ago but said he has become skilled at tuning out the noise.
“Isolating myself is something I’ve practiced over the years,” he told reporters. “It’s not a problem.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Chris Reese and Jacqueline Wong)
