DAVID FOLKENFLIK, HOST:
The city that never sleeps celebrated all night as the Knicks won their first NBA title since 1973.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: The Knicks win.
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FOLKENFLIK: New York's basketball team defeated the San Antonio Spurs in five games with yet another comeback, capping a magical season after five decades of frustration. Brittany Kriegstein of member station WNYC captured fans' reactions as they watched the game from watch parties and street corners across the city, and she joins us now. Welcome.
BRITTANY KRIEGSTEIN, BYLINE: Thank you so much, David.
FOLKENFLIK: Brittany, must've been a late night. What was the scene like last night?
KRIEGSTEIN: It was, but so electric. It was really just a night of joy with New Yorkers united in a way I've never seen before. I mean, you know how in New York City, you often hear distant sirens? I can describe that last night the streets were filled with the sound of distant cheering just spilling out of bars, city parks, entertainment venues, people on every corner glued to TVs. I started the night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where I watched the tipoff from a TV that was set up on the sidewalk outside a pizzeria. I then headed to a public housing complex where Knick's backup guard Jose Alvarado grew up. Desire Lewis had strung up a bedsheet on a wall outside to project the game. Residents were huddled around watching, rooting for their local star.
DESIRE LEWIS: And my son was like, he's from Williamsburg, Ma. There's only one Knicks player from New York, and he's from our neighborhood. So I'm like, OK. I didn't know. So I'm sure even for him, it's super inspirational.
KRIEGSTEIN: Lewis also spoke to me about the unity she's noticed among locals during the finals - everyone wearing blue and orange, old and young, different ethnicities. And last night, David, I saw that with my own eyes. Complete strangers hugging, high-fiving, cheering together, leaning on each other for support when the game was tight.
FOLKENFLIK: Most of those games were nail-biters. What was the crowd's reaction to that final buzzer?
KRIEGSTEIN: So I watched the last few minutes of the fourth quarter on a big street screen in a plaza outside Madison Square Garden. A sea of people started jumping up and down, dancing, recording the moment on their phones, of course, hoisting other people onto their shoulders. They were screaming. They were singing along to Frank Sinatra's "Theme From New York, New York." Christian Labasta was among them. He was wearing a Knicks jersey and FaceTiming someone, just screaming into the phone. He's 40 years old from the Bronx and says he works at Madison Square Garden. He says he's been waiting for this since he and his father watched the Knicks lose the NBA finals to the San Antonio Spurs in 1999.
CHRISTIAN LABASTA: And now, full circle, I'm standing here working for the Garden. Me. I put down that floor. I put down the championship floor.
KRIEGSTEIN: Just pure emotion in his voice. And I heard people in the crowd saying they weren't going to go home last night.
FOLKENFLIK: Brittany, we've got a little less than a minute left, but I'd like to know what happened afterward in terms of the chaos in the streets and police.
KRIEGSTEIN: Sure. Well, celebrations erupted on almost every corner, as you can imagine. People surged the blocks around Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, especially 9th Avenue. Small groups of young people were flinging water bottles into the air, climbing light poles, jumping on cars. There was some destruction. By about 12:30 a.m., hundreds of police officers in riot gear arrived backed by two lines of mounted officers, maybe 30 horses. Police said they made some arrests, and a 17-year-old was shot in the left foot. But people were making their way home. Apolline Lelong is from France and is living in Midtown. She was in the midst of those revellers on 9th Avenue and West 33rd Street last night.
APPOLINE LELONG: Well, it's totally crazy. We've been living in Midtown for, like, three months now, and just seeing so many people so happy, that's wonderful.
KRIEGSTEIN: The party isn't over for Knicks, though. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced that the city will host a parade for the team on Thursday.
FOLKENFLIK: That's WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein. Thanks, Brittany, for coming aboard and spreading the news.
KRIEGSTEIN: Absolutely. Thank you for having me, David. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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