NBA: Knicks fever engulfs New York with end to title drought in sight

NEW YORK — New York Knicks fever has engulfed the five boroughs this week, with the team just one win away from snapping a 53-year NBA title drought and the kickoff of the first of the region's eight World Cup matches across the river on Saturday taking a backseat for many locals.

Brazil and Morocco will have the eyes of the world when they kick off the soccer action in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at 6:00 pm ET on Saturday. But the attention of born-and-raised New Yorkers will be on the Knicks when they tip off against the San Antonio Spurs in Texas in Game 5 of the championship series two-and-a-half hours later.

"This is an incredible time to be a sports fan and, frankly, an even greater time to be a New Yorker," said the city's sports-mad Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday, wearing a Knicks jersey underneath his blazer as he addressed locals and out-of-towners ahead of Saturday's World Cup match.

The steamy-hot streets of Manhattan were clogged with blue-and-orange-clad fans deep into the night on Wednesday, after the Knicks made up a staggering 29-point deficit to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series against the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden.

The London-born OG Anunoby capped the instant classic with a gamewinning putback that coach Mike Brown called "the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball." Others compared the tip in to Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal, with ESPN dubbing it the "Hand of OG."

"The energy in our city right now is incredible," said Mamdani. "Time and again, people have doubted the Knicks. And time and again, the Knicks have proven the doubters wrong. OG Anunoby with the greatest outstretched hand since Diego Maradona."

Fans from New York and New Jersey snapped up some 44% of tickets for Saturday's Game 5 at San Antonio's Frost Bank Center sold on TickPick, the secondhand ticket platform said on Thursday, as the Knicks hoped to wrap up the series on the road or play Game 6 at home on Tuesday.

'Shoutout to our fans'

The Knicks towering center Karl-Anthony Towns paid tribute to the fans' grit and resiliency, applauding them for staying through to the final buzzer when Game 4 appeared all but out of reach.

"Shoutout to our fans, man," he told reporters. "As anyone who lives in New York knows, if you want to make it in this city, you have to be okay getting it out of the mud, and we did that."

The New York City Police Department's public relations office said it would announce on Friday whether fans would be permitted to congregate outside Madison Square Garden to watch the game on big screens, a tradition among fans that was upended due to security concerns at this week's two home games, prompting open rancor between Knicks owner James Dolan, the NYPD and Mamdani.

Madison Square Garden sits atop Penn Station, a key transit hub for ticketholders to Saturday's World Cup game. — Reuters