Knicks 101: 5 things every new fan of the team should know
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns wears a cowboy hat during a workout prior to the start of the NBA Finals against the Spurs on Tuesday in San Antonio. Credit: AP/Eric Gay
The Knicks are known for having one of the most loyal and knowledgeable fan bases in sports. But the team's run to the NBA Finals has opened the door to a slew of new fans who are swept up in the excitement of the Knicks trying to win their first championship since 1973.
If you're new to Knicks fandom, here are five things every Knicks fan should know.
1. The super ’Nova Knicks
This year’s Knicks team features three players who won at least one NCAA title together at Villanova.
Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges won championships in 2016 and 2018. Josh Hart was on the 2016 team. They are all very close.
“When you're in college and you're in that locker room, you always kind of — you know, the goal is the NBA,” Hart recently said. “And you know the percent chance that you guys are going to be on the same team is very slim, if not none. And it's always something you talk about and dream about, but you know the reality is almost impossible."
When Bridges and Hart were recently asked about winning NCAA titles with Brunson, Brunson quickly interjected: “That’s incorrect. Me and ‘Kal won two. Josh won one. But continue.”
Brunson and Hart co-host a podcast together called “Roommates Show.”
Donte DiVincenzo, another member of Villanova's 2016 and 2018 championship teams, played alongside Brunson and Hart with the Knicks during the 2023-24 season. He was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the deal that brought Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks. Bridges was acquired from the Nets in a trade before the 2024-25 season.
Brunson is now the star of the Knicks. He was named to the All-NBA second team this season and is the Knicks' leading scorer (26 points per game in the regular season and 26.9 in the playoffs).
Bridges and Hart join Brunson in the starting lineup.
2. KAT is all that
The trade for Towns was the final major piece in bringing the Knicks back to the Finals. But after the Knicks lost to Indiana in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, there were questions about whether Towns and Brunson could win a title together because neither is a top-notch defender.
The questions persisted even into this year’s playoffs. When the Knicks were down 2-1 in the first round against Atlanta, coach Mike Brown changed the offense on the fly to make Towns more of a ballhandler and playmaker.
It worked. In the 11-game winning streak that has propelled the Knicks to the Finals, Towns has averaged 6.5 assists. In 53 prior playoff games, his average was 2.1.
“Just to see my teammates being special and to be able to get them involved is something I truly enjoy more than hitting a shot,” Towns said. “Just to see people like OG [Anunoby] consistently making the right read on the cut, the back door, whatever the case may be against the defense and doing something special, it brings me joy and it brings me the most energy.”
3. Coach Mike Brown has delivered
After last season’s loss to Indiana in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau despite having given him a three-year contract extension a year earlier. The Knicks hadn’t made it to the East Finals in a quarter-century, but that wasn’t enough.
After what team president Leon Rose called “a thorough and extensive search process,” the team hired Mike Brown, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year who won four NBA titles as an assistant coach in Golden State and San Antonio.
Knicks owner James Dolan, in a January appearance on WFAN, said: “We want to get to the Finals, and we should win the Finals . . . Getting to the Finals, we absolutely got to do.”
4. Some history: Two NBA titles in eight trips to the Finals
The Knicks were NBA champions in 1970 and 1973 and lost in the Finals in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1972, 1994 and 1999.
In 1970, the Knicks defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. In Game 7 at the Garden, Willis Reed hobbled onto the court despite a serious thigh injury that forced him to miss Game 6 and hit the first two baskets in the Knicks’ 113-99 victory. Reed would be named Finals MVP despite scoring only those four points in Game 7.
In 1973, the Knicks again beat the Lakers, this time in five games after Los Angeles (which beat the Knicks in the 1972 Finals) won the opener. Reed was again named Finals MVP.
5. Knicks is short for Knickerbockers
In case it comes up, the full team name is Knickerbockers. The term traces its origin to the Dutch settlers who came to New York in the 1600s and the pants they wore, which rolled up just below the knee and were known as “knickerbockers” and then shortened to “knickers.”
According to NBA.com, former Knicks executive Fred Podesta said the name of the team was decided when several options were pulled out of a hat when the franchise was born in 1946 as a member of the Basketball Association of America.
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
