If there’s anything I’ve learned deep into the end of my 30s, it is that there truly is nothing quite like community. Sports take that very simple, relatable feeling into something that could only be rivaled by religion. No team in any city in professional sports unites behind one team like New Yorkers unite around the Knicks. It’s basketball’s first viral fan base. A collective whose enthusiasm is its very own personality trait. Passionate? Yeah. Loyal? To a fault, sometimes. Sharp? As shit. Loud? I’m sure you can name a million more and it’ll all make up somewhere close to the definition of what a Knick fan is. This special edition of the basketball bible is a love letter to you. A collection of essays, interviews, portraits and memories synonymous with New York’s team. You’d think a book like this would be something reserved for a team who has won a championship in the last century, but save your jokes. There isn’t a jab that anybody who bleeds blue and orange has not heard about the darkness. Knicks fans are born in it, molded by it. The unshakable faith built on the backs of Clyde Frazier, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Earl The Pearl, and ushering eras led by Patrick Ewing, Carmelo Anthony and Jalen Brunson are examples of the euphoric highs even in the direct path of some sobering lows. It’s almost like when God was cooking up the perfect type of Knicks player, it was always the guy who you would defend to the death at a lunch table, barbershop or literally any social media app of your choosing since that’s where we all meet to argue now. 

The enthusiastic talking heads of sports radio generations before are joined by the internet savvy YouTube content creators. Mars Blackmon, Gaylord Focker and Lisan al-Gaib trade stuffy Hollywood gatherings in order to lose their voice screaming at Josh Hart diving for loose balls. Even though we still can’t believe how damn expensive tickets are to see them up close, it’s the one team that unites the most culturally, financially and spiritually diverse city in the United States. It’s hard to find one thing that brings people together in this day and age, but one thing you can count on is that when you’re in Midtown, you walk fast and straight, your typical New Yorker is kind but not nice, and our basketball team wears blue and orange. More importantly than the history of the team, the numbers in the rafters, the ghosts of past highs and lows, is this year’s team. The New York Knicks of 2026 have had the luxury of the one thing that many millennial Knick fans and those younger have never experienced: expectations. In an even rarer feat, they’ve managed to live up to those lofty championship expectations (for the most part, outside of them boys in Detroit). 

Real fans, loosely translated into the struggling fans in this city’s dialect, have a chill sent up their spine at the mere thought of a world championship coming to this beautiful basketball city. Hell, eliminating the reigning champions last year resulted in scaled billboards, peaceful celebratory gatherings that were a flipped car away from a riot, and a bunch of New York’s finest even being uncharacteristically chill about the riotous enthusiasm. Larry O calling the five boroughs home would send this city into a constant state of emergency. And if they don’t? Well…who cares about that? This is a Knicks book, featuring Knicks stories, written and told by the greatest Knicks of all time and the fans who love them. A lot of times, we don’t realize we’re living in the good old days until they have long passed us by. So for now, let’s remember exactly where we are right at this moment. From Sidetalk videos to Alumni Row, we’re all united. This book, by way of the basketball, is a love letter to you, the long-suffering Knick fan. And if you need one thing to hold on to, if those negative thoughts creep into your head, just remember one thing: 

We’re due.