“The Knicks being in the Finals is like the moon landing,” a deli owner in Ditmas Park told me while setting up a TV outside his storefront on Monday. We are currently witnessing the impossible: Seemingly everyone in New York is doing the same thing at the same time. Tickets are too expensive, but the Knicks’ championship run against the Spurs is appointment viewing, so the entire city has become the screen
You can’t walk more than a few blocks without running into an ad hoc viewing party, hearing an outburst of enthusiasm from an illuminated living room, or seeing a spillover group hovering outside a bar with the game on. Restaurant checks must be paid and tables cleared before 8:30 tip-offs. Karaoke plans have been canceled, along with bedtime. Seeing it live, preferably in a crowd, is an imperative.
