NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The day after the New York Knicks mounted the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history, Salaar Rabbani lined up bright and early at a pop-up store near Madison Square Garden, hoping to scoop up as much exclusive Nike merchandise as he could.
“I don’t have to worry too much about budget,” said Rabbani, 25, who works in sales and trading at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “I’m just gonna grab as many as I can and swipe the card and just whatever it is, it is.”
A lifelong Knicks fan from Harlem, Rabbani said that he took the day off for a LASIK eye-surgery appointment and arrived at the store three hours before it opened. He’d been there Wednesday as well, but the Knicks’ momentous 107-106 Game 4 win over the San Antonio Spurs inspired him to return.
Salaar Rabbani in line for the NikeNYC Knicks pop-up. Kenneth Bachor/Bloomberg
Rabbani is far from alone. Knicks fans have been snapping up team swag, whether from the official team outlet or the NBA Store in Midtown, or from enterprising makers of unlicensed gear who have seemed to pop up on every street corner. And the Knicks’ breathtaking playoff push has become a money-making opportunity for businesses all over town, from bars and restaurants hosting watch parties to bakeries and bagel shops serving up Knicks-inspired confections.
Zabar’s is selling blue-and-orange cookies, a riff on the classic black-and-white treat the legendary Upper West Side food store and deli has sold for years. Downtown, Tompkins Square Bagels is selling the Brunson Bodega Bagel sandwich, a tribute to the team’s gritty point guard, with eggs, cheese, hash browns and spicy mayo on an everything bagel, toasting optional. Broad Nosh Bagels & Catering in Midtown is making dozens of blue-and-orange bagels everyday, and Tall Poppy in Chelsea has Knicks cinnamon rolls on offer, with orange glaze and blue drizzle.
Barachou, a pastry shop with two locations in Upper Manhattan, created custom Knicks cream puffs with an edible sugar logo on top, and since introducing them on June 3 have sold 200 boxes — a big windfall for a local business.
“It’s something fun around food, so people are really happy,” said Rebecca Tison, 35, the owner of Barachou. “It’s a super nice gift when you go to a watch party.”
All told, the Knicks’ championship run is expected to leave a deep financial footprint in the city. Home games during the Finals — there have been two so far, and a third is possible next week if the Knicks lose Game 5 on Saturday in San Antonio — could generate as much as $263 million in economic activity across New York if all three take place, according to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s press office.
The Knicks have made a habit of staging improbable comebacks in these playoffs. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, they erased a 22-point, late fourth-quarter deficit with a frenzied run that pushed the game to overtime and a 115-104 win. In each of the first two games of the Finals in San Antonio, the Knicks let the Spurs open up double-digit leads before ultimately prevailing.
Wednesday’s escape, however, was of another order of magnitude. Down by as many as 29 points in the third quarter, the Knicks fought their way back, winning thanks to an OG Anunoby tip-in of a missed three-point shot by Jalen Brunson.
“TIP OF THE WORLD,” screamed the back page of the next morning's New York Post. With the win, the Knicks took a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series, putting them one victory away from their first title since 1973.
Myron Brown, who’d traveled to New York from Orlando on Thursday morning, said he got off his flight and headed straight to the Garden. He found that the team store had already run out of Anunoby jerseys in all but the largest sizes.
Hours after the final whistle, a white Anunoby home Finals jersey was being sold for $500 on eBay. A Brunson jersey with the Finals patch was going for nearly $600 on the auction site.
The NikeNYC Knicks popup in New York on June 11.Kenneth Bachor/Bloomberg
Shiraz Jafri, a 27-year-old Long Island native who has lived in New York City for five years, can’t get enough of the Knicks. He was at the Garden for Wednesday night’s last-second win over the Spurs, having spent almost $6,000 for tickets, food, merchandise — and a small, well-timed bet on the Knicks when they were down by 29 points.
The steep odds “pretty much paid for my ticket,” said Jafri, who works in commercial real estate and was at the NBA Store in Midtown on Thursday. “It was the coolest sporting event of my life.”
Outside of the Garden on Thursday, New York-based Levain Bakery was handing out 50 free cookies in Knicks-themed packaging.
“The Knicks is an iconic New York team, so I think just being able to go out there and support New York in general and go beyond just ourselves and the bakery was a big thing,” said Hailey Sands, Levain’s social-media coordinator.
Even before the Knicks began their sprint through this year’s Finals, there was a burgeoning trade in team merchandise online, and entrepreneurs who’d gotten into the game early were cashing in as demand for basically anything with the team logo on it skyrocketed.
Maria Dueñas Jacobs is the co-founder and chief creative officer of Super Smalls, a six-year-old craft and toy brand she describes as “Melissa & Doug meets Miu-Miu.” Super Smalls sells dress-up and pretend shoes, handbags and jewelry, and also offers bead kits and accessories customized for different Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association teams.
“This last week has been insane for us,” Dueñas Jacobs said. The company, based in Soho, is run by Knicks fans, including Dueñas Jacobs, 42. “As of yesterday, Knicks merchandise is our number one product.”
The brand, which sells a Knicks bead kit and blue Knicks headband, has experienced a 1,300% increase in purchases of team products month-over-month, including a 75% bump over the past week alone. Headbands are sold out. This week, Super Smalls rolled out a Knicks necklace.
“We were planning to launch at the start of next season, but when we saw the Knicks made the Finals, we moved up the launch date to yesterday,” she said.
Andrew Kuo, 48, is an artist who runs Cookies Hoops, a website and podcast that he produces with his friend, Ben Detrick. The pair, who wrote a book together called “The Joy of Basketball,” sell Knicks tees with Simpsons-style caricatures of the team's roster through their website. Kuo and Detrick don't do much to promote their merchandise, but this year, the brand broke out to a wider audience. The site’s Knicks tees are about to enter their fifth print run.
“It has broken containment this time because the Knicks are doing so great,” said Kuo.
A fan looks at bootleg Knicks merchandise in New York. Kenneth Bachor/Bloomberg
The great demand for a wide variety of merchandise among Knicks fans is a reflection of the city and its inhabitants’ individuality, Kuo suggested. Fans put their own individual spin on how they dress to support the team.
“What I really like is when people put together outfits that are totally Knicks-pilled but don’t have logos on them, so they’re wearing bright orange and bright blue from head to toe,” Kuo said. “It feels like a great compromise between holding your identity and hugging your neighbor.”
Knicks fans are now turning toward Texas and Game 5 at San Antonio’s Frost Bank Center on Saturday. The cheapest standing-room-only ticket on online marketplace TickPick is $1,488, down significantly from just after the conclusion of Wednesday’s game, when it spiked to more than $2,400.
Nearly half of all ticket purchases for Game 5 have come from New York and New Jersey, according to data shared by TickPick. Only 11.2% of Game 5 ticket purchases have come from Texas.
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