One win away from glory, Knicks fans don’t want to miss the moment — or jinx it

For 53 years, Knicks fans have endured heartbreak, bad luck and countless “maybe next years.” Now, with New York one game away from its first NBA championship, many fans aren’t taking any chances. They are performing rituals, avoiding live broadcasts and waiting anxiously for the result to go in their favor. New York City is spotted orange and blue with fans focused on one mission: bringing the NBA Finals trophy back home. On Saturday morning ahead of Game 5, fans flocked to a specially painted subway exit, a communal sign of the entire city willing the Knicks to win. While fans hope the celebration begins Saturday night, they know the series is not over. Trishna Sharma, from Long Island, has been a lifelong Knicks fan. Since the playoffs, she has been doing a special Hindu ritual to ward off the “evil eye,” something her mother did before her wedding. Using salt, mustard seeds and a picture of the team, Sharma places the ingredients in her hand and moves her fist clockwise seven times around the image to invite positive energy. A similar ritual, with her hand going counterclockwise, can be done to ward of negative energy, she said. At the end of the rituals, one is supposed to burn the ingredients to get rid of the negative energy. Sharma won’t be able to do the burning from the bar where she’ll be watching the next game, but she does plan to discard them somehow. “I’ll have enough [ingredients] prepared for if I need to do the second ritual at halftime, as well,” Sharma said. She has started each game of the playoffs doing the ritual and is prepared to continue it into the next season, regardless of how this championship series ends up. “Through thick and thin, I will support this team, not just when they’re winning,” Sharma said. “I think those types of fans are what makes the team so special.” Winnonah Foster has waited decades to see the Knicks win a championship again. She was 19 the last time they won a championship. Now 72, she thinks witnessing another title, this time with children of her own, will feel all the more special. “I’ll be crying. I really would be crying — happiness, really,” Foster said. “I think this is it. The sports, basketball, the Knicks winning, it’s going to be phenomenal.” Even new fans have gotten the bug and found camaraderie. Hiris Faozan has lived in Queens for the past decade but has only gotten into the Knicks in the past two weeks. Seeing Knicks flags in his neighborhood got him to learn more, and now he’s joined the crowd. “Suddenly, every time you go any places, you wear the jersey. And suddenly they, you know, [are] like your friends,” Faozan said. You won’t catch him at any watch parties, though. He believes that when he’s watched live, the team has lost — and he’s not chancing it. “I’m not going to watch it live, even on TV right now,” Faozan said. “Just going to read the good news after that.” Other fans are hopeful that Game 5 will be the right environment for a win. The only loss the Knicks had in the past month was Game 3, a game that also had a special guest in attendance in the form of President Donald Trump. Some fans felt the additional security and restrictions to access Madison Square Garden dampened some of the spirit for the first Finals home game in 27 years. Despite the players saying that Trump’s presence didn’t play a factor in their loss, not all fans are convinced. “I felt there was some juju in that stadium, in Madison Square Garden, that took us off our game,” said Tracey Walker, who’s been a fan since Willis Reed’s era. “We were off, and the refs weren’t for us at all.” Celebrity fans have their own rituals, too. A highly watched wardrobe item of Jordyn Woods, the fiancée of Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns, was a custom orange bag from her clothing brand. She started bringing the bag to each game day rather than switching it up, with fans dubbing it her lucky bag. However, she couldn’t bring it to Game 3 due to security restrictions. When she brought it back on Game 4, the Knicks won. “My orange bag is getting so much attention—it’s amazing because it is my brand — but it also feels like a lot of pressure! Everyone kind of made it this phenomenon,” Woods told Vogue. Ben Stiller told ESPN prior to the Game 4 win that he and his wife burned all of their clothes from Game 3. “That game was an anomaly as far as I’m concerned,” Stiller said. This has been a great time for bringing together Knicks fans and everyone across the boroughs. For Dillon Chance, from Brooklyn, who was born into the fandom through his mom, the collective support is what will bring the title. “The only thing I really want to happen is they need to just orange and blue this whole sky,” Chance said. “I feel like they do that, dub.” [Image text:] NEWYORK NEW YORK FOREVE NEWYORK NEWYORK EY