Knicks’ playoff run sparks citywide frenzy and millions in economic activity

New York’s long-suffering basketball obsession briefly became a citywide civic project as the Knicks reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. Manhattan streets were temporarily co-named for Knicks players during the playoff run, turning orange-and-blue pride into something the city could read at corner level, while City Hall said the home games had already generated an estimated $195 million in economic activity.

The numbers pointed to a postseason with unusually broad reach. City officials projected that each additional home playoff game would add about $91 million in economic activity, putting the full Knicks run at as much as $832 million if the team played all possible home dates in the Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals. That forecast put restaurants, bars and workers across the five boroughs at the center of the story, not just Madison Square Garden.

The emotional force behind the surge came from how long New York had waited. The Knicks were founded in 1946, won championships in 1970 and 1973, and had not reached the NBA Finals since the 1999-2000 season. Their 2025 trip to the East finals marked the franchise’s first appearance in that round since 2000, a milestone that made the city’s reaction feel less like a normal sports run than a shared public release.

The matchup with Indiana only sharpened the stakes. The Knicks and Pacers met in the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth time, and it was the first such series between them since 2000, when Indiana beat New York and advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. The teams’ broader playoff history had now stretched to nine series, a reminder of how much of this rivalry had been built in tense May and June basketball.

Across Manhattan, the temporary street names, official watch-party sites and packed bars gave the postseason a civic texture that crossed neighborhoods and generations. Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Economic Development Corporation cast the run as both emotional lift and economic engine, and for a city still measured in boroughs and class lines, the Knicks supplied one of the rare moments when the same game was visible everywhere at once.