00:00My fellow New Yorkers, for 53 long years we have watched and we have waited.
00:10We have watched from nosebleeds and through gritted teeth, on televisions in the windows of electronic stores, and from projectors
00:19balanced on fire escapes.
00:21We have watched alone in our apartments with our heads in our hands, shoulder-to-shoulder at bars where the
00:27signal flickers, alongside friends and family who we wish more than anything could be here today, sharing this moment.
00:36For 53 long years we have watched the Knicks and we have waited.
00:40We waited as the memory of Willis Reed winning the championship on one leg grew fainter and fainter.
00:46We waited as Clyde came up clutch again and again, as John Starks dunked on Jordan and Patrick Ewing dunked
00:54on the Pacers, as Bernard King scored 60, as Charles Oakley pulled every rebound within reach, as Spike got in
01:06Reggie Miller's face, as Alan Houston put up a shot against Miami that hung in the air for an eternity,
01:14As Larry Johnson gave us the four-point play heard around New York, as Starbury traded threes with Kobe and
01:21then sold sneakers every kid could afford,
01:24As Nate Robinson stuffed Yao Ming, as the city came alive watching Linsanity, and as Melo lived every Brooklyn dreams
01:34when he came home and made MSG feel like the center of the universe once again.
01:41We waited without ever knowing if this day would come, and we waited because we knew deep down in our
01:47six suffering hearts that it would.
01:50New York City, this team has done it.
01:53The New York Knicks are NBA champions.
02:00We are here not just because of this team that will go down in New York City legend.
02:06I'm talking about guys like Ronaldo Bauchman, Marty Collins, Raymond Felton, Marcus Camby, Kristaps Porzingis, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert,
02:15and the whole Knicks tape era.
02:17I'm talking about guys like Tony Douglas, who I watched tie the single-game franchise record for threes from the
02:23stands in 2011.
02:25I'm talking about Amari, who got this whole city fired up when he joined.
02:30And I'm talking about Jared Jeffries and Lance Thomas and Langston Galloway,
02:35players who gave everything every game, even when a 20-win season was all that was in sight.
02:41This championship belongs to them, too, because championships aren't just built in one season.
02:47It belongs to Emmanuel Quickly, R.J. Barrett, Dante DiVincenzo, Julius Randle,
02:55and also to a coach who helped lay the groundwork, Tom Thibodeau.
03:00Thanks to each of these New Yorkers and too many others to name,
03:04New York City has just had two of the most magical months in as long as any of us can
03:09remember.
03:09Over these past weeks, as the Knicks kept winning, our city has come together as one.
03:17Neighbors invited neighbors over.
03:20Strangers high-fived one another in the street.
03:23Subway conductors sang their announcements and bus drivers danced behind the wheel.
03:28So often when this city comes together, it is because we are forced to,
03:32by a moment of tragedy or adversity.
03:34What a gift it is to be brought together by pure, unfiltered joy.
03:43For as long as we live, we will remember this feeling of a city together.
03:48A city alive.
03:49A city overcome by happiness.
03:52But let's not pretend that this was inevitable.
03:55If you will allow me, I want to travel back in time, eight days.
03:59Game four.
04:00Nine minutes and 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
04:04The Knicks are down 20.
04:06The analytics guys, the sports betting companies, the pundits who watch from far away,
04:11they do what they do.
04:13They run the numbers.
04:14They calculate the odds.
04:16They write the Knicks off.
04:18They give the Spurs a 99.6% chance of winning the game.
04:25A 99.6% chance of tying up the series 2-2.
04:29Of reclaiming the momentum with the next game in San Antonio.
04:33A 99.6% chance of silencing the garden.
04:37Of another year of watching and waiting.
04:40But there is one thing that the pundits just don't get about this team.
04:43That they just don't get about this city.
04:46It is in that 0.4% that we go to work.
04:52It is in that 0.4% that Jalen Brunson, the same guy that so many said was too small,
05:00proves that not only is he good enough, he is the new standard for greatness.
05:08It is in that 0.4% that O.G. Ananobi
05:15watches the ball float from the top of the arc
05:17and start running toward the basket, fingers reaching towards the heavens.
05:22It is in that 0.4% that Carl Anthony Towns
05:30finds the strength to mourn his mother and still pull in rebound after rebound.
05:35Make block after block.
05:38It is in that 0.4% that Jose Alvarado shows every kid
05:45growing up in public housing that a son of Brooklyn and Queens
05:49can win for every one of the five boroughs.
05:55It is in that 0.4% that Mitch breaks his finger before game one and says,
06:00go get the tape.
06:02It is in that 0.4% that Josh Hart gets rebounds that break teams.
06:09That McCall Bridges proves he was worth every single draft pick.
06:16That Landry Schammett pulls up from downtown.
06:22That every one of these 18 players transforms the franchise.
06:27That Mike Brown keeps this team believing.
06:34Most of all, it's in that 0.4% that the Knicks do what New Yorkers have always done
06:40when we are told something is impossible.
06:43We find a way.
06:44We win.
06:47Standing here before what feels like the entire city,
06:51there is a Jalen Brunson quote I can't stop thinking about.
06:58I'm going to tell you.
07:00You are allowed to think about the worst possible scenario.
07:04But you got to go out there and do something about it.
07:10When Jalen Brunson took that pay cut, my friends, that was doing something about it.
07:16Time after time, we thought about the worst possible scenario.
07:20And time after time, the Knicks went out there and did something about it.
07:25The Knicks did not just win for New York City.
07:28They won like New York City.
07:32What is New York if not your back up against the wall?
07:35A dream that feels just out of reach.
07:38A rent payment you don't know how you'll ever make.
07:40What is New York if not 99.6% of the world stacked against you?
07:46And who are New Yorkers if not people who hear those odds and smile?
07:51Who look at a 0.4% chance of success and ask,
07:54why are you giving me a head start?
07:57This is our city.
07:58This is our team.
07:59For 53 years, we watched.
08:03For 53 years, we waited.
08:05Now, we've won.
08:10One last time, New York, say it with me.
08:13Nixon!
08:15Nixon!
08:17Nixon!
08:19So much.
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