Knicks reach first Eastern Conference finals in 25 years, ignite New York

For a city starved for a common joy, the Knicks finally gave New York one. A 119-81 rout of the defending champion Boston Celtics in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden on May 16, 2025, sent the franchise to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since May 2000 and turned a long-simmering hope into a public citywide surge.

The run mattered because it was bigger than a playoff bracket. New York had not reached the conference finals in 25 years, and the Knicks had not made the playoffs in three straight seasons since 2011-2013. Jalen Brunson remained the face of the revival, with OG Anunoby helping anchor a roster that finally made the team feel relevant in every borough, across generations, and well beyond the usual basketball circles.

The city responded like it had been waiting for this exact release. Mayor Eric Adams temporarily co-named several Manhattan street corners after Knicks players, and MSG Sports said the entire city had the team’s back. Fans crowded outside Madison Square Garden and packed watch parties as the building shook with chants after the Celtics clincher, a reminder that the Knicks still function as one of the few institutions in New York capable of pulling together people who otherwise share little except the same skyline.

The Eastern Conference finals revived one of the franchise’s most loaded rivalries, with the Indiana Pacers meeting New York in the same round the Knicks last reached in 2000. Indiana won the series 4-2, but not before the matchup delivered the kind of swings that made the city believe for a while that this could become more than a nostalgic run. The Pacers opened with a 138-135 overtime win in Game 1 on May 21, then the Knicks answered with a 111-94 victory in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden on May 29 to force a sixth game.

Indiana closed it out with a 125-108 win in Game 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on May 31. Pascal Siakam, who was named Eastern Conference finals MVP, led the Pacers as Tyrese Haliburton and Rick Carlisle guided the franchise into the NBA Finals. New York fell short, but the scale of the reaction in Manhattan showed how deeply the run had reached into the city’s mood.

In a season when civic life often feels fractured, the Knicks offered something rare: a shared, nonpolitical point of pride that cut across class, borough, and age. The ending was one round short of a championship, but the emotional opening was unmistakable.