The Knicks’ Game 4 win should have belonged to basketball. It should have been about the comeback, the noise, the orange-and-blue flood around Madison Square Garden and a city suddenly one win away from a championship dream.
Instead, one of the ugliest stories of the Finals emerged from the chaos outside the arena.
According to police and local reports, the NYPD is searching for a suspect after a 17-year-old boy was badly beaten near Madison Square Garden following the Knicks’ Game 4 win over the San Antonio Spurs. The incident reportedly happened late Wednesday night on West 35th Street, after a verbal altercation involving a live streamer shouting “Spurs in 7” escalated into violence.
Police have released images of a suspect wearing what has been described as a referee-style hoodie, while investigators continue to look into the attack and others who may have been involved. The teenager was taken to Bellevue Hospital after suffering serious injuries. Reports said he had a seizure and fell into a coma; later reporting described him as critically but stably hospitalized.
It is a horrible counterpoint to what had been one of the most dramatic nights in Knicks history. New York had just erased a massive deficit to beat San Antonio 107-106 and take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. The Garden shook, the streets filled, and for a few hours Manhattan felt like the center of the basketball universe.
But celebration is not a license for violence. Rival chants are part of sports. Trash talk is part of sports. Passion is part of sports. A teenager ending up in a hospital bed is not.
