When Mangue Banzima arrived in New York at 17 from an African country — he prefers not to say which — the only thing that made him feel at home was the Knicks. He remembers wearing sneakers as a child like those of his idol Patrick Ewing. And when he arrived in the United States, he found a city where his basketball team was everywhere. Banzima’s arrival in New York coincided with something no Knicks fan will ever forget: they had just reached the NBA Finals, where they lost to the San Antonio Spurs. That was in 1999. It has not happened since in 27 years — until now, when the New Yorkers have finally qualified to compete for the famed ring, for which they will face the Spurs again. After so many disappointments, the success of a team used to failure has infected the whole city with euphoria.

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In the heart of Manhattan, between Sixth Avenue and 50th Street, Prince’s song 1999 blared from the speakers of Radio City Music Hall. Hundreds of New York Knicks fans gathered amid the concrete jungle, the noise and neon lights, minutes after their team’s 11th straight playoffs win. Their 130-93 rout of the Cleveland Cavaliers to sweep the Eastern Conference final 4-0 was no ordinary victory. Twenty-seven years later, and for the first time in the 21st century, the Knicks are once again in an NBA Finals. The challenge ahead is enormous: to win the franchise’s first title in more than half a century, the only two championships in its history still frozen in black and white in 1970 and 1973.

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