If America is a creedal nation, New York, its one true See, is a creedal city. Thus, let us begin with a profession of faith:

My Mayor Muslim
My Bagel Jewish
The Pope’s on our side
Knicks in Five.

– Anonymous Prophet, 2026

New Yorkers are not known for their humility or orthodoxy. There is something to be said, however, for their piety. Fifty-three long years of suffering ended in mass catharsis on a beautiful spring Saturday night as the city streets were inundated with revelry across the five boroughs. The Knicks are the 2026 N.B.A. champions. And the parade in New York today may be the closest thing to heaven on earth.

Ignore the naysayers, the Boston sports fans, the Texas governors—this isn’t just another sports title. If ever there was an argument against sports as mere bread and circuses, opium for the masses or outlet for our warmaking impulses, this is it.

It’s not just that these Knicks won 16 of their last 17 games en route to their first title in two generations, or that they statistically had the best playoff run since 1956. It’s not just their historic comeback victories and indomitable competitive will, or that the team won a championship against an uber-athletic titan while being led by a small guard, proving countless doubters wrong. It is that this team was built on sacrifice and friendship and belief. This is sports as the highest expression of the human spirit—sports as moral education.

Jalen Brunson, upper right, during the ticker-tape parade for the New York Knicks on Broadway in New York’s “Canyon of Heroes,” June 18. Credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew

When the finals M.V.P. Jalen Brunson signed a contract extension with the Knicks in 2024, he did something utterly implausible in the hyper-individualistic culture that has defined the age of American decline. He left $100 million on the table. One. Hundred. Million. Dollars. He did so to give his team and this city a chance at achieving something great; the salary cap flexibility granted by Brunson’s selflessness enabled the Knicks to bring in All-N.B.A. center Karl-Anthony Towns and his former Villanova teammate Mikal Bridges. It allowed Brunson to reunite with his college buddies and, in the process, this team became greater than the sum of its parts.

While Madison Square Garden was exorbitantly expensive to get into for the two finals games played there, the Knicks themselves are social infrastructure. The whole city is their stadium, and this team, constructed with underdogs and outcasts, has made the “biggest city in the country” feel like “the smallest town in the world.” 

It is fitting that the one game this team lost on the way to immortality was when President Donald Trump was in attendance at Madison Square Garden.

It is also fitting that New Yorkers’ piety (and lack of humility) have manifested in a belief that the vicar of Christ himself helped will this team to a championship. Spike Lee wore his signed Pope Leo XIV jersey to the finals, and Leo took a photo with a Knicks jersey (number 14, of course) after they won. One report even suggests that the Knicks will seek a papal audience instead of visiting the White House. The Salesian sisters prayed, but the Augustinian alumni won. Make of that what you will.

Did Leo really rally behind his fellow Villanova alumni in Brunson, Bridges and Josh Hart? Who knows. But what’s not to love about a selfless, Chicago-born American and Villanova grad leading an organization that has gone through a lot of hardship in the last 50 years? 

Karl-Anthony Towns celebrates during the New York Knicks’ championship parade, June 18. Credit: AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

Zohran Mamdani drew a lot of flak, including from some Catholic voices, for cheering the end of “rugged individualism” and hailing the “warmth of collectivism” on his election night. But as I write this on my phone’s notes app while packed between the sweaty bodies of my fellow Knicks fans three hours before this ticker tape parade even begins, I have a very literal understanding of that warmth (and, unfortunately, its smell in the June humidity). 

And yet that airport feeling of irritation that often comes from being in a hectic crowd is surprisingly absent. Instead, I feel what The New York Times writer Matt Flegenheimer rightly termed “impossible joy” and, maybe more importantly, belief in and connection with my neighbor.

Are the Knicks going to save American democracy? Is Jalen Brunson the second coming? Are we never going to die?

Knicks in five.

Edward Desciak is an O'Hare Fellow at America Media.