The Knicks Won Their First Title in 53 Years. Then Parts of New York Were Set on Fire.

For 53 years, New York waited. On Saturday night in San Antonio, the wait ended: the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs94–90 in Game 5 to win the 2026 NBA championship, the franchise’s first title since 1973. Jalen Brunson scored 45 points — a Knicks Finals record — and was named Finals MVP.

Then the celebration came home. Within hours, Midtown Manhattan and Times Square descended into a night of mayhem: a row of buses torched, police cars stomped and smashed, a 17-year-old shot in the foot, and officers pelted with bottles. By morning the NYPD reported 63 people arrested and 10 officers injured.

This is the accountability ledger for a championship night: the joy was real, and so was the destruction. The city is run by Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D)and policed under a department whose officers spent the night dodging glass and pulling fans off burning vehicles — days after the city’s own watch-party safety rules were mocked as the work of “party poopers.”

• 63 arrested — people taken into custody overnight across Manhattan in connection with the celebrations · Source: CNN, NBC News, NYPD
• 10 officers injured — NYPD members hurt — including one punched in the face and one struck in the head with a glass bottle, behavior police called 'reckless and dangerous' · Source: Fox News, Yahoo Sports
• 5 buses burned — school/charter buses — parked after shuttling fans to the World Cup in New Jersey — set ablaze or destroyed in Times Square · Source: AOL, CBS New York
• 5 police cars — NYPD vehicles damaged on Sixth Avenue; fans jumped on roofs and smashed windshields · Source: ABC News
• 1 teen shot — a 17-year-old shot once in the left foot near 42nd Street and Broadway around 2:01 a.m.; hospitalized in stable condition, firearm recovered · Source: Fox News, Newsweek
• 94–90 — the Game 5 score in San Antonio that gave the Knicks the franchise's first championship since 1973 · Source: NBA.com, ESPN

The basketball was the easy part to admire. Down 16 in San Antonio, the Knicks did what they had done all series — rally from a double-digit hole, in all four of their wins — and closed it out behind Jalen Brunson, who scored 13 straight New York points in the fourth quarter and finished with 45. The 4–1 series win delivered the title that had eluded the Knicks since Walt Frazier and Willis Reed in 1973, and Brunson took home the Bill Russell Trophy as Finals MVP.

Across the five boroughs, the reaction was instant and overwhelmingly joyful: car horns, fireworks, strangers hugging on subway platforms, an all-night party from Madison Square Garden to the far reaches of Queens and the Bronx. That is the celebration the city earned. What happened next, in a concentrated few blocks of Midtown, is the part with a price tag.

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As the final buzzer sounded, thousands streamed into Times Square. According to the NYPD and multiple outlets, the crowd quickly turned destructive: fans scaled scaffolding, light poles, and a statue, lit fireworks into the crowd, smashed a yellow cab, jumped onto the roofs of NYPD vehicles and broke their windshields, and — in one widely shared clip — tried to hitch a ride on a moving fire truck. Officers responded in riot gear and on horseback, ordering the crowd to disperse with batons and zip ties.

The night’s defining image was fire. Dozens of people climbed onto a row of buses parked near Times Square — vehicles that had spent the day shuttling fans to the FIFA World Cup in New Jersey — ripped off hoods, smashed windshields with bats, and set one alight. Officials said a total of five buses were burned or destroyed.

“This kind of reckless and dangerous behavior toward our officers will not be tolerated.”

NYPD statement on a celebration that left 10 officers injured · June 14, 2026

At roughly 2:01 a.m., gunfire cut through the crowd near 42nd Street and Broadway. A 17-year-old male was shot once in the left foot and taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. The NYPD said three persons of interest were taken into custody and a firearm was recovered at the scene; all are presumed innocent unless and until charged and convicted. Several outlets also reported slashings and stabbings amid the overnight crush, though the department said it would release consolidated totals later in the day.

The injuries to police were specific and documented: one officer punched in the face, another struck in the head by a thrown glass bottle. In all, ten NYPD members were hurt. The department’s public count by morning was 63 arrests— a tally officials cautioned could still move as cases were processed. The NYPD said the charges spanned assault on a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstruction of governmental administration — the kind of list that now lands on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s (D) desk.

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The torched buses were not random targets. They were part of the fleet ferrying spectators to the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches in New Jersey — the same tournament whose final will be played at MetLife Stadium next month, with the eyes of the planet on the New York metropolitan area. Burning World Cup shuttle buses in the most photographed intersection in America is the kind of image that travels, and it travels badly.

For a city that is about to host soccer’s biggest event, the optics are their own form of cost. The destruction was not only local property damage — it was a preview, broadcast worldwide, of how a major New York celebration can spill past the point of control.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), who took office in January 2026, had urged fans before Game 5 to “be responsible, look out for one another, stay safe, be smart,” and after an officer was assaulted earlier in the series said violence against police would not be tolerated. Prosecutions of those arrested fall to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D). Mamdani has announced a ticker-tape parade up the Canyon of Heroes and a City Hall ceremony to honor the team.

There is an irony worth naming. In the run-up to the clinching game, the city and the NYPD had tightened security and limited the outdoor watch party at Madison Square Garden, prompting Garden owner James Dolan to blast Mamdani and the police as “party poopers.” The championship night that followed validated the safety concern and indicted the result at the same time: the caution was warranted, and the streets still ended the night on fire. The open question for City Hall is whether the parade comes with a plan to prevent a repeat — and whether the 63 arrests produce charges or quietly dissolve into summonses.

The cost is concrete and itemized. Ten officers were injured doing crowd control on a night the city knew was coming. Five buses — public-facing vehicles tied to the World Cup — were destroyed. Five police cars were damaged. A teenager is in the hospital with a gunshot wound. And 63 people who could have simply celebrated a once-in-a-generation championship are instead in the system, their cases now a test of whether Manhattan’s justice apparatus treats championship-night arson and assault as the crimes they are.

The Knicks earned a parade. New York earned a question it has dodged before: why does a great night so reliably end with burning vehicles and bloodied officers, and what, beyond a pre-game plea to “be smart,” is the plan to change it? We will update this page as the NYPD releases final arrest and injury totals and as the District Attorney announces charges.

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Last updated June 14, 2026