Knicks championship – On Monday, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel turned their late-night stages into Knicks victory rooms, from Wu-Tang Clan performances and trophy introductions to jokes about New York’s street-level chaos after the team’s first NBA champi
New York was still buzzing when the late-night hosts clocked in—and for Monday’s shows, the assignment was clear: celebrate a Knicks win that finally arrived after 53 years.
Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel each carved out time on their respective programs to mark the team winning its first NBA Championship in 53 years with their own New York Knicks celebration parties.
On NBC’s The Tonight Show. Fallon brought the champion Knicks in as special guests for Monday’s episode. after the show “stole” them from its rivals by securing the team. Fallon walked on in orange tie energy and teased the moment with a line from his monologue: “of course. it’s the Knicks so they won’t really show up till the second half.”.
The celebration had all the markers of a Knicks night in the city. Fallon said the audience was made up of Knicks superfans. and that the musical guests were Staten Island legends the Wu-Tang Clan. He watched the crowd erupt into an impromptu “Let’s Go Knicks!” chant and remarked. “It sounds like Game 5 in San Antonio in here!”.
Spike Lee—described as the Knicks’ No.1 booster—joined Fallon on stage to introduce the trophy-wielding team. The home crowd cheered back at the familiar faces as Fallon split the main interview segment in two.
In the first interview. Fallon spoke to NBA Finals MVP and Knicks captain Jalen Brunson. along with starting forward Karl Anthony Towns (KAT) and coach Mike Brown. Fallon began by reminding the audience that the last time Brunson appeared on The Tonight Show. he promised that if the Knicks won the championship he would bring the trophy to the show on his next visit. “He’s a man of his word,” Fallon said.
Brunson admitted winning hadn’t fully sunk in yet. From there, KAT and Brunson talked about what it felt like to play in Madison Square Garden during Games 3 and 4 of the Finals—the noise, the energy, and the way the arena seemed to rise as victory got closer.
“When we get the fans involved, and we give them something to cheer for it’s something special,” KAT said.
Fallon couldn’t resist the sports-superstition angle. He asked about KAT’s fiancee Jordyn Woods and her lucky game-day “Tux Clutch Mini” bag. He also brought up the WWE wrestler Danhausen. who “uncursed” the Knicks before the Finals. and asked Brunson whether he believed that’s what happened. “At first I was a little skeptical, but you have to believe it now,” Brunson joked.
The second interview on The Tonight Show shifted to more playful chemistry with Knicks small forward Josh Hart. guard Mikal Bridges. and forward OG Anunoby. Fallon opened with OG’s tip—described as the one that “secured an unlikely and historic come-from-behind victory in Game 4.” “I saw a man flying. ” Bridges said about the “crazy play. ” praising OG’s athleticism and ball control on the seemingly impossible shot.
That segment stayed light after that, leaning into OG’s memeable stoic personality and Hart repeatedly untying Fallon’s sneakers during actual Finals games.
The Tonight Show ended with a spirited set from the Wu-Tang Clan, and the celebration carried its own backstory. The Knicks’ fans. the piece says. will tell you the group truly uncursed the team after Donald Trump’s visit for Game 3 and after a horrendous first half in Game 4. The Wu-Tang half-time performance during that Game 4 run in the Garden came before the comeback.
Two more nights-worth of Knicks joy spilled into other late-night stages.
On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart teased he was going to “focus the entirety of the show today on the complexity of what a new nuclear enrichment inspection regime will look like,” but the joke landed before it could drag the mood down.
Stewart kicked off Monday’s episode by recapping the lively chaos that unfolded across New York City Saturday night. He described the viral footage showing people “losing their minds” in the streets. then pivoted into the detail that made the moment real: the man featured in the clip worked there. Stewart revealed that it was Scott Hercman, one of The Daily Show’s writers.
Hercman later appeared on stage with Stewart, still sitting on someone’s shoulders, just like in the viral video of him celebrating on Saturday. “I’m very superstitious, so I’m up here until next year’s finals,” Hercman quipped.
Stewart continued, saying it was “an incredible night all across the city,” with everyone out celebrating in the streets, and in the subways too. He said there were drum lines, bagpipes, and fireworks. He also pointed out “an MTA bus driver breaking it down.”
Then came the Marvel comparison: Stewart said there were “appearances by the entire NYCU,” referencing the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He joked about Spider-Man—“There was Spider-Man and there was also Spider-Man and then there was, of course. Spider-Man and oh no, Spider-Man”—and then bounced back to Batman and more Spider-Man.
Stewart also added that later in the episode he poked fun at himself after posting a video to his own social media over the weekend showing his joyous reaction to the game’s results. The video showed him at an outdoor watch party with friends and family.
“There was truly no place I would have rather been than right on the streets of New York. ” Stewart joked. then shouted out what he called the “unsung MVPs of the night”: the people who projected the game onto the sides of buildings from fire escapes. He ended with thanks to the “always MVPs who keep this city safe and clean for the rest of us to enjoy.”.
Across town, Jimmy Kimmel Live! leaned into the aftermath—and the city’s unpredictability.
Kimmel opened his Monday night monologue with “the best five-game NBA Finals series ever.” After listing all the “post-Game 5 stabbings. injuries and arrests” in the aftermath of the Knicks’ win. he joked about the fear that “Mayor Mamdani was going to destroy New York. ” insisting no one would have guessed the celebration would be driven by Knicks fans.
Then he played a clip of Knicks fans getting “a little too rowdy,” including destroying school buses and putting Elmo’s head on a spike. “You know you’re in a festive mood when you set fire to a school bus, and nobody has a problem at all!” Kimmel said.
On Late Night, Seth Meyers dedicated the first half of his “Closer Look” segment to the Finals win.
“I don’t know where you’re watching tonight. but wherever you are. I guarantee it’s not as much fun as New York City is right now. ” Meyers said. He described the city as “a cross between Mardi Gras. Coachella. and that rave from The Matrix. ” naming the Knicks alongside “World Cup Fever” and the “Puerto Rican Day parade. ” plus block parties and watch parties. He even pointed to the odd visual of “guys balancing trash cans on their heads for some reason.”.
Meyers added that Spike Lee had been visible in the streets, saying you could see Lee being paraded through a raucous crowd like “basketball Santa Claus.” He credited Lee for “so publicly sticking with the Knicks through feast and mainly famine.”
“It all feels bigger than just sports,” Meyers said.
He painted the city as if it were a transit map of celebration—saying that if you’re in New York City. whether you live there or you’re visiting. you could “jump on the F train” and at any moment be surrounded by people in Knicks gear or Brazil gear or Morocco gear. and even Mets gear. If you’re abroad and don’t know the Mets logo. he joked. “it’s the one on the hats of the sad people.”.
Across four different stages. one thing kept returning in the jokes and the cheers: the Knicks’ win didn’t just end a season—it rewired the city’s mood. The celebrations were loud. the scenes were messy. the superstition was real. and the message was unmistakable in every tone—from Fallon’s trophy-to-the-show promise to Stewart’s street-level parade energy to Kimmel’s reminder that the party came with consequences. and Meyers’ insistence that in New York. sports can feel like something more.
New York Knicks late night Jimmy Fallon Jon Stewart Seth Meyers Jimmy Kimmel Wu-Tang Clan Spike Lee Jalen Brunson Karl Anthony Towns OG Anunoby Josh Hart Mikal Bridges NBC The Daily Show Late Night Jimmy Kimmel Live NBA championship