On May 8, 1970, an injured Willis Reed emerged from the Madison Square Garden tunnel and limped onto the floor before Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The crowd erupted. “Here comes Willis! The crowd is going wild!” broadcaster Marv Albert famously called as Reed scored the Knicks’ first four points and inspired the franchise’s first championship. More than five decades later, New York finally has another championship memory worthy of sharing space with Reed’s famous walk onto the Garden floor.

Jalen Brunson and the Knicks ended the franchise’s 53-year title drought on Saturday, triggering celebrations across the city and immediately sparking a question that once would have sounded ridiculous: Should New York eventually build Brunson a statue?

Now that Brunson has delivered a championship, the conversation has returned in a much more serious form. Appearing on New Yorker Live, Mayor Zohran Mamdani was asked whether a statue could become reality. “I can’t make that promise. I can’t promise.”

The question itself is hardly new. When Brunson signed a team-friendly contract extension in 2024, sacrificing future earnings to give the Knicks greater roster flexibility, teammate Josh Hart posted a simple reaction on social media: “Build him a statue.”

A statue would involve far more than a mayoral blessing. Any monument near Madison Square Garden would likely require cooperation between the Knicks, MSG Entertainment, city authorities, and private funding partners. History also suggests patience would be required. Dirk Nowitzki waited 11 years after Dallas’ 2011 championship before receiving his statue, while Kobe Bryant’s first Lakers statue was unveiled eight years after his final NBA game.

Even more significantly, Madison Square Garden has never embraced athlete statues as part of its identity. Knicks legends such as Patrick Ewing, Willis Reed, and Walt “Clyde” Frazier are immortalized in the rafters rather than in bronze outside the arena. Despite housing some of basketball’s most iconic figures, the Garden has never erected a statue for a player. A Brunson statue would represent a dramatic departure from how the franchise has traditionally honored its icons.

The championship run has already produced tangible benefits for the city. According to estimates from the New York City Economic Development Corporation, each additional Knicks home playoff game generated roughly $90 million in economic activity. Mamdani argued the impact goes beyond dollars and cents, saying New Yorkers see their own values reflected in the team.

Mamdani has repeatedly framed the championship as a collective achievement rather than the work of one superstar. In his view, the team’s greatest accomplishment was bringing New Yorkers together around a shared source of joy.

“I think what’s beautiful is that oftentimes, in our City, that sense of unity comes together in a moment of tragedy,” Mamdani added. “It’s a beautiful thing that it’s coming in a moment of joy.”

Mamdani expressed a similar sentiment elsewhere, saying the Knicks had transformed “the world’s greatest city into the world’s greatest small town, where not only are we all thinking about the same thing, but we’re all praying for the same thing.”

New York City is preparing to celebrate Jalen Brunson & Co

“On Thursday, we’ll have a ceremony at City Hall, presenting keys to the city to the Knicks team. Then we’ll have the parade. It’s just an incredible moment,” Mamdani said.

The celebration will mark the Knicks’ third NBA championship and their first since 1973. Unlike the franchise’s title teams of 1970 and 1973, which were honored through smaller City Hall ceremonies, Brunson’s group will receive the organization’s first ticker-tape parade through the Canyon of Heroes.

Millions are expected to line the Canyon of Heroes between Battery Place and City Hall for what will be the first ticker-tape parade in Knicks franchise history. Afterward, Mayor Mamdani will hand the keys to the city to the team and Finals MVP Jalen Brunson. Meanwhile, the David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building and Brooklyn Borough Hall will glow blue and orange on Thursday, June 18.

“For more than 50 years, New Yorkers have waited for this moment. Through near misses, heartbreak and a hope that every year could be our year, this city never stopped believing in the Knicks,” Mamdani said.

In a franchise that once measured greatness through Willis Reed, Walt Frazier and Patrick Ewing, the Finals MVP has already secured his own chapter. Whether that chapter eventually ends in bronze is a question New York can afford to debate later.