NEW YORK (AP) — Christopher Morales came all the way from the Philippines, hoping to watch the New York Knicks in the playoffs.
The cost of a ticket into Madison Square Garden changed that plan. Luckily, there's a rocking way to catch the action that isn't near the celebrities sitting courtside, but it's also nowhere near courtside prices.
The free block party zone outside the arena swells with fans hours before the games, and serves as a launching point from where supporters can gather afterward when the Knicks win and start a celebration that spans several city blocks.
And what a party it was when the Knicks finished off the Boston Celtics with a 119-81 victory on Friday night in Game 6, sending them to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000.
“It was really crazy," said Brian Siaw, a New York native who now lives in nearby Newark, New Jersey. "I have been out here for all the watch parties this series. Honestly, the first time in my life I experienced this. I left home to come here to watch, just for the environment, the experience. To be honest, it’s amazing. If you are a New Yorker and you are home, I think you should experience one of the watch parties.”
The success the Knicks are enjoying after so many bad years has energized longtime fans and brought many new ones like Morales, who arrived in New York on the day of their victory in Game 4 of the series on Monday.
“I always watch on the television,” he said, “so that’s why I (came), just to watch the game.”
He was watching on one of the giant viewing screens located between 33rd and 34th St. The plaza opened two hours before the game to serve as a sort of pep rally, with prize giveaways and appearances by former players. The game telecast began a half hour before.
Many fans wore blue-and-orange Knicks jerseys, some bearing the names of John Starks and Latrell Sprewell, players from the beloved 1990s era when the Knicks were annual threats to contend for Eastern Conference championships. The No. 11 of Jalen Brunson, the Knicks' current superstar, appeared to be the most popular choice.
There were even some Celtics ones sprinkled in. One fan wearing Jayson Tatum's No. 0 was playfully stopped by a Knicks fan who asked the people around him if the man could stay.
“Is he good?” the fan asked.
The nearby fans indicated that he was OK — then booed him as he walked by.
Ticket prices have soared past $600 apiece on some sites just to get into MSG. Brunson, as the team captain, might have the clout to help, but don't bother trying.
“My good friends know not to ask,” he said earlier in the series.
Morales quickly got over any disappointment he had of not getting into the arena. The “Let's Go Knicks! Let's Go Knicks!” chants that were already ringing out long before tipoff indicated it was going to be plenty fun right where he was.
“This is my first time experiencing a block party here in New York,” he said.
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Fans watch a basketball game as they enjoy the New York Block Party outside Madison Square Garden before Game 6 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs Friday, May 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Fans watch entertainers at the New York Block Party outside Madison Square Garden before Game 6 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs Friday, May 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Fans enjoy the New York Block Party outside Madison Square Garden before Game 6 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs Friday, May 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The U.S. government admitted Wednesday that the actions of an air traffic controller and Army helicopter pilot played a role in causing the collision last January between an airliner and a Black Hawk near the nation's capital, killing 67 people.
It was the deadliest crash on American soil in more than two decades.
The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ families said that the government is liable in the crash partly because the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night. Plus, the filing said, the Army helicopter pilots' “failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid” the airline jet makes the government liable.
But the filing suggested that others, including the pilots of the jet and the airlines, may also have played a role. The lawsuit also blamed American Airlines and its regional partner, PSA Airlines, for roles in the crash, but those airlines have filed motions to dismiss.
And the government denied that any air traffic controllers or officials at the Federal Aviation Administration or Army were negligent.
At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter collided with the American Airlines regional jet while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport in northern Virginia, just across the river from Washington, D.C., officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew members, and three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
Robert Clifford, one of the attorneys for the family of victim Casey Crafton, said the government admitted “the Army’s responsibility for the needless loss of life” and the FAA’s failure to follow air traffic control procedures while “rightfully” acknowledging others –- American Airlines and PSA Airlines -– also contributed to the deaths.
The families of the victims “remain deeply saddened and anchored in the grief caused by this tragic loss of life,” he said.
The government's lawyers said in the filing that “the United States admits that it owed a duty of care to plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident.”
An American spokesman declined to comment on the filing, but in the airline's motion to dismiss, American said "plaintiffs’ proper legal recourse is not against American. It is against the United States government ... The Court should therefore dismiss American from this lawsuit.” The airline said that since the crash it has focused on supporting the families of the victims.
The National Transportation Safety Board will release its report on the cause of the crash early next year, but investigators have already highlighted a number of factors that contributed, including the helicopter flying 78 feet higher (24 meters) than the 200-foot (61-meter) limit on a route that allowed only scant separation between planes landing on Reagan's secondary runway and helicopters passing below. Plus, the NTSB said, the FAA failed to recognize the dangers around the busy airport even after 85 near misses in the three years before the crash.
The government admitted in its filing that the United States “was on notice of certain near-miss events between its Army-operated Black Hawk helicopters and aircraft traffic transiting in and around helicopter routes 1 and 4” around Washington.
Before the collision, the controller twice asked the helicopter pilots whether they had the jet in sight, and the pilots said they did and asked for visual separation approval so they could use their own eyes to maintain distance. FAA officials acknowledged at the NTSB’s investigative hearings that the controllers at Reagan had become overly reliant on the use of visual separation. That’s a practice the agency has since ended.
Witnesses told the NTSB that they have serious questions about how well the helicopter crew could spot the plane while wearing night vision goggles and whether the pilots were even looking in the right spot.
Investigators have said the helicopter pilots might not have realized how high they were because the barometric altimeter they were relying on was reading 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) lower than the altitude registered by the flight data recorder.
The crash victims included a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches who had just attended a competition in Wichita, Kansas, and four union steamfitters from the Washington area.
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FILE - Attorney Bob Clifford speaks during a news conference regarding the Jan. 29, 2025, mid-air collision between American Eagle flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter, at the National Press Club, Sept. 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
FILE - National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy speaks during the NTSB fact-finding hearing on the DCA midair collision accident, at the National Transportation and Safety Board boardroom, July 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
