NEW YORK (AP) — The song selection at the New York Knicks' watch party couldn't have been more obvious.
Minutes after the Knicks finished their four-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals, the DJ at Radio City Music Hall played Prince's “1999.”
That was the last time the Knicks had reached the NBA Finals. And as fans sang along to, “So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999,” they could forget the more than a quarter of a century of mostly bad years since and enjoy the record-setting run the current team is on.
“There is no precedent right now as far as point differential. That’s how good this Knicks team is,” said Ari Levine, who was carrying part of a broom as the Knicks swept their second straight series.
He's right. The Knicks have outscored Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cleveland by a combined 262 points during their playoff winning streak, the largest margin in any 11-game span in NBA history.
They will try to continue it against Oklahoma City or San Antonio in the NBA Finals. Fans seemed to have a clear preference for Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs as they poured out of the famous Manhattan venue onto city streets, chanting “We want Wemby! We want Wemby!”
But whether it's him or the defending champion Thunder, Knicks fans believe the run will continue.
“We're taking everything! We're taking the whole thing!" rapper Fat Joe posted on Instagram from the court in Cleveland, where he was one of the Knicks' celebrity fans who made the trip.
It wasn't that long ago when fans had no reason for such confidence. The Knicks went 17-65 in 2018-19, the worst record in the league, during a stretch when they had a losing record for seven straight seasons.
“That year we won 17 games I thought we had reached rock bottom,” longtime fan Anthony Mills said at the Radio City party. "I wasn’t sure that we could ever get this back again."
He became a Knicks fan when Bernard King was playing for them in the mid-1980s, a decade removed from their second and most recent championship in 1973. The drought is now so long he believes if the Knicks end it this season, star guard Jalen Brunson would earn a spot among New York's most fabled champions.
“If Jalen Brunson wins this championship, he should be Joe Namath. And if you’re old enough, you understand what Joe Namath means," Mills said, referring to the iconic quarterback who guaranteed the New York Jets would beat the favored Baltimore Colts in the third Super Bowl in 1969, and then delivered.
Brunson's team, like Namath's, will be the underdog. But the Knicks sure aren't playing like one.
“This team is hungry and they know what it would mean to this city,” Mills said. “They’re going to win the championship.”
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Fans cheer during the first half of Game 4 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series between the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Tim Phillis)
New York Knicks players celebrate after a 3-pointer during the second half of Game 4 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
New York Knicks fans cheer during the second half of Game 4 in the Eastern Conference finals NBA basketball playoffs series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Tim Phillis)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Two planes carrying 19 Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State group landed in Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday, despite Australia's government warning that the returnees could face charges.
The government earlier confirmed seven women and 12 children were heading home on Qatar Airways flights, less than three weeks after a group of 13 people in similar situations returned to Australia’s two largest cities.
Two women with seven children flew to Melbourne. Four women with six children landed about an hour later in Sydney, news media reported.
It was no immediately apparent if any arrests were made at the airports.
Three of the four women on the earlier flights were charged with slavery and terrorism offenses and remain behind bars.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said anyone among the 19 on their way to Australia who has committed crimes "can expect to face the full force of the law.”
“The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” Burke said in a statement.
“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation,” he added.
Australian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and have long-standing plans in place to manage and monitor them, Burke said.
“The priority of the government, as always, is the safety of the Australian community,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had earlier old Parliament: “I have nothing but contempt for anyone who has any sympathy for ISIS,” referring to IS by an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
After the departure of the latest group, at least two Australians remain in Roj camp, a location in northeast Syria near the Iraq border where people linked to IS have been held since IS forces in the Middle East were defeated in 2019.
A mother who was prevented from returning to Australia in February by a temporary exclusion order did not not travel with the group.
The woman, who is aged around 29, had remained at Roj with her daughter who had been disabled by shrapnel wounds, The Australian newspaper reported.
She left her Sydney home at the age of 18 in 2015 to marry an IS fighter in Syria, the newspaper reported.
Their family has engaged a Sydney lawyer to challenge the order, which would bar the mother from Australia until February 2028.
Exclusion orders were created by laws introduced in 2019 to prevent defeated IS fighters from returning to Australia for up to two years.
The last Australian cohort returned from Syria on May 7, similarly without government help.
Kawsar Ahmed, also known Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed, 31, were arrested when they landed in Melbourne over allegations that their family had bought a female Yazidi slave.
Janai Safar, 32, was arrested at Sydney Airport when she arrived with her 9-year-old son on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization and with entering or remaining in a region controlled by a terrorist organization.
Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have returned quietly without government assistance.
FILE - Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (Lukas Coch/AAPImage via AP, File)
FILE - A group of supporters surround a woman and child with alleged ties to the Islamic State as they arrive at Melbourne international Airport, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP, File)
FILE - A group of supporters surround a woman and child with alleged ties to the Islamic State as they arrive at Melbourne international Airport, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP, File)
