New Delhi, June 8 -- the grief of a city that remembers what it felt like to matter in June, and has spent every June since wondering if it ever would again. On Monday night, that grief dissolves. The New York Knicks host Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals, leading the San Antonio Spurs two games to none, and the world's most famous arena will finally, improbably, host basketball's most consequential stage for the first time since the summer of 1999.

a loss, as it happened, to these same Spurs. The franchise has carried that footnote ever since. It carries something different now.

The Knicks took Games 1 and 2 on the road, overcoming a 14-point third-quarter deficit in the opener to win 105-95, then nearly surrendering a 14-point lead of the...