A MASSIVE street celebration marking the New York Knicks first NBA championship title in over half a century degenerated into widespread rioting in Midtown Manhattan late on Saturday, leaving a teenager shot and multiple World Cup transport buses destroyed.
Thousands of jubilant basketball fans swarmed out of sports bars and public venues into the streets after the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the fifth game of the finals, securing their first championship since 1973.
The euphoric atmosphere turned hazardous in the early hours of Sunday morning when a dense crowd concentrated in Times Square converged with international soccer fans returning from a World Cup fixture.
The intersection of the two major sporting events triggered volatile street unrest, prompting local authorities to deploy riot police and mounted units to regain control of the metropolitan center.
At about 2am, a 17-year-old was shot in the foot during celebrations in Times Square, a New York police officer told Reuters. Three persons of interest were in custody, he added.
As the situation escalated, a convoy of roughly fifteen yellow school buses, which had been chartered by the municipality to ferry soccer supporters from a World Cup match between Brazil and Morocco, was surrounded by hundreds of rioters.
Dozens of individuals scaled the vehicles, smashed windows, and occupied the driver seats of the stranded transport fleet.
One of the yellow school buses the city government hired to help transport soccer fans was set on fire, according to a Reuters video journalist who witnessed it in flames.
It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured in the incident. At least three more shuttle buses were badly damaged by crowds.
Witnesses reported seeing a bicycle hoisted onto the roof of one stranded bus, while supporters of the Brazilian national soccer team climbed up alongside basketball fans to wave flags amidst exploding fireworks and smoke grenades.
“They are expressing their happiness, a little bit violently, but it is what it is,” said Youssef Sabbr, a 49-year-old Canadian of Moroccan descent, who had got off one of the World Cup game buses before it was surrounded by crowds.
“That's what happens everywhere around the world when a team wins,” Sabbr added.
Law enforcement personnel initially monitored the gathering from a distance before executing a dispersal order to clear the blocked arteries surrounding Madison Square Garden.
Officers clad in tactical riot gear chased crowds down the avenues, while mounted units formed blockades to push rioters away from transit hubs.
“Oh my God. It's like New Year's Eve times twenty,” said Carol Marino, a real estate agent from New York in her 50s who was taking a breather on a sidewalk after watching the game in a bar.
Despite the heavy police intervention and property damage, pockets of fans continued to drum, scale scaffolding, and climb traffic lights across Manhattan well into the morning, celebrating a sporting milestone that had eluded the city for fifty-three years. - June 14, 2026
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