Episode 487 of the Bowery Boys, The Nicks and the Knickerbockers.

Hey, it's the Bowery Boys.

Hey.

Hi there, welcome to the Bowery Boys. This is Greg Young.

And this is Tom Myers with an emergency late breaking news podcast, Greg. New York history.

New York history is being made right now.

Yes. For the first time since 1999, the New York Knicks have made it to the NBA finals.

And the city, trust me, has never been more energized.

We're repainting subway stations, blue and orange.

Everyone is so excited here, including many people who actually don't often follow basketball. You mean like yours truly? No, everybody, everybody right now, it seems,

is wearing the colors of New Netherland. Let's face it, even without even knowing it. I know, except our listeners

know, of course. Well, exactly. And on today's show, we are going to be looking at this

important moment through a very Bowery Boys lens. Now, we have spoken before about how, you know,

the names of New York's big sporting franchises have these historical

routes, including the New York Yankees and the Mets, or rather the Metropolitan's, or the New York

Jets football team, which got its name back in 1963, because its home stadium in Queens,

was located right near LaGuardia Airport.

Even teams that are no longer in New York have ties to New York City history,

like the Los Angeles Dodgers, which used to be the Brooklyn Dodgers,

which got its name from the Trolley Dodgers after the fans who literally dodged street trolleys

in order to get to the stadium.

But perhaps no sporting team has a more perfectly New York name than the New York Knicks,

...