Knickeled and Dimed

Game five of the NBA Finals happens tomorrow night. As of this writing, the best-of-seven series is led by the New York Knickerbockers after a dramatic comeback at Madison Square Gardens for the first home-team win of the series. It has been decades since the New York Knickerbockers last won the title (1973 to be exact). So the Big Apple fans have had a lot of time to save up their money for a chance to see them play in the deciding series.

For most Knicks fans, 53 years of saving was not long enough to compete for the price of admission to games three or four. According to this article from Yahoo! Sports, the minimum price of ticket for games three and four at Madison Square Garden were $7,142 and $7,232 respectively, with the most expensive tickets approaching $100,000. One can only imagine what game six might fetch if the series makes it back to New York on Tuesday. Those price tags only get you in the door. Registers keep ringing if you get thirsty or hungry or want the latest apparel donned by Spike Lee.

In an economy presently shaped like a K, it almost seems fitting that the New York Knickerbockers win the title during what may be a modern gilded age. Don’t be mistaken, Atlas has no preference over who takes home the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, we’ve always been partial to the Los Angeles Lakers. However, there is a certain poetry that would forever be in the books if the team whose name is stacked with Ks becomes the emblem of greatness during a time when the economy worked less for the working-fan than it does for those at the tip top of the K.