It’s an hour and a half before tipoff and the room at Standings is filling up. The usual seats around the East Village bar’s three tables are stashed away because the staff are expecting the biggest crowd in years. It’s game one of the 2026 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the city’s beloved Knicks, and the buildup has been frenzied. As the room fills up, I spot another regular, Dylan Mich, an East Village resident who’s been coming here since 2018. Before big playoff games, Mich usually comes an hour early and easily finds a bar seat. But tonight he’s brought his girlfriend and his dad, and it’s standing-room only in the crowd of 75.
Standings, where the walls are papered with New York Post headlines and sports ephemera from practically every collegiate and East Coast sports team, is frequently on any one of the city’s “best sports bars in New York” lists (in fact, this magazine called it the absolute best overall in 2017) despite the fact that it has only 20 or so available seats. This is the first thing you’ll notice when you enter: It is small. When it’s busy, getting a drink involves wading through a few rows of people. Even when the air-conditioning is cranking, my friends and I are still dripping in sweat. Sure, there are TVs tucked between the stadium towels and game-day posters on the wall, but the screens aren’t that big, and the volume is never loud enough to hear what the commentators are actually saying. There’s no liquor or wine — just a few beers on tap, with one bartender working the shift. Some might call the conditions unbearable, especially when it’s packed, like it is tonight. But the scene here at Standings represents the very best thing about watching sports in New York bars: the messy, sweaty revelry of screaming at a small corner TV with your fellow fans.
This Knicks playoff run has revealed how unprepared the city is for its growing fandom. The other week, the city banned watch parties outside Madison Square Garden because the crowds were getting too rowdy. (Then on Wednesday, the city reversed that rule.) Knicks watch parties are now being hosted in places where you’d never think to watch Jalen Brunson score midrange buckets: During the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks hosted one at Radio City Music Hall; Elsewhere, the Bushwick nightclub, hosted a Finals watch party with a DJ set; private cinemas like Metro are offering screening events for games. Recliners and love seats, anyone?
But even with the expanded array of more spacious options, the New Yorkers at Standings are opting for the classic sports-bar experience. “We’re not comfortable, but it’s comfortable in the sense that we’re all doing it,” says Nick Dyette from Laurelton, who showed up with a few friends about a half-hour before game time. “People are willing to spend their whole evening standing for this.” Mich also appreciated its small size. “You get to know people around you, you get to know the staff really well,” he said. It was the same at the Commissioner in Park Slope, where every barstool and inch of space was spoken for and fans spilled out of the bar onto Fifth Avenue. At 99 Rogers in Crown Heights, people had no choice but to watch from the sidewalk. In the West Village, the crowds at Houston Hall made the expansive beer hall feel more like a packed neighborhood pub, while at Locksmith Bar in Washington Heights, fans were shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
All of these scenes are a reminder that the city hasn’t experienced a collective sports viewership like this in a long time, because the Knicks just haven’t been this good in … forever. Another cause for the spike in crowds: The Knicks are bringing together disparate fandoms with otherwise split allegiances, a single point of commonality between Yankees/Mets, Giants/Jets, and Rangers/Islanders fans. (Sorry, the Nets were never New York’s team.)
A few minutes into the second quarter, I step outside to find a group of women waiting to enter the bar. Sahiti Kota, who lives in Alphabet City, says she’s been waiting outside with her friends for 20 minutes to enter. “We were at Rocco’s before. We couldn’t get in there either. Our friend is inside here at Standings, but the bouncer said ‘no.’”
After halftime, Kim Bacon, who came all the way to Standings from the Upper East Side, tells me that she had to buy a round for someone’s mother who hadn’t been able to get the bartender’s attention. After a while, the woman returned the favor and got Bacon a beer too. “That’s the beauty of a crowded bar. Everyone takes care of one another,” Bacon says.
With two minutes left in the game, and the Knicks trailing by one point, the mood at Standings is tense — but that’s nothing new for the team or this crowd. Brunson scores two shots that seal the win for the Knicks, and the bar erupts. Kyle Mulholland, the bartender, rings the bar’s bell, and the lights flicker as everyone cheers again and goes to close out their tabs. “See you all Friday?” my friend says.