As fans flooded the streets Friday night after the Knicks advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, New York firefighter Hans Perez made his way toward Madison Square Garden.
Perez, however, wasn’t wearing FDNY gear or Knicks apparel.
He wore the jersey of his favorite team, the Indiana Pacers…the team the Knicks will be playing next as they pursue their first championship since 1973.
“I’ve been wearing my jersey all playoff long, I’ve been supporting my Pacers, wearing it all along, but I hadn’t gone by Madison Square Garden with the jersey,” he said Monday on "The Pat McAfee Show." “So, I said, ‘I don’t know if I can go into the mob, but I’ll go close by, feel the energy.'”
What he felt instead were bags of garbage that were thrown at him by Knicks fans.
The video went viral, leading to McAfee tracking down Perez to have him on his show.
McAfee then surprised Perez with another guest: Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton.
"I want to personally bring you and a plus one out here to come to Game 4 here in Indiana," Haliburton told Perez. "I'll bring you guys out here, put you guys up, get you guys seats to the game. The Pacers, everybody in our organization wants to make sure you're taken care of, all of the team is excited to meet you."
An excited Perez said he would have to make arrangements to get the day off work.
“I just want to say thank you, Tyrese, man, you are awesome, the team is awesome, I appreciate that,” he said. “And man, let’s go Pacers!”
Perez, who has the Pacers logo tattooed near his wrist, was in attendance last season when Indiana eliminated the Knicks at the Garden in Game 7 of the conference semifinals.
“I was there with the Pacers jersey,” he said. “They were a little nicer, it wasn’t a Friday night. But now, this year, they got me.”
The Knicks advanced to their first conference finals in 25 years after upsetting the defending champion Boston Celtics in six games on Friday. Each postseason victory has been celebrated with a mob of Knicks fans swarming 7th Avenue outside of the Garden.
That was the case Friday after the biggest Knicks victory in two-plus decades. Perez decided to enter enemy territory while bravely – or foolishly – wearing the jersey of the Knicks’ newest enemy.
“At first, it was like dudes just talking smack to me, it was a little fun, dudes were just going back and forth,” Perez said. “But then it started getting a little more handsy. Dudes wanted the jersey. They said the jersey gotta come off. So, then I started getting a little nervous. I’m looking, where’s the nearest police? Who’s gonna save me? Anybody here to save me?”
Perez attempted to calmly walk away, but fans continued to follow and heckle him, pelting him with two bags of garbage.
“It looks like I just got swallowed into the mob,” he said. “But I just go, I keep walking. I was like, ‘Oh man, I see some cop cars up that way. Maybe if I can just make it up to that next block I should be maybe, hopefully fine.’”
Perez made it out of the area safely, and video of the incident quickly spread across social media.
The crowd will return Wednesday when the series between the Pacers and Knicks begins. Perez, assuming he can get off work, has tickets and accommodations taken care of for Game 4 next Tuesday, with McAfee pushing him to ask Haliburton for a first-class flight.
“I don’t mind coach,” Perez said. “That’s OK.”
He’ll have the opportunity to wear his jersey comfortably amongst fellow fans in Indiana instead of in the streets of Manhattan.
“I’m glad you made it out the jungle alive,” Haliburton said. “I’m glad you’re still here with us.”
“Yeah, man, it was rough,” Perez said. “I feel like I’m going to war with you guys.”