Knicks vs. Spurs: NYC Unites for Game 1 of the NBA Finals

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Two o'clock straight up!
It's The Carton Show with Big Mac! We have finally made it! June 3rd is here! NBA Finals are here! Game one tonight! Can't be... I've been beside myself, so pumped up.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:19)
Did you feel it when you woke up?

**Craig Carton** (0:20)
Yes, I did 100%.
I felt it when I went to bed last night, knowing that when I woke up, it was gonna be June 3rd. NBA Finals, game one. Good afternoon, Big Mac. How are you today?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:32)
I'm doing fantastic. It's beautiful outside, and we have an NBA Finals game tonight.

**Craig Carton** (0:37)
A moment we've not had since 1999

**Chris McMonigle** (0:40)
Think about how long ago that was.

**Craig Carton** (0:41)
27 years since our last NBA Finals appearance, and I can tell you now we're doing something very special tonight. We're doing a live half game show, a halftime show on our YouTube channel. More of that coming up later on, but me and Big Mac and the entire gang here, Petey and Anthony, are going to go live on YouTube. Final whistle of the first half, we go live and we take you right to the inbounds pass of the second half. So figure about a 12 or 15 minute halftime show live on YouTube. We'll take all your comments on as well. So very excited. It's also made possible by our friends at C4, the best energy drink of all time.
We have the new flavor, the Bombsicle, that we'll be enjoying 10 and a half times. So more on that later on. But today is one of those days. Today is one of those days, let's be honest about it. We've not had since the 2011 New York Giants run, since the 2009 New York Yankee run, where I guess I could give one of the other Yankee appearances, probably the ALCS or the World Series run against the Dodgers a couple of years ago, where...

**Chris McMonigle** (1:50)
That's in the World Series in 2015 Sure. I mean, that's how long it's been.

**Craig Carton** (1:54)
But this is a moment that's different than those. Yep. Because this is a moment where we are all united, we are all Knicks fans, we are all vested in the outcome of tonight's game, and of course this series, as we are now four wins away from a championship, a town built on champions now starving for a champion, are now four games away from a championship. And if you're not excited about this, and I know you are, because I walk the streets of New York City every day. I would do my podcast up on 30th, 5th, and 8th, right near the garden. I come down to Tribeca. It's a walk, but I love that walk on days like today.
40 minutes door to door, and I see people every ethnicity, every color, every religion, every sex, even the extra sex, as I just learned about this year.
Everybody is rocking Nick gear. Men, women, women who want to be men, men who want to be women, men that like to dress like women, women that like to dress like men.
Everybody is a Nick fan, and I am loving it.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:06)
I mean, you walked the street tonight. I stopped in today to get some swag for the kids, get myself a jersey.

**Craig Carton** (3:10)
Nice!

**Chris McMonigle** (3:11)
I walked into Dix. It was blue and orange everywhere, right at the front, balloons, the whole bit. It is Nick Central right now, and this is, I mean, you said it. This is, as soon as I woke up, and this is what I live for, and this is why I probably give the Yankees the benefit of the doubt, because they give me this more than any other team we root for. You wake up in the morning, and there's a big game tonight, and this is as big as it gets. Nick Spurs tonight against The Phenom, the team that's gelling, the team that's playing perfect against the Superstar, like, it's a matchup made in heaven, it's going to be a huge, huge NBA Finals. I think there's buzz all around the country, let alone just here in New York. I think it's going to be it.

**Craig Carton** (3:47)
I agree with that, by the way.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:48)
I think it's a big buzz series. So, you know. I don't think there's any doubt.

**Craig Carton** (3:51)
The stats came out this morning. The average fan doesn't care about ratings at all, but it's just interesting that Game 7 Thunder Spurs was the highest rated conference final game this century. So, you know, 25 plus years. All right. I think Knicks Spurs, partially because of Wembanyama, but a lot because it's the Knicks in New York, and it's been so long since we got to a final, obviously even longer, since we won a final. I think that we are looking at the possibility of the most watched, the most viewed NBA final of all time.