Overview
- The New York Knicks secured their first NBA championship in more than 50 years with a series-clinching victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday.
- A rhyming fan chant that began with a Pop Smoke reference and a predicted sweep evolved during the finals and went viral on social media as fans altered its lines to match the series.
- MS Now host Jacob Soboroff played the chant for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said he had not met the originator but confirmed people had been shouting “My mayor’s Muslim” at him and responded, “It’s true, I am.”
- The chant spawned riffs on hats, T-shirts and social posts and the official Knicks account shared versions of the refrain as thousands of New Yorkers took to the streets to celebrate.
- Reporters and the mayor framed the moment as unusually unifying for a diverse city, with no formal complaints reported and a likely short-term boost to civic morale and public attention on the mayor’s identity.