If there's one thing that New York Sports fans are known for, it's their passion. It'd be hard to find a fanbase in American sports that's more invested in their teams, for better and for worse. 

When things aren't going well, that energy turns on their teams. Boos ring out in stadiums, online outrage follows and it can even get to a point where an athlete on a struggling New York team can have a hard day-to-day life even living in New York City. 

But on the other side of things, when things are going well, no one celebrates their athletes harder. 

Jalen Brunson was named the King of New York and even received mayoral votes for bringing the New York Knicks even within sight of the playoffs and a winning Knicks team means a packed Madison Square Garden and city streets awash with blue and orange.

Now, the playoffs have arrived once again and that only means that the spirit of Knicks fans grows even stronger and Josh Hart knows how important that spirit is, and he's looming forward to feeling it again.

"The energy is great in the regular season, but if you're able to get to a playoff game, the energy is unreal," Hart said (via SNY). "They show up for us every single game. You got fans outside. The weather's good, so everyone's outside, wanting to have fun, wanting to see the Knicks play. We need them obviously now more than ever."

The Knicks have the home court advantage in round one of the playoffs against the Atlanta Hawks and in Madison Square Garden, it feels like a home court advantage that other team can match. 

Basketball is a psychological game and any mistake, no matter how little, can translate into a huge run that can shift the momentum of the game. Players and coaches can feel a momentum shift just as well as fans can, but when fans feel the tide turning, you can hear it.

That can be a harrowing experience for a visiting team to go through and it can turn what's already going to be a difficult matchup for the Hawks into something impossible.

Knicks fans are hungry for playoff basketball and hungrier still for a championship, something that generation of fans have gone without as the last time the Knicks won the Finals was in 1973.

If there's any chance that Knicks fans can see a 2026 championship banner raised in Madison Square Garden, they'll do anything they can to help affect that outcome. 

The Hawks will enter into an environment more hostile than most when playoffs again, and they'll have thousands of sixth men in the stands working against them.