THE WARMUP

Happy Sunday. The Back Page is open.

They don't teach you this in journalism school.

Saturday night, with the Knicks one win away from ending a 53-year title drought, I had a finished column sitting in my drafts. Four hundred and thirty words on May 8, 1970, the Hard Hat Riot, Willis Reed, and what it all means for New York in 2026. It was good.

Then Jalen Brunson scored 45 points, the city erupted, and I threw it out.

Some stories write themselves. Some stories make you rewrite everything else.

Grab a cuppa and settle in.

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THE LEAD

I cannot feel the keys beneath my fingers.

The goosebumps on my arms and the back of my neck won’t subside.

Fireworks are going off outside my window in Harlem.

Hundreds of thousands of my fellow New Yorkers are euphoric in the streets up and down the island of Manhattan, throughout the outer boroughs, and miles into the metropolitan suburbs.

Yet, like the sports writer I am, I am furiously rewriting my column for The Sunday Back Page on deadline.

Because a 6-foot-2, 190-pound sparkplug and an unrelenting team won a championship Saturday night.

All week, I worked on what I thought was a marvelous 430 words on May 8, 1970, the night Willis Reed hobbled out onto the Madison Square Garden court and inspired the New York Knicks to a Game 7 win over the Los Angeles Lakers for their first NBA championship mere hours after a dark day for New York known as the Hard Hat Riot.

But as midnight rolls past, I cannot in good conscience publish a column about darkness. My motivation tonight is simpler: to spread the love, joy, and hope the 2026 Knicks are filling me with after winning their first NBA title in my lifetime.

Something weird is happening inside my chest cavity, a feeling I’ve only experienced when my favorite teams win the ultimate prize, or the equivalent thereof.

The day my twins were born. My wedding day. Those were better.

The reason I’m not out in the streets right now is not only because I’m writing for you, my readers. But my daughter is running her first 5K Sunday morning, and I want to experience watching her do that even more than attending the Knicks’ parade down the Canyon of Heroes on Thursday.

I was born in 1974. The Knicks last won a title in 1973. I have been waiting my entire life for this without knowing it.

For most of my time as an editor at the New York Daily News, outside of a little Melo magic and Linsanity, the Knicks were bad. Horrendously bad. At one point during the Isiah Thomas years, we coined it the “Reign of Error.” Don’t get me started on Phil Jackson.

But then, Jalen Brunson came to New York in the summer of 2022 and changed the franchise forever.

Instead of the Knicks teams I cried over in the 1990s, who couldn’t get over the last hump, Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, and the rest bulldozed that hump. Again. And Again.

As if his legend couldn’t grow any larger, Brunson scored 45 points in Saturday’s Game 5 clincher, tying Michael Jordan for the most points in an NBA Finals clincher. Michael Jordan.

During Game 3 of the Finals, Derek Jeter and Eli Manning, kings of the last 30 years of New York sports, sat next to each other on Celebrity Row at Madison Square Garden. While they’re already carving out Brunson’s face on the Knicks’ Mount Rushmore, he can pull up a chair to that royal court.

The goosebumps aren’t going anywhere. The Knicks are NBA Champions.

— Ian Powers

THE QUESTION

Who scored the first hat trick in World Cup history?

See answer below 👇

THE READS

Each week, we curate 4-6 of our favorite reads from this week. The selections came from our own curation and from dozens of submissions by our readers. Thank you so much, and keep them coming.

Grant Wahl died at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at 49. The 2026 tournament — on American soil, in the country whose soccer culture he did more to shape than almost any journalist — was what 25 years of work had been building toward.

His wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, is an infectious disease physician who served as an Ebola aid worker in West Africa. She writes on his Substack about the Ebola outbreak now reaching the World Cup's doorstep, the federal government's complete absence of public health preparation for the largest mass-gathering event in its history, and the story Grant would have chased if he were here.

One of the most important pieces of sports journalism you'll read this summer — and a reminder of what the best of this craft looks like.

Haiti returns to the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 52 years — built from a diaspora spread across France, Belgium, England, Turkey, and beyond.

Graham Pierre-Louis traces the full arc: Joe Gaetjens scoring the goal that beat England in 1950, Manno Sanon ending Dino Zoff's 1,142-minute shutout streak at the 1974 World Cup, and a coach who qualified the team without ever setting foot in Haiti because the country is too dangerous to visit. Essential World Cup reading.

As a U.S. Soccer stan, when this one dropped, I read it. Megan Swanick breaks down opening night in Los Angeles — a 4-1 dismantling of one of South America's most formidable defensive units, Balogun's two first-half goals, and a team that played exactly as free and uninhibited as Pochettino asked them to.

Lauren Cochrane for MR PORTER makes the case that what players wear to training is now as scrutinized as what they wear on the pitch — and the World Cup is where it all converges. France is the runaway favorite for best-dressed team, Japan's away kit is generating the most buzz, and Haiti's fanbase in the US might be the most stylish in the stands. A fun read with the tournament underway.

James Hastilow ranks his ten favorite international kits ahead of the World Cup, hitting the Netherlands '88, France '98, Japan '22, and eight others worth debating. A good visual rabbit hole with the tournament underway. Only one problem: the 1994 USMNT denim stars jersey — arguably the most iconic kit in American soccer history, worn on home soil — didn't make the list.

Spurs fan Marcus Musick on the five stages of grief, emotional apathy, and 38 years of mostly disappointment — with the Cowboys somehow making it worse.

THE LISTEN

Each week, we curate 1-2 of our favorite podcasts. The selections came from our own curation and from submissions by our readers. Thank you so much, and keep them coming.

Joe Ovies and Joe Giglio recorded this one live from Lenovo Center immediately after the final horn of Game 5 — and you can hear every bit of it. Jordan Staal's sixth goal in five Finals games (a feat not accomplished since 1956), Svechnikov's two power-play goals, Brandon Bussi's composure in net, and a franchise now 60 minutes away from its first Stanley Cup in 20 years.

OG After Dark is essential listening if you want to know what a city sounds like when it's on the edge of something.

THE WATCH

Each week, we curate 1-2 of our favorite videos. The selections came from our own curation and from submissions by our readers. Thank you so much, and keep them coming.

A Sunday Back Page playlist staple. Ben Taylor — author of Thinking Basketball, host of the podcast, and the best in the business at merging film study with stats — breaks down the Game 4 second-half adjustments, the coaching decisions, and the three fingertip plays that changed NBA Finals history. If you watched that game and still can't explain how it happened, start here.

THE PRESSROOM

Arif Hasan of Wide Left — one of the top sports newsletters on Substack — is out, and his explanation goes deeper than features and fees.

The biggest concern: Andreessen Horowitz, likely Substack's largest institutional investor, whose co-founder Marc Andreessen has openly cited Italian fascist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and techno-feudalist Curtis Yarvin as intellectual influences. Hasan is also honest about the economics — roughly 25% of Wide Left's paying subscribers came through Substack's recommendation network — which makes the move a real financial risk, not just a values statement. Worth reading if you publish anywhere.

THE ROSTER

We want to celebrate as many independent creators on The Sunday Back Page as possible. Here are all the people who either submitted their work for consideration or were considered independently this week. Many of these creators deserved a place in this newsletter, and we hope they continue to submit their work. Please keep them on your radar.

Let’s Talk Football | OffBallFC | The Full Scope | Jack Greven | Michael King | Heart of a Fan | Jason Clewes | Austin Chen | Rohan Ajit | Joey D’Urso | Kwame Twumasi-Ankrah | Kitcyclopedia | West Ham Fan | Astor Henriquez Cooper | Andrew M. Werners | Headers and Volleys | Sunny Fassler | Carla Bilche | Wayne Coffey | Eric Lusk | Jack Carnefix | Kyle Glaser | Jon Lane | Salvador Rodriguez | Josh Bland | Nebojša Marković | Adanna Adindu Isabella Victor | Daniel Feuerstein | Kartik Krishnaiyer | Paul Grech | Dan Leydon | Heloisa de Souza | The Hex Podcast | Jonathan Allen Ebert | NB’s Football | Clemente Lisi | Y’all Weekly | Tevin Morris

Want to see your independent publication featured here? Let us know. There are hundreds more baseball Substacks out there. Give me a shout!

THE ANSWER

American forward Bert Patenaude, who scored all three goals in the United States' 3-0 win against Paraguay at the inaugural 1930 tournament in Uruguay. The twist: FIFA didn't officially recognize it until November 10, 2006 — 76 years after the match — after soccer historian Colin Jose gathered South American newspaper accounts, testimony from Patenaude's former teammates, and the original U.S. manager's match report to make the case. Full circle moment: 96 years later, the USMNT opened the 2026 World Cup against the same opponent. Folarin Balogun had two goals at the half.

THE SCORECARD