A sports bar in Los Angeles's Silverlake neighborhood has become an unexpected gathering place for Knicks fans during the team's playoff run, drawing overflow crowds and transforming the venue into what patrons describe as a home away from home. According to the source report, 33 Taps now hosts lines wrapping around the corner during games, with fans wearing vintage Knicks jerseys spanning decades—from Patrick Ewing and John Starks to current stars like Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. The bar's transformation reflects a broader phenomenon: New York transplants scattered across Los Angeles who migrated west for acting careers, music gigs, writing jobs, or simply the promise of beaches and sunshine, yet remain bound to their original city's sports identity.

From inherited trauma to a playoff renaissance

For decades , being a Knicks fan meant enduring what one source describes as "inherited trauma disguised as basketball loyalty." The team hadn't won a championship since 1973—a 50-year drought—and between 2001 and 2022 ,according to the report,they missed the playoffs 15 times. That narrative shifted dramatically during last season's postseason run. The Knicks beat the Cavaliers in the first round and pushed the Miami Heat to six games, a performacne that energized the fanbase and drew new crowds to 33 Taps. This year's playoff campaign has only intensified that momentum, with the source noting that the team swept the Philadelphia 76ers before facing the Cavaliers again.

A superfan's 2021 vision becomes a thriving community

The bar's Knicks identity didn't emerge overnight. according to the source, one self-proclaimed superfan began attending 33 Taps in 2021 to watch Knicks summer league games, when the bar was largely indifferent to New York basketball. A Bronx native who started coming in 2023 describes watching the crowd grow season by season. By the time the Knicks made their recent playoff push, the bar had become a de facto Knicks headquarters on the West Coast. The source quotes one fan who arrived two hours early to secure a table: "We're a community now. Some people moved here 20 years ago. Some moved here two months ago. But this became home."

Desus Nice and Jerry O'Connell join the congregation

33 Taps has attracted celebrity regulars who share the Knicks obsession. Desus Nice, the sharp-tongued comedian and former co-host of the "Desus vs. Mero" podcast, moved to Los Angeles in 2023 and began attending games at the bar rather than watch alone in his apartment, according to the source.. Actor Jerry O'Connell, a lifelong Knicks fan born in Manhattan, started showing up during last year's playoff run. The source includes photos of both celebrities mingling with fans at the bar, suggesting that 33 Taps has developed what the report calls "their own version of Celebrity Row."

The chaos of a 22-point comeback

The source describes an extraordinary moment during Game 1 of the current playoff series: the Knicks trailed by 22 points in the fourth quarter before mounting a dramatic comeback. The reaction inside 33 Taps, according to the report, was "absolute chaos"—beer flying through the air, fans jumping and screaming, high-fiving strangers. The source notes that fans "poured out into the orange and blue sunset as if they had just witnessed a religious experience." That visceral energy captures why the bar has become more than a place to watch basketball; it has become a repository for the emotional investment of a diaspora of New Yorkers who carry their city's identity across the country.