Inside Rikers: How Knicks Finals Fever is Sparking Unexpected Drama Behind Bars

The unusual arrangement means Richards must lead the nation’s second-largest jail system while sharing authority with a court-appointed third party, known as a federal receiver, charged with accelerating reforms. At the same time, he is helping steer New York City’s long-delayed effort to close Rikers altogether and replace it piecemeal. That has included the April opening of a jail unit within the city’s Bellevue hospital that will house more than 100 people with acute medical conditions and serious mental illness who are currently held at Rikers.

Standing inside one of the viewing rooms in the Beacon Center as correction officers hand out cake and drinks during the third quarter, Richards says those small acts matter more than people realize.

“Part of our job is to see the best in people before they can see it in themselves,” Richards says. “We hold that image of who they can be until they begin to believe it too. That means not judging someone by the worst thing they’ve ever done. It means refusing to give people a scarlet letter for life. It means treating people the way we’d want our own family members treated.”

‘The whole of New York is stressed right now’

Even as San Antonio stretch their lead to 14 midway through the third quarter and a collective anxiety begins to creep in, the noise level in the unit barely dips. But as Richards watches the game from alongside the men of the George R Vierno Center while giving his running commentary, the Knicks storm back with a 22-9 run to close the period and send the game into the fourth tied at 76 apiece.

With every New York basket from there, a full throttle of sound reverberates through the cinder-block walls from all directions as “Let’s go Knicks!” chants ring through the corridors. Gleeful correction officers and staffers move in and out of the different viewing rooms with pace, pumping their fists and hollering as if they were in the Garden itself.

The tension only climbs in the fourth quarter as the Spurs rattle off eight unanswered points during a four-minute stretch where the suddenly frigid Knicks miss seven shots in a row, lifting San Antonio to a 95-94 lead with just over two minutes to go.

“This is stressing me out right now,” Guzman says. “The whole of New York is stressed out right now.”

That’s when Brunson, the Knicks’ undersized talisman, deposits a corner three that puts New York ahead once and for all, detonating celebrations throughout the unit. The home team closes the game on a decisive 11-0 run, the roars growing in volume as the margin widens, setting off scenes of pure elation throughout Beacon Center and sending nearly all of the crowd off to lock-up with spirits high. Final score: Knicks 105, Spurs 95. One down, three to go.

“Last time I watched the Knicks in the finals I was a senior in high school,” Guzman says. “It was back in 1999 when they lost to the Spurs, the year after Michael Jordan retired. I grew up on 149 and Third Avenue in the Bronx, but I ended up moving out to a better neighborhood. Third Avenue is like a third-world country nowadays. But I love the Bronx and I love our city.”

Highlights

‘The whole of New York is stressed right now’

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