Este Haim thought she was just going to a basketball game when she joined sister Alana and friend Taylor Swift courtside at Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals on Wednesday, June 10.
Instead, the trio went viral thanks to a combination of their custom t-shirts, wild celebrations, and front-row seats to the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history as the New York Knicks erased a 29-point deficit to defeat the San Antonio Spurs on a put-back in the closing seconds.
“I mean I think it surprised all of us,” Este, 40, told Variety in an interview shared via X on Tuesday, June 16. “I just went into it like, ‘We’re going to go to a basketball game and have fun.’ That’s literally it. Like, I was just, ‘I want to have a good time.’”
Fans quickly noticed that the group was wearing pop culture-inspired Knicks gear, with Este rocking a “Knickole Kidman” shirt, Alana wearing “Knickelback,” and Swift sporting a “Stevie Knicks” tee.
Though some fans criticized the sisters, who are from Los Angeles and also root for the Lakers, for appearing to jump on the Knicks bandwagon, Este gushed about the experience.
“Taylor invited me and Alana,” she said. “I’ve never sat courtside ever so it was a magical, magical experience. I’ve never heard [Madison Square Garden] be that loud in my life. It was amazing. I had the best time.”
The Knicks ultimately won Game 5 in San Antonio as well to win the NBA championship, 4 games to 1, and give the franchise its first title since 1973.
Alana, 34, told Vogue the day after Game 4 that her loyalties aren’t only to her hometown team.
“I’m from L.A., and I love the Lakers, but I also love the Knicks,” she said. “It’s just such an incredible season for them, and it was such an honor to root for them. That was, I think, maybe the greatest basketball game ever played, and I’m hoping they bring home the championship, because they’re such an incredible team.”
Alana also revealed how their iconic Knicks shirts came to be, saying that she created them, but Swift came up with the idea.
“I got a text from Taylor that was really the text that you want to get as an amateur screen printer. She said, ‘I want to wear this shirt to the game, can you make it for me?’” she said. “And I was like, ‘I thought you would never ask, this is my dream.’ Whenever I start out a session with a friend, I go, ‘Let’s talk about fonts, let’s talk about sizing,’ and [Swift] came up with Stevie Knicks.”
Alana continued, “We were kind of going back and forth with these puns; we really just wanted to have fun, because we were so excited that we were going to the game, and I thought it would make people laugh, so we put them on shirts and all decided to wear them.”
