Yankees' Jazz Chisholm celebrates with NBA champion Knicks in New York City

Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored an invite to one of the most exclusive gatherings in Manhattan over the weekend, partying with members of NBA champion Knicks late Sunday night at Flyfish, the high-end members-only club in the Lower East Side.

“It was cool,” a smiling Chisholm told Newsday on his way to the indoor batting cage before Tuesday night’s game against the White Sox at the Stadium. “The emotions were still there, everybody was still feeling it.”

After rallying to beat the Spurs in Saturday night’s clinching Game 5 in San Antonio to cop their first title in 53 years, the Knicks flew back to New York, landing early Sunday morning.

The Yankees returned to New York early Sunday night after taking two of three games from the Blue Jays. Chisholm soon headed into the city and to Flyfish Club, “invited,” he said, by severable members of the Knicks he has gotten to know in recent years. That group includes Finals MVP Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Karl Anthony-Towns and OG Anunoby (before a 2025 first-round playoff game, Hart wore a Yankees-style basketball T-shirt with Chisholm’s No. 13 on it).

“I have a lot of guys on the Knicks, we support each other and we know each other and we show love to each other all the time,” Chisholm said. “Brunson, KAT, Hart, OG was in there. It was just cool to go in and hang out with some champions and give you that feeling of you want to win that championship, too, and celebrate like the way they are.”

Chisholm, who grew up in Nassau, Bahamas a rabid basketball fan — though more of the sport than of a specific team — said he spent quite a bit of time Sunday night talking with Brunson, who took over Game 5 in the second half and finished with 45 points.

“Hearing stories about the game and how his emotions were in the game and how he was going through it day by day. it was sick,” Chisholm said. “How he was feeling through it, how his emotions were going. What was his mindset? I mean, he’s the leader of a championship team, so you always want to try and take in what you can to kind of help your guys do what he did with his guys.”

The Yankees as an organization have a particular bond with these current Knicks. Towns, who grew up a die-hard Yankees fan in Piscataway, New Jersey. and attended games as a kid at the former Yankee Stadium, threw out a ceremonial first pitch in June 2023 while a member of the Timberwolves. He met, among others that day, Aaron Judge. Hart, whose great uncle was Elston Howard and whom Cam Schlittler described as a “serious baseball fan,” will be honored with a bobblehead giveaway in late September (a promotion scheduled before the Knicks’ playoff run).

And Brunson made the rounds of the clubhouse in July 2024 before throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at the Stadium prior to a Subway Series game against the Mets.

“I think their mental toughness and championship mettle just ended up winning the day,” manager Aaron Boone, who met Brunson that day and quickly became a fan of the guard, told reporters Sunday morning in Toronto.

Chisholm said the city’s response to the Knicks title that he saw on social media — and observed to a smaller degree first-hand Sunday night — steeled his resolve even further to be a champion.

“The city’s reaction was amazing, and what’s we want to bring to the city,” Chisholm said. “That’s what you want to be remembered by is winning a championship and being remembered by New York forever.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.