Mariska Hargitay’s lifelong devotion to the New York Knicks pushed her to do something she had never done in decades of attending games: run there. On the night of June 10, after completing a two-performance day in her Broadway debut at the Hudson Theater, Hargitay cut four minutes from the running time of her one-woman show and sprinted approximately ten blocks to Madison Square Garden — arriving just in time for the 8:30 p.m. tip-off of Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.
Three days later, the Knicks clinched their first NBA title since 1973.
“I took four minutes off the running time of my show,” Hargitay told The Hollywood Reporter. “I sprinted from the Hudson Theater. The ten-block sprint after a two-show day was no joke.”
From the Stage to the Court
The show Hargitay left in a hurry is Every Brilliant Thing, a solo performance piece she took over from Daniel Radcliffe for her Broadway debut. The Hudson Theater sits at 44th Street and Sixth Avenue; Madison Square Garden is at 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue. Hargitay made the run wearing a pair of custom Jalen Brunson Kobe 5 Protos that Brunson himself gifted her months earlier, and a “Stevie Knicks” T-shirt in orange and blue that matched what Taylor Swift was wearing courtside alongside Este Haim.
The Hollywood Reporter reported on June 11, 2026 that the Game 4 experience was unlike anything Hargitay had felt at a sporting event in her years as a devoted Knicks fan. The Knicks trailed by 29 points at halftime and appeared on the verge of falling behind 3–1 in the series. They won 107–106 — the largest halftime-deficit comeback in NBA Finals history — on a one-handed tip-in from OG Anunoby in the final seconds. Hargitay ran onto the court to hug the players after the buzzer.
“I love my husband, and our wedding night was great and all, but I think it might have been the greatest night of my life,” Hargitay said.
The Championship
Deadline reported on June 13, 2026 that the Knicks traveled to Frost Bank Center in San Antonio and won Game 5, 94–90, to claim the franchise’s first NBA championship since 1973 — ending a 53-year drought. Jalen Brunson scored 45 points in the clinching game and broke down in tears afterward while celebrating with his father, Rick Brunson, who serves as an assistant coach on the team.
“I want everyone to throw out every book on leadership they have and replace it with a photo of Jalen,” Hargitay said after Game 4. “I feel so lucky, so honored, so grateful, that in the future when people talk about that game, which they will forever and ever, I get to say ‘I was there.'”
The City’s Celebrity Contingent
Hargitay is not alone among celebrities who turned the 2026 Finals run into something personal. Hank Azaria, another lifelong Knicks fan, appeared on The Dan Le Batard Show calling Taylor Swift’s courtside seat “ridiculous” — then admitted he was “only half kidding”. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce caught Maya Rudolph in Broadway’s Oh, Mary! at the Lyceum on Saturday night — the same Broadway circuit Hargitay was sprinting away from a few days earlier. John Lithgow won the oldest-ever competitive Tony Award for Best Actor at 80 this June, another milestone anchoring New York’s entertainment calendar during championship week.
Throughout the series, Madison Square Garden drew Spike Lee, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, John McEnroe, Tracy Morgan, Timothée Chalamet, and Kylie Jenner. Prince Harry attended Game 5 in San Antonio. Charles Oakley — the power forward who was famously banned from MSG by owner James Dolan for years before the ban was lifted — watched the franchise he once anchored finally claim its first title in five decades.
For Hargitay, the sprint from Hudson Theater captured something about how the city experiences these moments — together, and in a hurry. The Hollywood Reporter’s full gallery of NBA Finals celebrity sightings across the Knicks–Spurs series documented the scale of New York’s collective investment in its team. Hargitay has played Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU for 26 seasons. On the night of June 10, for about 48 minutes, she was just a Knicks fan who needed to get somewhere fast.
