The World Cup may have kicked off in the US this week, but America’s attention is focused on a different sport: basketball. The NBA finals could end this weekend, with the New York Knicks potentially becoming champions for the first time since 1973. And with Knicks fever comes fan style, especially courtside, where celebrities have been showing their support in different ways.
For Wednesday’s Game 4, won by the Knicks, Taylor Swift and Este and Alana Haim all wore T-shirts in the blue and orange of the Knicks with their own Knicks-related pop culture pun: Swift’s read “Stevie Knicks”, while Este’s said “Knickeback” and Alana’s read “Knickole Kidman”. This was not shop merch. Vogue reported that Alana had made the T-shirts herself.
Other celebrities went less homemade. Timothée Chalamet, a long-term Knicks fan, has been wearing custom looks from the brand Chrome Hearts, including a Knicks orange tracksuit and double denim with orange touches, worn in tandem with his partner, Kylie Jenner. A$AP Rocky, meanwhile, wore a satin Saint Laurent take on Knicks orange the same night, calling himself “a good luck charm” for the team.
Basketball has long been a fashion-friendly sport – see the “tunnel fit”, where players are photographed in outfits often sourced from more experimental brands before games – but this is the peak of courtside style, turning fan culture into a look that’s catnip for fashion.
Adam Cheung, a style writer at GQ, agrees. “It feels like the 2026 NBA finals have officially morphed into the ultimate runway, and from what we’ve seen on social media, the basketball feels almost secondary,” he says.
Cheung says the players are crucial to this development because those such as Victor Wembanyama and Jordan Clarkson are such style icons, it poses a challenge for celebrities who are more usually the focus of fashion attention. “When the players are treating the arena entrance like Paris fashion week, it sets a mandate for the front row,” Cheung says. “Famous people can no longer show up in just anything; they have to match the vibe the athletes are putting out.”
Of course, another factor that affects all fashion moments in 2026 is online culture. “Swift and Chalamet perfectly capture the zeitgeist of memeable fashion,” says Cheung. “We are entrenched in an era where fashion is designed to go as viral as possible. It’s no longer just about looking good, it’s about creating imagery that spreads like wildfire across Instagram and TikTok.”
And if it supports your team to glory, so much the better.
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