The Knicks’ first NBA championship in more than half a century left one subway train fleetingly looking like a 1970s throwback.
Photos and videos obtained by The City Reporter show multiple cars on the Q line in the paint, coated in orange and blue graffiti spelling out KNICKS on the sides of multiple cars — with the last name of NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson sprayed in gold on one end of the train.
A source confirmed that the Knicks-tagged train was found at 4:41 a.m. Wednesday in a layup area — yes, layup — just north of the Q line’s 96th Street terminal beneath Second Avenue.
The discovery in a section of tracks where trains are stored underground briefly delayed service in the middle of the night, the source said. The train was then taken to Coney Island Yard for a scrubbing.
The find came as the MTA’s own data reveals that subway-car graffiti strikes reached a five-year low in 2025, with 557 reported hits. That’s down 21% from 703 the previous year, according to an analysis of MTA subway vandalism statistics.
There have been 63 graffiti-related hits so far in 2026, the numbers show.
Subway trains that are on the receiving end of what the transportation authority labels “major hits” are promptly taken out of passenger service and sent to be cleaned.
A graffiti-tagged train sits in a train yard at 207th Street in March, 2019. Credit: Obtained by THE CITY
Making graffiti is more than a personal foul. It’s a misdemeanor that can land a tagger behind bars for up to a year and also lead the MTA to pass on the costs of cleaning a train to anyone nabbed in the act. The MTA told The City Reporter in 2022 that it expected to spend in excess of $1 million that year on cleaning graffiti from the subway.
Graffiti was largely eradicated from the subway by 1989, when the transportation authority celebrated what it said was the final ride of a train on a C line that was covered in paint.
But it has quietly persisted, even as two European artists were fatally struck in 2022 by a No. 3 train in Brooklyn while trying to leave their mark on the subway system.
An MTA spokesperson declined to comment on the short-lived appearance of the Knicks-tagged train, which also had “2026” scrawled across subway car doors, as well as splashes of other colors.
Knicks fans who lined the route of the team’s ticker-tape parade on lower Broadway oohed and aahed at seeing images of the tagged Q train.
“I like it, it shows vintage, authentic New York,” said Duwa Imafidon, 36. “Some people will look at that and think ‘vandalism,’ but I think art.”
Angel Mitchell, 37, blurted out “That’s fire!” when he was shown a video of the temporarily orange and blue train.
“That’s the culture right there, you can’t stop it,” he said next to a table on Broadway that was stacked with very unofficial Knicks T-shirts. “Even today you might catch a few tags out there.”
The colorful train appeared one day before the MTA brought subway cars that ran between 1970 and 1973 — the years of the Knicks’ previous two championships — out of retirement to move passengers south from the 168th Street stop.
The old train resurfaced on a morning when service to Lower Manhattan was snarled on several subway lines because of parade crowds, with several stops being bypassed.
For the FIFA 2026 World Cup, the MTA has even wrapped trains on some subway lines with a colorful look meant to evoke flags of nations participating in the soccer championship, but which also bears some resemblance to graffiti.
The station entrance at the southeast corner of West 34th Street and Eighth Avenue at the 34 St-Penn Station A/C/E station entrance, painted blue and orange during the New York Knicks finals, Jun 16, 2026. Credit: Marc A. Hermann / MTA
Officials also announced Wednesday that a Knicks-themed subway entrance at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue that was painted orange and blue prior to the NBA Finals will retain those colors through next season, along with entrance globes painted to resemble basketballs.
The extremely unofficial markings that surfaced on the Q train were much shorter-lived.
Talal Alassari, 40, called the Knicks tags “old school, very old school,” adding “it’s really dope for the city.”
But he was also aware that graffiti is unwelcome in the subway system.
“I think it’s nice,” he said. “But isn’t it also illegal?”
Additional reporting by Kennedy Sessions.
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