Anthony Valles’ plan hinged on a checkpoint on Sixth Avenue.
With President Donald Trump attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, the NYPD and Secret Service had sealed off several blocks around Madison Square Garden. Anthony’s 50-year-old father Kenneth Valles — a New York native and lifelong Knicks fan — had no idea why he was meeting his son at the edge of the securitized zone. The family was supposed to be hanging out with a friend and watching the game from a bar.
Instead, Anthony ushered him toward the line to enter.
“He was like, ‘Shut the hell up,’” Anthony, 28, recounted Tuesday. “And I said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ Then I showed the officer my tickets.”
Kenneth stared. “What did you do?” he asked his son.
As the police officer waved them through, Kenneth kept repeating: “There’s no way, there’s no way, you did not.”
But Anthony, who along with Kenneth lives near Raleigh, North Carolina, had done what his ailing father couldn’t believe. He’d borrowed roughly $11,000 from a family friend, he said, so they could fly back to their old hometown and have a once-in-a-lifetime experience together watching the playoffs-charmed Knicks go for their first title since 1973.
A Knicks Family
Anthony Valles said he was only 1 year old the last time the Knicks brought this much excitement to his family.
It was 1999, the last time Madison Square Garden hosted the NBA Finals. Early that postseason, Allan Houston’s running floater had dropped through the net to put the Knicks into the second round of the playoffs. Kenneth — then a dyed-in-the-wool Knicks fan from the Lower East Side with his baby son in his arms — got so excited watching the game on TV that he nearly dropped him, according to the stories Anthony heard from his parents. Anthony’s mother had to lunge to catch him, the story goes.
The Garden is once again hosting the Finals this week, and fervor for the hometown team has colored the city in blue and orange. Now a grandfather, Kenneth held his 1-year-old granddaughter — Anthony’s daughter — in North Carolina as the Knicks swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals last month to clinch a spot in the championship series.
“A full-circle moment,” Anthony said. “It was really sweet.”
The Valleses’ love for the Knicks and connection to New York City was, of course, a big reason why Anthony wanted to take Kenneth to Game 3 against the San Antonio Spurs. But the bigger reason, the son said, had less to do with basketball than with time running short.
His father has had two open-heart surgeries and lives with a neurological condition that causes recurrent strokes.
“I just don’t know how much time I have left with him,” Anthony said. “There’s no amount of money in the world that would matter if, God forbid, he doesn’t have too much.”
So Anthony set out to borrow the $11,000, enough for two Finals tickets and flights. After his childhood and adolescence in New York City, he’s spent a decade in the U.S. Armed Forces as a fighter-jet mechanic, following the footsteps of Kenneth, an Air Force veteran who later went into security work.
Anthony said he shopped around with a few commercial lending companies, but none of them were willing to loan him the money. Stumped, he did what he’s always done: asked his father for advice. But he did not tell him what the money would be used for — and said his dad, reserved by nature, did not inquire.
Kenneth mentioned it to one of his closest friends, a woman who’d recently visited him in North Carolina and observed how he was coping with his health problems, according to his son. Anthony said she then called him directly and asked why he needed a loan. When he explained the situation, he said, she did not hesitate to offer.
“She told me, ‘You guys deserve that experience, and you can pay me back whenever,’” Anthony recalled. The math came out to roughly $5,000 per ticket for seats in Section 223 (“the nosebleeds,” Anthony said), plus about $700 for flights.
The Valleses arrived in New York City on Sunday and stayed with different relatives, so they did not need to pay for a hotel, Anthony said.
Monday’s game was the most expensive in NBA history — with the average ticket selling for $6,487 and the most expensive tickets sold at around $65,000 — according to the Kobeissi Letter, a financial analysis provider.
“I just want him to have the best memory, the best day he’s ever had,” Anthony said before the game began.
Anthony Valles, left, and his father, Kenneth Valles, attend a Knicks playoff game at Madison Square Garden in 2013. Credit: Courtesy of Anthony Valles
An Unforgettable Night
Getting inside the Garden, where Trump, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a slew of other VIPs were in attendance, turned out to be another test of conviction for the Valleses. Anthony said he and his dad joined the security line around 5 p.m. and didn’t reach their seats until close to 7:50 p.m., with the tip-off at 8:30 p.m.
The wait, at least, came with good company. Anthony said they fell in with a rotating cast of people complaining, loudly and snarkily, about the security and lines.
“A whole bunch of New Yorkers just being New Yorkers,” he said.
Anthony said the palpable zeal from Knicks fans did not fade even though the Spurs won 115-111, cutting the Knicks’ lead in the best-in-seven series to 2-1. He remembered how supportive the crowd was, with seconds left in the game and the Spurs leading by only three points.
“When OG hit the shot, everyone around us was saying it wasn’t over yet,” Anthony said, referring to player Ogugua “OG” Anunoby Jr. “We still had a chance.”
The 28-year-old said he felt the Knicks’ loss both for himself and his father.
“I’m sorry that they couldn’t pull out the win,” the son told his father after the game.
“He said, ‘I don’t care. It was an amazing experience,’” Anthony said.
Kenneth did not want to speak with a reporter about their trip, according to Anthony, but he did tell his son just how much the night had meant to him: “It was the best day of my life, second only to your birth.”
As for Game 4 on Wednesday night, they plan to be back in North Carolina in time to watch from the comfort of home.
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