In the final moments before the Knicks ended their 53-year NBA championship drought, Yolanda Matos found herself hosting a scrum of anxious New Yorkers on the sidewalk outside her Brooklyn home.
Heads lowered in quiet prayer. Boxes of pizza passed from people in jerseys to people in suits. And Matos — a retired correctional officer with a strictly enforced policy against premature celebration — waited until the final buzzer before leading the shrieking, weeping, chest-thumping crowd through the frenzied streets.
