Late at night on June 13, as the final buzzer sounded on the win that clinched the New York Knicks' first championship in over a half-century, a popular question -- equal parts joking and legitimate -- began making the rounds: How many babies in the New York area were about to be named Jalen?
The reference, of course, being to star Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, who dropped 45 points in the Finals-clinching win. That uptick might have already occurred. According to one report, 32 babies were named Jalen in New York City between March and early October this year -- more than double the 15 from the same period last year.
Vance and Yvonne Bradford, die-hard Knicks fans who were expecting a child of their own that summer, had heard the jokes.
"A lot of the jokes going around, memes on social media, was 'There's going to be a lot of Jalens named after this. There's going to be a lot of KATs. OGs.' And everyone was joking about how many 'Knicks names' would come of this," Vance Bradford recalled to ESPN.
But Yvonne Bradford had another idea.
After New York won Game 5, the Bradfords heard a common refrain among the full-throated jubilance of New York City.
"We opened our windows after the Knicks won and we heard the chants: 'Knicks in five! Knicks in five!' And that kind of sat with us," Vance said.
"We had a boy name and we had a girl name. My wife asks me maybe the next morning ... 'What about the name Knickson?'"
Initially, the plan was to just stick with Knickson (pronounced "Nixon") as a first name, and then go a more conventional route with the middle name. But then Yvonne posed the question: If they had already committed to the first name, why not go all the way?
"Two days later my wife was like, 'Let's go full force with this. Let's call him Knickson Fyve.'"
Vance took a "split second" to ensure she wasn't joking and quickly agreed "so she can't take it back."
She didn't. The name was locked in.
The name is a tribute to the Bradfords' favorite team, yes, but also to the impact its success had on their longtime home. Both Vance and Yvonne are native Brooklynites (Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, respectively), and Vance said he saw something special in the city when his childhood team finally hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time in his lifetime.
"The impact that it made to the city, what I think a lot of people miss, is that the win was so impactful to the city," he said. "It looks good, and everyone says, 'Oh we were cheering,' but I mean [it] seriously changed the behavior of the city in the most positive way."
As for their son's name being one of many inspired by the hometown team's championship, Vance Bradford isn't shying away from the possibility of Knickson being in a classroom in a few years with multiple Knicks-related names, be it a Jalen or a Karl-Anthony. For all he knows, Knickson might not even be the only child born over the past few months to be named after the chant.
"I expect it."