It will forever be known as “The Tonight Shoe.”
Jimmy Fallon raised his game-worn sneaker to the roof of his 30 Rock studio on Monday after welcoming the NBA champion New York Knicks onto NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
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The entire roster and head coach Mike Brown appeared on the show two days after defeating the San Antonio Spurs to win the franchise’s first NBA championship in 53 years.
During the championship run, Fallon was wearing the shoe while sitting courtside during a second-round game at Madison Square Garden when the Knicks’ Josh Hart bent down and untied the laces as he was heading to the bench.
“You walked by and I thought you were fixing your sock or something, and you untied my shoe,” Fallon told Hart on the show. “And then you won by like 20 points or whatever. And then next game I went to, you did it again, and then you also won, and then the comeback game you did it again. So, every time I watched the game, I kept untying my shoe.”
Hart told Fallon the untying ritual became “our thing.”
“When I’m on the court I’m locked in, but once I step off the court I like just having fun,” Hart said while on stage alongside teammates OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges. “So, I saw you and I was like, ‘You know what? Let me mess with Jimmy a little bit’. So, I untied the shoe.’”
Fallon had the entire team autograph the sneaker, saving a spot for Hart to sign it during the show.
“I’d be honored if you’re the last Knick to sign my shoe and then maybe we can retire it to the rafters here at 30 Rock,” Fallon said.
After Hart signed the sneaker, a wire dropped from the ceiling and Hart helped Fallon attach the sneaker and raise it to the roof.
“This will live in the rafters forever,” Fallon said.
The audience was filled with Knicks superfans who early in the show helped Fallon crowd surf…kind of.
The most recognizable fan of all then interrupted Fallon’s opening monologue.
“We’ve been waiting 53 years,” Spike Lee said. “Let’s go! Bring out the New York Knicks. The champions!”
Fallon then introduced the team.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “put your hands together for the kings of the comeback, a team of history, a team of destiny. Our dream team! Please welcome the 2026 NBA world champions, your New York Knicks!”
The curtain opened to reveal the entire Knicks roster, with Jalen Brunson holding the NBA championship trophy as confetti fell.
“Thank you for being here,” Fallon later told the team, “and thank you for bringing a championship to New York.”
Doing so helped Brunson deliver on a promise he made to Fallon during his previous appearance on the show in 2024.
“Last time you were on the show I said, ‘When the Knicks win the championship will you bring the trophy here?’” Fallon said. “And you’re a man of your word. Here it is right here.”
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Brunson said winning the championship, with the Knicks completing multiple comeback victories to do so, has not yet sunk in.
“I don’t know if it will for a while,” he said. “But the opportunity presented itself, we went out there together as a team, we found a way to do it, fighting back all those games. It was worth it. It was well worth it.”
Also making a return appearance was Karl-Anthony Towns, who carried the trophy over to the audience and told them to “Get a touch.” He recalled his first time on the show with Fallon in 2015 after being drafted, when Towns’ late mother was in attendance.
“It’s crazy being in this seat again, knowing her energy was here and you and her had such a great relationship and you made her laugh so much over the years,” Towns said. “It’s awesome that I get to come back to this space with the intention when you get drafted you want to win the NBA title, and to come back here talking to you again with the NBA title, I did what I was supposed to do.”
Brown appeared during the segment with Brunson and Towns, saying his postseason “Who let the dogs out?” chant originated when he was coaching a youth flag football team called the “Dogs.”
“We gotta put that to bed,” Brunson joked of the chant.
Fallon told Anunoby that he was very stoic during his postgame interview after his game-winning tip-in that completed the Knicks’ 29-point comeback in Game 4.
“You finished one of the best games ever and they go, ‘How did you feel?’ And you go, ‘It felt cool.’”
“It was cool,” Anunoby responded. “But it was cool. Was it not cool? It was cool, yeah.”
Bridges, who teamed up with Brunson and Hart to win a title 10 years after the trio won an NCAA championship with Villanova, was asked what those college years were like and if the players all got along.
“You want the truth? Josh was a bully,” Bridges said. “But after the bullying stage, that’s when we got real close.”
Now they get to raise another championship banner to the rafters. But not before raising “The Tonight Shoe.”
And, of course, as the sneaker was being lifted to the ceiling, Hart bent down and untied Fallon’s shoe.
“Oh no, don’t do it again! Oh my gosh, he did it again,” Fallon said with a laugh. “I knew you were gonna do it again.”
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