The inside story of how the New York Knicks got back to NBA glory after being stuck in the league’s cellar for nearly two decades.

From 1988 to 2001, the Knicks made the playoffs every single year and reached the finals twice. Madison Square Garden was rocking, from the celebrities in floor seats to the city workers in the nosebleeds. Then, just like that, it was over. The air went out of the building. The Knicks were a joke.

Until now.

Under the Bright Lights is acclaimed NBA journalist Fred Katz’s authoritative account of how the Knicks became winners again. Through exclusive interviews and a deep understanding of the team, he tells the story of the explosive transformation that began in 2020, when former sports agent Leon Rose took over as general manager. Rose immediately hired coach Tom Thibodeau, who helped the team find its identity. The acquisitions of Josh Hart, Karl Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, and Mikal Bridges were key. But it was the signing of Jalen Brunson—much criticized at the time—that glued everything together. The son of a former Knicks player, Brunson emerged as both a breakout star and a selfless leader, lifting the spirits and performance of his teammates. In the twenty-one seasons before Brunson came to New York, the Knicks had eigh total postseason victories. In 2026, they won thirteen straight playoff games and got back to the NBA finals for the first time in twenty-seven years.

Like Moneyball, Under the Bright Lights delivers a highly entertaining and deeply reported story of a sports organization’s turnaround. Katz goes under the hood to find out how not just any NBA team reinvents itself, but the most heavily scrutinized team in America. He finds out how this organizaiton and group of athletes came together to win playoff games in every possible way, from wire-to-wire blowouts, to the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history.

In the process, something bigger is also captured: The emotional revival of basketball in New York. The sleeping giant of Knicks fandom has reawakened, and with it, the hope, pride, and community that only sports obsessives can experience, has come back to the Mecca of Basketball.