Even if you can’t tell a layup from a laces drive, it’s unlikely you’ve escaped the buzz and anticipation around two major sporting events this week – the championship series of the National Basketball Association and the opening matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Right now, it’s fair to say that American sports fans are less focused on “the beautiful game” and more intent on the matchup between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs. Devoted fans, as well as casual observers, have been impressed by the athleticism and on-court skills of players from both teams. But, throughout the season, they’ve also been touched by something more: the consistent qualities of character that the players express, such as unity, determination, humility, and care for others.

The Knicks, for instance, do “not fit the caricature of New Yorkers ... as self-obsessed, grasping, indifferent,” The Economist observes. Instead, they are being “celebrated for some less-recognised qualities of New Yorkers ... decency, playfulness and generosity towards each other.”

In the Big Apple, thousands of residents and visitors have congregated around big screens in pubs, parks, and streets for community watch parties. Many shared with the media their sense of joy and inclusion at these events. “Everyone is just happy. ... There’s so much love,” in the words of one.

“It feels like the transformation of the world’s greatest city into the world’s greatest small town,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani commented to The Athletic. “We [are] all thinking about the same thing” – a longed-for championship for the Knicks, who last won in 1973.

The series heads to San Antonio for Game 5 on Saturday, with the Knicks leading 3-1. Whatever the outcome, that city’s 1.5 million residents might also enjoy a similar small-town sense of community spirit and cohesion. That’s because both teams express “uplifting ... behaviors and attitudes,” according to Jeremi Suri, a basketball fan and professor of politics at the University of Texas at Austin.

In a recent Substack post, “The Knicks and Spurs Show Us a Better America,” Dr. Suri wrote that the athletes show they “care about something larger than themselves.”

At a time when many Americans feel socially disconnected and cynical, he continued, the players are “needed role models. ... Young men with purpose, with healthy relationships, with belief in themselves and others.”

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Of course, these highly paid professional athletes are also highly competitive. They play to win. So, things might get heated on court, with some trash talk and fouls. Still, whether through charitable work (New York’s Jalen Brunson), a proclivity for quiet introspection (San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama), or religious observance (New York’s Karl-Anthony Towns), they also teach fans about wins beyond the scoreboard.

At this point, it seems right to cheer: Go Knicks! Go Spurs!