Largest comeback in NBA finals history galvanizes city and inspires morning-after chants of ‘Knicks in five!’

New Yorkers woke up on Thursday morning – those who had even slept in the city that never sleeps – still jubilant after the Knicks men’s basketball team had made history the night before.

The team staged the largest comeback in NBA finals history to overcome the San Antonio Spurs in the dying seconds of the fourth game of the finals – and put themselves 3-1 up and within one game of a rare championship win.

With some matches being held in nearby Miami, a Cuban response to US military action could mar the tournament

As Cuba crumbles under a nearly five-month-long US oil blockade, many on the island hope that the World Cup might save the island from US attack – or at least offer a respite until the competition ends on 19 July.

“The beginning of the World Cup will make it more difficult for the United States to carry out a military action in Cuba,” said Carlos Alzugaray, Cuba’s former ambassador to the EU. “Cuba is very close to the US, and can hit many targets inside the US, especially in south Florida, with drones or other weapons.”

Sean Strickland claims he was not cleared to attend the UFC event because he ‘made fun of Israel and Epstein’

The only current men’s US UFC champion says he has been barred from Sunday’s fight card on the south lawn of the White House because he dared to criticize Donald Trump, Israel and Jeffrey Epstein.

On Tuesday night, middleweight champion Sean Strickland wrote on X that he had been informed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that he had not been cleared to attend the event by the White House.

Darren Sharper, who pleaded guilty or no contest to raping women in four states, is projected to be released in 2028

Admitted serial rapist and former National Football League champion Darren Sharper has been transferred from federal prison to a halfway house program with his projected 2028 release date nearing.

In a statement to the Guardian on Monday, a US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) spokesperson said Sharper, 50, was transferred on 27 May from a federal correctional institution near Elkton, Ohio, to “community confinement” overseen by the agency’s residential re-entry management office in Baltimore.

• President attends Spurs v Knicks game at MSG

• Knicks aiming to win first title since 1973

• Game report: Wembanyama ruins Garden’s party

Donald Trump was loudly booed when he was shown on the video screens at Madison Square Garden on Monday night before Game 3 of the NBA finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks.

Trump was shown on the jumbotron while the Star-Spangled Banner was being sung before the game, and jeers and boos broke out around the arena. The president was shown for a little over eight seconds and held a salute the whole time with a smile on his face. A few seconds later, the video board showed Knicks players in line and the boos turned to cheers.