You didn’t need to be born in New York City to perceive a shift in the air in the days leading up to Game 5 of the NBA championship finals. It was anticipation. Giddiness. The tension before a culture-shifting tipping point. All of this led up to one of the biggest collective showings of city pride in decades on Saturday night as hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers converged in bars and spilled onto scaffolding and the streets to witness the Knicks become champions again for the first time in 53 years.

Ahead, see the scenes of joy, anxiety, anticipation, and elation captured by our photographer Taryn Segal as she moved through lower Manhattan while history unfolded.