NEW YORK — For many of the New York Knicks fans who attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, buying tickets was a waiting game. The first Finals game at Madison Square Garden in 27 years commanded historic ticket prices — as in, what you’d expect to spend on a used car or several months of New York City rent — but some diehards simply refused to be denied. Just ask Jared Sage, 25, of ...

A detailed view of shirts and towels are seen on the backs of the seats prior to Game Three between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 8, 2026, in New York City.

Al Bello/Getty Images North America/TNS

NEW YORK — For many of the New York Knicks fans who attended Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, buying tickets was a waiting game.

The first Finals game at Madison Square Garden in 27 years commanded historic ticket prices — as in, what you’d expect to spend on a used car or several months of New York City rent — but some diehards simply refused to be denied.

Just ask Jared Sage, 25, of Greenwich Village, who surveyed the resale marketplaces before finally pulling the trigger through SeatGeek for $6,900 seats located in the front of a 200-level section.

“I was going to be here no matter what,” said Sage, a lifelong fan whose middle name is Reed thanks to Willis Reed.

As of Sunday afternoon, the cheapest prices on secondary ticket websites such as SeatGeek, StubHub and TickPick all exceeded $6,000.

There was a window Monday when those get-in prices dropped — Sage said he saw some for $4,750 while he scoured — but two hours before tip-off, even those relative bargains were long gone.

“There were a bunch of cheaper upper-[deck tickets], but I wasn’t going to not see the Jumbotron,” Sage said.

Other fans struck earlier.

Robert and Brianna Kiernan of Oakdale, N.Y., bought two tickets for $5,500 each last Friday, but only because of some well-timed good luck.

“We actually won a parlay right before — a big one — so we cashed all the winnings and got tickets,” Robert, 38, said.

The bet? Robert and two coworkers put in $250 each on a Western Conference finals game and two MLB games, a parlay that yielded a $39,312 payout.

“We’re in contract for a house right now, so the rule was that the only way to get this was if he wins the money on a bet,” Brianna, 37, said with a laugh.

A family of four paid $6,800 per ticket — about $27,500 — and flew in from Nixa, Miss., to fulfill their patriarch’s dream.

“It was on my dad’s bucket list to come here once in his life. He didn’t say anything about the Finals or this year or anything, but it’s his birthday and Father’s Day coming up, so we decided to surprise him,” Garrett Hines said.

“He saw that we wrote a check for that amount of money and he goes, ‘What the hell did you guys buy me?’ He was like, ‘Whatever it is, we’re gonna return it.’ When we gave it to him, he was like, ‘We’re not returning it!’”

Face value for the cheapest tickets was $1,725, and the incredible demand made those precious few seats quite difficult to obtain. Therefore, season ticket holders had the opportunity to turn their seats into a small fortune.

But for Quinn Schiller and Nari Watanabe, who have a quarter-season package, the decision to attend the game themselves wasn’t too hard.

“My landlord said, ‘Would you sell them for $75,000?’ I said, ‘Maybe for that amount, I would reconsider.’ It never got close to that,” said Schiller, 35, of Ridgewood, Queens,

Even that wouldn’t have been enough for Watanabe.

“No. Not for $75,000,” said Watanabe, 36, of Nutley, N.J. “This is once in a lifetime.”

____