This Knicks Fan Spent the Season Writing a Song After Every Game
Lifelong musician and devoted Knicks fan Doug Berns turned every game into a song, crafting postgame anthems to capture the team's triumphs and heartbreaks.
Author's Note: I reported this story in February 2025 for a journalism class at CUNY Newmark, where Doug was already turning every Knicks game into a musical moment — and it was clear there was something special happening.
A few editors I pitched didn’t quite see it at the time. I probably could’ve asked for more help shopping it around, but part of me wanted to trust my instincts — and I’m glad I did. Since I initially filed it in class, Doug’s was later profiled in The Athletic, The New York Post, talked about on ESPN NY, WFAN, CBS NY, nearly every major Knicks podcast and YouTube channel, jammed with Ben Stiller, and officially partnered with the team during their first Eastern Conference Finals run in 25 years.
Sometimes the best stories are happening right in front of us—we just need to be paying attention. Here's the story as I wrote it then, exactly as filed: a snapshot of something special before it became impossible to ignore.
This Knicks Fan Spent the Season Writing a Song After Every Game
Lifelong musician and devoted Knicks fan Doug Berns turned every game into a song, crafting postgame anthems to capture the team's triumphs and heartbreaks.
By Jake Lang
March 3, 2025
NEW YORK CITY — Doug Berns doesn't wait until morning. As soon as the final buzzer sounds, he's in his home studio—bass in hand—layering drum tracks, tweaking synths, and reworking lyrics.
Berns is not your average Knicks fan. A lifelong basketball player and musician, now in his mid-30s, he's found a way to merge the two: writing, producing, and releasing a new music video on Instagram after every Knicks game of the 2024-25 NBA season. That means cranking out multiple songs a week, often on tight overnight deadlines.
The process is relentless. Writing, recording, and producing isn't just about game recaps; it's about capturing the game's emotion. Whether analyzing Knicks transition defense or rookies Tyler Kolek and Ariel Hukporti, he's breaking the game down in real time and setting it to music.
By day, Berns is a professional musician—a bassist and songwriter who has toured globally, including with the 10-piece Afrobeat-funk band EMEFE. In 2023, he also released a metal album called "Dreams Are The Only Safe Place To Hide" under the alias KTHRTK (pronounced cathartic).
For Berns, basketball and music are inseparable.
"Basketball is a super musical game," he says. "The players decide what to do on a basketball court in a similar way that musicians do on stage."
A game, like a song, is built on rhythm, improvisation, and chemistry. Each possession builds tension—like a melody anticipating its resolution. And for Knicks fans, that final Note—the long-awaited championship—has remained an unresolved chord for over 50 years.
Still, the reality's been tougher than any Knicks fan would like to admit. For at least 25 years, aside from a few fleeting moments of Linsanity, the Knicks have been the butt of nearly every joke, drawing the ire of even the most diehard fans, like Berns. In January of 2023, Berns wrote a song quite literally called FIRETHIBS—and as you might guess, it was a metal track, complete with guttural growls directed at Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Two years later, though, Berns' tune has changed—and it's not hard to see why. The Knicks won their first playoff series in a decade last year, and now, after a series of daring acquisitions, they seem to have turned a corner. Some in the media have even gone so far as to call them a potential contender.
Still, it's hard to believe sometimes. The Knicks haven't won a championship since 1973, holding one of the longest title droughts in sports history.
Being a Knicks fan—like being a New Yorker—was never supposed to be easy. But belief turns suffering into something almost spiritual.
That's the essence of what Berns captures in his music. His nightly recaps aren't just about the wins and losses; they document the emotional highs and lows, turning each game into a piece of a season-long composition. These aren't quick remixes or mashups. Each song is fully recreated from scratch, with Berns playing and recording all the instruments himself.
"I program drums, and everything else I record myself," he explains. "Nothing you hear on any of my songs are samples. They're recreations and tributes."
Beyond the music, each performance doubles as a recap, with rewritten lyrics reflecting the night's events.
"I take a lot of time to make sure you get all the important details from each song," he explains. "Sometimes, a track has a great hook, but the bridge is actually the best part. Other times, it's got a single word that just hits. When I'm putting these together, I'm aiming for about a minute, maybe a little more, and I think, 'What's going to give people that feeling of listening to this awesome song in a short burst?'"
His process is as much about storytelling as it is about music. He watches the game closely, noting key moments that could shape the narrative. "Like last night, when Mitch fell to the floor—did you see that? Or all the little things Jalen Brunson does in a game? I always keep track of those. I'll grab a stat or two, highlight a couple of players that stood out, and tie it all into a bigger storyline—maybe even a reference to what it means to be a Knicks fan in general." For fans unable to watch the full game, or make sense of it all, Berns' videos serve a purpose.
Some people don't always get it, and that's okay with Berns. These songs aren't for them.
"People will say, 'You wrote a song about beating the Nets by four? That's embarrassing, bro,'" Berns says. "And I'm like, 'Look, if we lost to the Nets, I would have to write a song.' There's no front-running involved. This is about the integrity of being a real fan—the ups and downs."
Every Game Tells a Story
Berns doesn't choose songs at random—his picks are deliberate.
"It's all of those factors," he says. "Opponent, storyline, energy. A lot of times, I think about where the team we're playing is from."
After the Knicks suffered a brutal 142-105 loss to Cleveland, he covered Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Crossroads, nodding to the city's hip-hop legacy. Knicks center Mitchell Robinson reposted the video on his story with the caption, "It's not that serious, bro." Berns DM'd him: "Dude, I write a song for every game." Robinson replied: "Nah, man. This is hilarious. You're awesome."
When the Knicks beat the Miami Heat, he riffed on "Push It to the Limit" from Scarface. After a frustrating loss to the Magic, he reworked Cage The Elephant's Ain't No Rest for the Wicked, critiquing coach Tom Thibodeau's refusal to rest his starters.
Even his visuals are deliberate. Some nights, he's in a Patrick Ewing jersey with aviators and a leather jacket; on others, he's got a Latrell Sprewell jersey and a sport coat on. For a Miami game, he throws on a pastel shirt. And after a 15-point loss to the Spurs—a team missing its top two players and stumbling in with a 28-39 record—Berns, naturally, had to Break Stuff. Wearing a mask in homage to Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland, he ripped through the pain with an electric ax in hand.
But if there's one video that encapsulates his approach, it might be last Wednesday's matchup against the 76ers in Philadelphia. In full-on Rocky mode, Berns split the screen—on one side, he shadowboxed in Knicks gear, throwing air punches like he was prepping for a title fight; on the other, he shredded Eye of the Tiger on a flying V guitar, turning the postgame into an anthem of grit. He even dressed for the moment, bundled up in a Knicks hoodie, hat, and finger gloves, as if bracing for a street fight in South Philly.
"I didn't hear no bell," the caption read.
Berns' nightly recaps have made him a fixture in Knicks online circles. His posts draw everything from 🔥 emojis to inside jokes about the game, and larger Knicks fan accounts like KnicksFanTV regularly share his work. But this is more than just entertainment, it's communal therapy.
New York Nico, a cultural curator and filmmaker, summed up the silver lining after loss to Cleveland: "The only upside to a blowout loss is getting to hear your recap song."
Scroll through the comments on any of the videos, and you'll see just how much fans have latched on. As one fan commented, "Yo bro, at this point, I'm looking forward to your postgame recap every game now—you got Knick Bangers 💯😂."
Two nights later in Memphis, the Knicks eeked out a one-point win, and Berns switched gears again. This time, he was in aviators and a Patrick Ewing jersey, cloned into three versions of himself, belting out a new hook over a familiar instrumental.
"RETURN OF THE MITCH!"
Mitchell Robinson was back after nearly a year away, and for Knicks fans, it was a long-awaited moment of hope. For Berns, it meant another song—but that didn't make it any less special. He's a diehard, bleeding orange and blue like the rest of them. He feels every loss, rides every high, and commits to capturing it all, night after night.
Berns never set out to become an essential part of the Knicks fandom, but at this point, he is.
Berns' project reflects a larger trend of how sports media is expanding away from traditional outlets toward digital creators who merge culture and commentary in global music. And he's not just reaching Knicks fans in New York, but worldwide. From London to Manila and back to the Garden, Knicks fans are tuning in.
And it's not just Knicks fans—global sports cultures have always blended music and fandom. Colleges across America have "fight songs." In Liverpool, England, soccer fans have "You'll Never Walk Alone" as their anthem. In Argentina, Boca Juniors supporters chant original songs and play instruments for tunes like Boca Es Mi Vida ("Boca Is My Life").
For Knicks fans, there may be a dearth of easily chant-able songs beyond the all-time classic "Go NY Go," but Berns' music is starting to carry the same weight as any Knicks rallying cry.
He may not be at the Garden every night, but his presence is everywhere—on Knicks Twitter, KnicksGram, and in the rituals of fans scrolling through postgame recaps.
A season is like a song—a buildup of tension, crescendos of triumph, and stretches of dissonance that never quite resolve. Knicks fans have been waiting for half a century for that final chord to land, that last Note to ring out in victory.
Until then, Berns keeps playing. Night after night, win or lose, he scores the soundtrack to a story still unfinished.
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For now, though, just stay cool. It’s like Doug just said, hot as balls outside.