Danhausen has become a fan favorite in WWE and with New York Knicks fans, and the unlikely crossover is landing just as the team moves within one win of its first NBA Finals appearance since 1999. Since Danhausen uncursed the Knicks, they have won 10 straight games, turning a bit of wrestling theater into part of the larger Knicks fever around the city.
The run matters because the Knicks are now on the verge of their first Finals trip in more than two decades, and Jalen Brunson has been at the center of it. Brunson signed with the Knicks from Dallas and has led them on deep playoff runs, giving the team a stabilizing star as the stakes have climbed. His rise has also shown up in the card market: his 2018 Prizm base rookie card in a PSA 10 sold for $100 in early March, and it is now consistently going for over $200. Over the last three months, Brunson’s overall Card Ladder Index has risen more than 26%, another sign of how quickly his profile has grown alongside New York’s playoff push.
Karl-Anthony Towns adds another layer to the story. Traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Knicks, he has been a strong contributor since arriving and is also a passionate collector of sports and WWE trading cards. Towns tried to buy the Randy Orton 2025 Topps Royalty WWE WrestleMania 41 Match-Used Patch Autograph 1/1, saying he bid $40,000 for it before the card sold for $42,100. He has also put a massive bounty on the John Cena WrestleMania Patch, a reminder that the Knicks’ current buzz is spilling well beyond the court. Towns’ overall Card Ladder Index has climbed 74% over the last three months, a jump that mirrors the team’s surge and the sudden heat around Knicks merchandise, cards and anything tied to the franchise right now.
The friction in all of it is simple: New York still has to finish the job. The social-media glow, the wrestling crossover and the card-market spike all point in the same direction, but they do not count in the standings. The Knicks have one more win to secure a place they have not reached since 1999, and that is the only number that will settle the rest of the noise.
