One Long Island kid’s hoop dream became a timeless hoop theme.
In 1993, recent college grad and die-hard Knicks fan Jesse Itzler had a dream of writing his favorite team’s theme song.
“I was born a Knicks fan and always loved their grit,” the New Yorker, 56, reminisced of the team’s golden age, with legends like Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley and John Starks featured on the posters of every sports fan’s bedroom wall.
“I had an idea to write a song that would get people in the Garden chanting during a timeout,” Itzler told The Post on the eve of the Knicks’ return to the Eastern Conference finals, noting the hunger for higher energy at the time. “At NBA games, all of a sudden, there were Knicks City Dancers and entertainment.”
The rising rapper, who went by the stage name Jesse Jaymes in the early 90s, and future entrepreneurial legend who went on to marry Spanx founder, Sara Blakely, knew this was his one shot.
‘So many people tell me, “That was the soundtrack of my 90s”… It lasting more than 30 years is unbelievable.’
Jesse Itzler
Inside the closet of his 300-square-foot NYC walk-up he shared with a roommate, he began recording the lyrics of the catchy and enduring anthem: “Go New York.”
Cassette in hand, he scored a meeting with Knicks bigwigs — including then-president Dave Checketts and executive Ernie Grunfeld — and the short demo won them over.
After making some adjustments in time for that year’s All-Star game, the iconic “Go New York” was born.
The paycheck was a cool $4,000 — enough to cover his $350 monthly rent for a year, with pizza money left over — but as Itzler said, “I would have paid them $10,000 just to use it.”
“It took a while to get going — the first couple of games, no one really knew what was really going on,” he recalled, adding the anthem was being promoted on towels for the erstwhile electronics giant Nobody Beats the Wiz.
But the 75-second song, which Itzler tweaked every year over the first decade with guest features including Q-Tip, Mobb Deep, Ed Lover, DJ Skribble and Angie Martinez, ultimately won over fans.
And once it became a radio staple with New Yorkers addicted to the catchy tune, “it was game over.”
At 23, Itzler was thrilled to score “like two bleacher seats” to enjoy the fruits of his labor echo throughout the iconic stadium, which was “totally fine” with the starstruck fan. “I just wanted to be in the arena.”
Now, more than 30 years later, he pays full freight for his courtside season tix — no celebrity row for him — and still maintains that he would have paid the team out of his own pocket back then just to get that shot.
“My life has taken a crazy turn since then,” said the entrepreneur, extreme endurance athlete and best-selling author. “I’ve had some big wins — but that was the start of everything for me.”
Still, even after building five companies, his one staple is Knicks love.
Writing that song was a highlight of his life — up until that point and ever since. Aside from his wedding and the births of his four kids, the Knicks song is “one of the three biggest moments in my life.”
“So many people tell me, ‘That was the soundtrack of my 90s,” he said with pride. “The return on investment isn’t $4,000 — it’s being connected to that team.”
The longevity of the anthem is all about the fans, Itzler said. “There’s no promotion behind it — there’s not even a record out. It’s all fan-generated.”
Hearing people chant it on the street still blows him away, adding that playing a small part in the unifying power of New York’s favorite basketball team still gives him chills.
“The Knicks are the major glue to the city – they bring together all walks of life, boroughs, demographics, colors and religions,” he mused. “And the song is a part of that — it’s crazy.”
His “biggest thrill” is when he hears the anthem chanted outside the court.
“It’s amazing when people sing it at the Garden, but not as amazing as when people sing it on the streets. That’s a real moment,” he added.
Itzler is accustomed to grueling endeavors — he completed a month of extreme fitness training that culminated in his 2016 best-selling book, “Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet.” But waiting 25 long years for his team to be in the championship again is even sweeter than that accomplishment.
“This is more rewarding,” than that exhausting fitness regimen, he said.
Even though he’s now part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, where he lives with Blakely and their kids, Itzler’s lifelong love affair with the Knicks hasn’t faded.
Though he won’t make predictions, Itzler is pumped for a big win.
“A true sports fan is with a team through the good and the bad,” Itzler said. This season’s team echoes the vibes of the Knicks back in the day, when “Go New York” became “the rallying cry of the 90s,” he said.
“This team is very similar to the 90s – with the grit, being an underdog, and similar personalities to the players during that era,” said Itzler, who’s a big fan of Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. “I love them all.”
For the East Conference Finals, Itzler plans to take his kids to the place where it all started, “so they can hear everything in the arena.”
“The biggest thing for me is that my kids get to see it. And it takes me back to that era,” he said.
“I was a Knicks fan from day one, so to be able to write that song, I would have done it for free. It lasting more than 30 years is unbelievable.”
