'Knicks For Clicks' Paying Off For News

The New York Knicks' incredible run through the NBA's Eastern Conference playoffs have created a surge in interest – and news creators that prioritized covering the team's success have directly benefited.

Data from Google Trends shows that over the last month, U.S. news search interest in the Knicks was climbing steadily, before exploding during the Eastern Conference Finals. On Monday night, New York closed out the Cleveland Cavaliers in game four, spurring a final surge to the 100th percentile of the term's news search popularity.

• Top Knicks-related queries over the full month were "Knicks game" (+200% vs. previous period) and "Knicks Cavaliers" (+1,150%).
• "Knicks Cavaliers" was also the No. 2 U.S. sports search term over the last week (only behind searches for NASCAR driver Kyle Busch's tragic passing).
• However, the breakout queries came over the last week, when "Knicks Finals" and "Knicks NBA Finals" surged as the team closed in on another convincing series win to make its first Finals since 1999.
• "Knicks for Clicks" has been a thing for years, though it once simply applied to media talking about the Knicks in any fashion to get eyeballs on stories and segments. Now, the term is perhaps a guideline for what media should be focusing on here in late May/early June: Cover the Knicks or miss the boat on one of the country's biggest stories.