The Oklahoma City Thunder are one win away from defending their NBA title against the New York Knicks. It will be difficult for the incumbent to hold on to the Larry O’Brien Trophy, and not just because he must first defeat the NBA’s tallest player, 7’4″ San Antonio Spurs Victor Wimpanyama, one last time (out of a possible two remaining). It’s also not just that the Knicks’ starting five, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns, are playing lights-out basketball on behalf of New York City (the bench has been amazing, too). No, the main obstacle standing in the way of NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the comedic WWE wrestler.
Danhausen is not your typical WWE superstar. Sure, he can wrestle some, but these days, Donovan Andrew Danhausen is the main comedian on the main roster. This is no small feat: Danhausen entertains children and adults alike in what is a key role in the professional wrestling locker room. It also sells a large amount of merchandise. In his short time in WWE, Danhausen has pursued (and defeated) the league’s former stadium clown, The Miz (Miz, in my opinion, is the ultimate in-ring performer), as well as YouTuber IShowSpeed, (Chad) Gable, Dominik Mysterio and Kate Wilson. Not exactly the Four Horsemen, but still.
Danhausen’s greatest performance since his WWE debut on February 28 (he didn’t land) was, with all due respect to Mitchell Robinson, as the New York Knicks’ sixth man. Not literally, of course: Danhausen is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 180 pounds in full makeup.
On April 17, one day before the start of the 2026 NBA Playoffs and two days before WrestleMania 41, Danhausen appeared on the ESPN morning show. Take firstthe Knicks are “cursed” by die-hard fan Stephen A. Smith. (ESPN paid handsomely for the rights to WWE’s signature live events, such as WrestleMania, in the US.) Although the cursed Knicks won Game 1 the following evening against the Atlanta Hawks, they lost their next two games against the underdog in dramatic fashion — back-to-back playoff losses by one point each, marking (quite remarkably) the first time that had happened in NBA history.
If you’re not familiar with Danhausen’s work, he’s basically an eccentric demon of sorts who goes around putting magic on his enemies. These curses are usually directed at the wrestling opponent, and are usually executed in a way that will please Danhausen fans on both a comedic and competitive level.
On April 28, Danhausen lifted the curse on the Knicks in a video cameo. Danhausen then cursed the Hawks, and later the Knicks’ opponent in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers (the Miz’s team). New York hasn’t lost since then, also reeling off 10 straight wins in historic fashion to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. (Technically, the Knicks won the night before Cameo was posted on X as well; it’s unclear when Danhausen actually recorded the video.)
Early yesterday (ET), shortly after the Knicks completed their second straight playoff sweep (the first against the Philadelphia 76ers), Sportico reporter Leif Akabas tweeted: “The New York Knicks have played the longest 10-game stretch in NBA history, and it’s not even remotely close.”
Akabas brought the scatter plot to prove this. In the 2026 playoffs, the Knicks have won their last 10 games by a margin of +246, breaking the old record of +214 set by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1974. The biggest margin in what we consider the current NBA generation was previously +206 by the 2017 Golden State Warriors.
By the way, Akabas doesn’t just plan the NBA playoffs; He also charts the regular season. And the fact that the Knicks’ line has faced teams that, by virtue of qualifying for the playoffs, should be considered among the best in the Eastern Conference, only makes that point clearer. It was an inexplicable, some might say supernatural, journey. This is kind of a Danhausen thing.
Both WWE Store and NBA Store capitalized on the moment, selling officially licensed Danhausen/Knicks jerseys featuring the character’s painted face, the Knicks logo, and the phrase “You Are Un-Cursed.” It remains to be seen whether Danhausen will curse the winner of the Spurs/Thunder series, but he certainly will too. We asked WWE, they haven’t played ball – maybe they’ll save it for a while on ESPN.
So beautiful, so evil.
