From NYCHA to the Garden, the Knicks' Jose Alvarado is living a New Yorker's dream

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ⛅ Partly sunny, slight chance of afternoon showers, highs around 80.

It's Wednesday in New York City, where South Williamsburg's own Jose Alvarado has emerged as a key contributor in the Knicks' first NBA Finals appearance in 27 years.

"People keep thinking that he's just a random," said 17-year-old Kaiser Covington, who was shooting hoops outside the Berry Street Houses, where Alvarado grew up.

"He's the most underrated player on the Knicks, in my opinion."

Here's what to know about the team's only homegrown star.

Here's your complete guide to Game 4 at Madison Square Garden tonight, including watch parties and the Midtown security situation.

And here's what else is happening:

• Police said they're searching for a group of people accused of attacking a San Antonio Spurs fan and stealing his jersey in Midtown after Monday night's NBA Finals game.
• AI foe or crypto bro? Arguments over Assemblymember Alex Bores' former work for Palantir dominated last night's Democratic primary debate in the 12th Congressional District.  
• Ahead of the World Cup, which starts tomorrow:
  • Mayor Zohran Mamdani is launching a roughly $130,000 campaign to inform workers and immigrants of their rights.
  • New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said the state is giving out 770 free passes to matches at MetLife Stadium.
  • The Port Authority plans to flood the city's airports with police officers to flush out unlicensed taxi scammers who notoriously overcharge tourists for illegal cab rides.
• A carriage horse died in Central Park yesterday evening after an apparent medical episode, according to police.
• A new report from New Jersey health inspectors found poor employee hygiene, unclean surfaces and food stored at unsafe temperatures at the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark.
• The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping in city shelters grew 27% during the Adams administration, according to a new report.

• "You are going to see more ICE agents than you have ever seen in New York City," Border Czar Tom Homan told Fox News yesterday. "I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming."
• Brad Lander is set to stand trial in a federal court today over his arrest last year at an immigrant detention facility in Lower Manhattan.
• Sparrow Funeral Home in Greenpoint is hosting a Knicks watch party tonight.
• Abraham Chabon, the son of author Michael Chabon, has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor choking charge after Manhattan prosecutors dropped an earlier rape charge due to a lack of evidence.
• The NYPD yesterday chased down a 23-year-old who allegedly stole a tap payment machine from a Harlem dry cleaner and then fled on foot, eventually jumping into a lake in the north end of Central Park.
• A deer fell from a Garden State Parkway overpass last night and landed right on a woman's Hyundai Tucson, trapping her inside.
• "Coffee raves."