Doug Bertinelli and Pat Hannafin, two retired New York City Sanitation Department workers, have been friends since grade school. They revisited memory lane by dusting off a banner from 1973, the last time the Knicks earned a championship victory.

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In 1969, Bertinelli and Hannafin met as middle-schoolers and basketball teammates at Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church in Staten Island. Their team won a championship that season. The following year, the duo waited overnight outside Madison Square Garden for tickets, witnessing the Knicks’ triumph.

By 1973, they were high school seniors and best friends. Bertinelli, working as a part-time grocery cashier and stock boy, funded their trip back to the Garden to watch the Knicks win again. Together, they crafted a celebratory bedsheet banner with a marker for Manhattan’s celebration.

Though the Knicks’ successes dwindled, Hannafin stowed the banner away in his attic, remaining faithful to the team with Bertinelli. On Thursday, these lifelong friends joined the Knicks’ championship celebration again, reminiscing with the bedsheet banner still in tow.

Both retired from the Sanitation Department, Bertinelli, 71, and Hannafin, 70, witnessed the generational gap between Knicks titles. Hannafin became a New York sports enthusiast, extensively holding signs at games and claimed memorabilia hoarder.

Bertinelli wasn’t surprised that the banner endured over fifty years under Hannafin’s care. An hour-plus drive from Barnegat, NJ, to Staten Island didn’t deter Bertinelli from joining Hannafin to watch the Knicks lose Game 3 at his home.

“It was like old times,” Bertinelli reflected. “Even though they lost, we ordered pizza.”

The duo attended St. Peter’s Boys High School on Staten Island. Their careers in the Sanitation Department were at different garages. Hannafin worked early morning shifts in Manhattan while Bertinelli supervised on Staten Island. Their daughters were born three days apart.

“On his visits to Staten Island, I requested, ‘Put him with me,’” Bertinelli recalled. “We shared a route.”

Hannafin remained without a cellphone. “He’s kept the same house phone number, and I know it by heart,” Bertinelli said.

On Thursday, the two rode the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan together, mirroring their teenage journeys when finals tickets were affordable and sold as strips covering several games.

“Dusting off that banner was the highlight,” Hannafin expressed. Bertinelli willingly drove back to Staten Island to accompany Hannafin to the parade.

They noted the celebration’s magnitude this time. “We can’t meet often now,” Hannafin remarked about the geographical distance. “Yet, 53 years later, our bond with the Knicks persists.”