He has Knicks fans believing they can go all the way — to heaven.
A Long Island bishop who used to play college hoops is using his beloved Knicks and their biblical 13-game postseason winning streak to get New Yorkers closer to God.
“Like Peter, James, and John were called from fishing nets, I was called from basketball nets,” Bishop John Barres of the Diocese of Rockville Centre told The Post near the altar of St. Agnes Cathedral.
“New York Knicks, 2026, we’re so grateful to you,” he said, “For the wonderful way you’ve turned Madison Square Garden again to just a magical place, and brought so many New Yorkers together.”
The former point guard for Princeton University’s JV team in the late 1970s had his spiritual outlook shaped by both his play and the two-time title-winning Knicks of the era — especially “unselfishness” from fellow Tiger forward Bill Bradley.
“They formed me in so many ways,” Barres said of watching the 1970 and 1973 NBA champs as a boy.
There are few more jovial than Barres that half a century of agony in the garden may finally end with the Knicks currently up 2-0 over the Spurs in the NBA Finals.
Barres is exemplifying their long-awaited title run by teaching Long Island’s 1,000 newly confirmed Catholics and others to “step up” their starting roles as “humble, compassionate” lights of Christ.
“I use the example of Jalen Brunson stepping up with his three pointers — his management of the floor, the wonderful way he passes, the wonderful way he drives to the basket, the wonderful way he reads the other team,” he said.
“I’m mesmerized by Jalen — just watching him, his unselfishness, and just how he does what he does.”
Westchester-born Barres, who, like Brunson, wore No. 11, has remained deeply rooted in Catholicism’s connection to sports — especially at the youth level on LI — ever since his playing days.
He even hands out priest cards showing him making a layup at the Ivy League school’s Jadwin Gym.
“I think the Holy Spirit prepared me humanly through the basketball experience,” the Bishop said.
The cards also show a dunk-on-the-devil message, “holiness and mission GO FOR IT!” which takes inspiration from a motto by Pope John Paul II, a talented athletic skier himself.
Barres too has been a major advocate for athletics being connector to faith — he even wrote a “ya gotta believe!” letter about the 1969 Mets — and once helped a young man land a role with Hofstra-turned-Villanova’s legendary coach, Jay Wright.
His Excellency is particularly fond of Wright’s excellent “Nova Knicks” in former NCAA champion Wildcats Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges, a trio Barres has also exemplified.
“The way they have such a wonderful team chemistry is a great metaphor for the Holy Spirit’s chemistry in the mission of the church in every continent,” Barres said.
He added that it’s no mystery of faith why Pope LEO XIV, a 1977 grad of the same Catholic school, wrote a letter on sports having tremendous value for the human spirit ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Now the Knicks are even coming up in conversation on diocesan work calls, Barres admitted.
He is mulling over new ways to homilize Mike Brown’s Eastern Conference champs after seeing the energy they’ve created in NY.
“It’s on people’s minds…All the things they model to us about true leadership — unselfish leadership for the common good,” he said.
“In some beautiful and mysterious way, this was meant to be, and it’s giving a lift to New Yorkers and Knicks fans…I wouldn’t be surprised this weekend if we see [jerseys and t-shirts at mass].”
Barres has one message to the squad ahead of their return to New York for Game 3 Monday night.
“God bless you all…Go Knicks.”
