Photograph per Peter Wyn Mosey.
The second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs is coming to a close, which marks the start of the stretch run in which true championship contenders differentiate themselves.
The postseason undeniably takes a massive toll on players, coaches, and executives hungry to prove they can reach the top of the basketball world. But what about the diehard fans who dream of their team winning the championship? You could argue the playoffs dictate their mental health for the foreseeable future.
Anyone who knows me will easily tell you I’m a crazy New York Knicks fan. I also graduated from college five days ago and now face immense amounts of personal stress and uncertainty. The Knicks will either win the championship and cure everything, or fall short in the Eastern Conference Finals or NBA Finals, which I don’t even want to think about.
While that sounds dramatic, psychologists say the emotional connection fans build with their favorite teams is very real. In a 2024 interview, Daniel Wann, a professor of psychology at Murray State University, said, “If you were to take away the emotional response of being a sports fan, you would take away the point of being a sports fan, right? I mean, to be a fan is to be emotional, the elation from the win, the disappointment in the loss, and every potential emotional range in between those two things,” he told Kim Mills of The American Psychological Association.
Building on his point, fans can feel increased stress and anxiety during the playoffs, and the highs of wins and downs of losses can become an emotional rollercoaster.
Everything feels magnified in the playoffs because it can determine your season. To win the championship, you have to win four out of seven games — four times in a row. There are no moral victories or meaningless games like there are during the regular season. A loss can dominate media discourse for days and shift fans’ emotions completely. In cities with passionate fans like New York and Boston, playoff basketball becomes unavoidable. Fans make their schedules around games and emotionally ride every win and loss as if they are part of the roster. Personally, I think the fact that fans can’t control the outcome of a game is a strong driving force behind their anxiety.
Social media has also amplified the emotions of being a fan during the playoffs. There is discourse before, during and after games on platforms like Instagram and X, which exposes fans to constant criticism and debate, making it harder to mentally disconnect from the outcome of a playoff game. For example, after the Knicks fell down 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, fans on X were calling for head coach Mike Brown to be fired, even though it is his first season with the team.
Since then, the team has won seven games in a row, including a second-round sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers. My point is that because each game is so important, a bad short stretch during the playoffs can feel like a disaster when, in reality, things can change in the blink of an eye.
On the flip side, being an NBA fan during the playoffs can also have an incredibly positive effect on your mental health. Experiencing this intensity creates community and excitement among fanbases and can even lead to long-lasting relationships, whether it’s crowded around a television in a college rental or in real time at the arena with loved ones. For many sports fans, game days can be an escape from the stress of everyday life, and the emotional highs of a playoff run can build memories that last forever.
What makes sports so special is that fans know the heartbreak of losing is a possibility, but they watch anyway because they know the jubilation of a championship makes the stress worth the pain.
