Exclusive | Knicks fan proposes to girlfriend at Thunder game in OKC: ‘I could have been cussed’

He didn’t have home field advantage, but he still won.

Diehard Knicks fan Joseph DeSimone popped the question to girlfriend Erica Vann on Kiss Cam in Oklahoma City as the team took on the Thunder in a clash of NBA heavyweights last Friday.

The Lower East Side native made the bold move while in enemy territory — she got down on one knee at the Paycom Center — and wore a Knicks shirt.

“I took a chance because I could have been teased on the Jumbotron when they saw my shirt,” DeSimone, 37, told The Post.

“But the fans cheer like the Thunder hit a 3-pointer or just hit the game-winning shot. There was a lot of love, even after the proposal. People were passing by us saying: ‘Congratulations'”.

The couple, who are both employees of the US Postal Service in Oklahoma City, met in 2023 after DeSimone moved there.

Vann, 33, “had no intention of dating” DeSimone when a colleague suggested the Oklahoma native show him around.

But on their second excursion, he made his move.

“It was a booth and I sat on the same side as him,” he recalls. “And she was a little shocked and said, ‘Oh, I think this is a date.’

DeSimone bought tickets to the game months before he planned to propose.

“I wanted to see the Knicks play in Oklahoma City.

“And then I just woke up one day and said, ‘You know this girl is really for me. Let me see how I can propose in the game.”

Even though DeSimone had inquired about her ring size two months earlier, Vann was still shocked — especially since they weren’t on the best of terms that night.

“We would actually get up really late and we were kind of mad at each other,” she recalls.

“So I was driving fast,” DeSimone added. “She was kind of upset with me and wondered why I was so determined to get there.”

The groom-to-be was nervous about tucking the radiant-cut sparkler into his pocket at the arena — muttering, “Please don’t go away,” to himself as he walked through the metal detectors.

So when the insurance stopped him, he became even more stressed.

“I thought it was for the ring, but he wanted me to take off the belt.”

The proposal happened late in the first quarter, and after they got on the Kiss Cam, Vann said, “it all happened so fast.”

“Then I’m looking at it and a ring on the Jumbotron and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And I kept telling him, ‘I’m going to throw up the blood,'” she said.

“I think I just said, ‘Will you marry me or what?'” DeSimone recalled.

“And then she shook her head. In the video, I’m tapping his arm because I’m like, “Give me the finger.” Because I couldn’t stay there for that long.”