New York Knicks — NBA Champions!
The long-overdue magical subway ride of destiny reached its final destination on Saturday night. For the first time in 53 years, the New York Knicks reached the pinnacle of sports in New York, the United States, and North America.
As Mike Breen so eloquently stated, this is not a dream. The New York Knickerbockers are actually NBA champions! This is the greatest championship of my lifetime, and perhaps the greatest in the history of New York City.
With a gritty 94-90 triumph over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the Knicks not only ended their oversized championship drought, but destroyed a combined 127-season drought between the teams of the four major sports leagues in the New York City area.
Words like jubilation, exultation, euphoria, pride, satisfaction, and alleviation cannot begin to describe the emotions Knicks fans like me felt on Saturday night. This wasn’t any ordinary championship. In fact, a championship in any form would have been enough, but these Knicks, thanks to the new face of the NBA, achieved the largest point differential (14.9) by any playoff team in NBA history. And they did it without a traditional 1A star.
Jalen Brunson deserves a shiny bronze statue outside of Madison Square Garden. This matter is not up for debate. The greatest Knicks captain of all time scored 45 points in his team’s Game 5 clincher. He became the first Knicks player to score 40+ points in a Finals game, and he tied Michael Jordan for the second-most points in a championship-clinching game in NBA history.
Throughout his life, Brunson was criticized for not being tall enough, strong enough, or athletic enough. Entering this postseason, through the Finals, the national media claimed that at 6’2, Brunson didn’t have star-player potential, so he was holding the Knicks back from their championship dreams.
But just like the team he plays for, which was the laughing stock of the NBA for decades, Brunson silenced his critics. His 45-point masterpiece earned him Finals MVP honors. This season, Brunson was named MVP of the NBA Cup tournament, the Eastern Conference Finals, and the NBA Finals.
“The final buzzer, I walked right to halfcourt and shook [Spurs head coach] Mitch Johnson’s hand,” Brunson said. “And then I turned around, and my dad was right there, and I felt emotional. And then I just remember Josh [Hart] talking into my ear, and him just saying, ‘We did it, we did it.’ I was emotional for around 5 to 10 minutes, and then the excitement started to kick in.”
In the league’s truest David and Goliath battle, Brunson bested Victor Wembanyama, robbing him of a championship and the right to represent the NBA. Shooting 14-for-27 from the field and 13-for-15 from the charity stripe, Brunson proved his greatness to the world.
“Tonight, we played like we wanted to go home champions,” Brunson said. “To finish the game, not to start the game. To finish the game. It means the world to me to go on this court with those guys. Whatever environment we’re in, home or away, it doesn’t matter to us.”
At some point in each Finals game, the Knicks trailed San Antonio by 10 points. Whether it was a 29-point comeback in Game 4 or overcoming a 16-point deficit in Game 5, the Knicks were consistently fourth-quarter demons. Brunson led his team with 29 second-half points on Saturday, including 15 in the final frame. They call him Captain Clutch for a reason.
Even after twisting his ankle on a reckless closeout by Wembanyama that went uncalled, Brunson persevered. On the podium after the game, owner James Dolan expressed his pride in how his team fully embodied the word’s meaning. This is a squad with a Villanova championship pedigree at its core, thanks to Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges.
“Those are my brothers for life,” Hart said. “We have a bond that’ll never be broken. We won a championship in college, but this one obviously takes the cake. We’ve been built for this moment. We’ve all been forged in the fire. […] No matter the moment, it’s never too big for us.”
Hart finished Game 4 with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and a team-best +15 rating. Bridges added 14 points and four assists, and he and Hart combined for six critical three-point shots. Behind them, Karl-Anthony Towns struggled with foul trouble, but he still managed 10 rebounds. Mitchell Robinson backed him up with another 10 boards.
Don’t forget about the soft-spoken hero, OG Anunoby, whose signature Game 4 tip-in will live on forever. He has now won two championships on June 13 (although he didn’t get to play in the 2019 Finals due to injury).
Not to mention that 613 is the same number of wins Red Holzman had in his career. It is also quite fitting that Clyde Frazier, No. 10, passed the torch to No. 11. And when it comes to teams that play at MSG, 11 is the signature number worn by franchise-altering, championship drought-ending captains (Mark Messier for the Rangers in 1994, Jalen Brunson for the Knicks in 2026).
In the ugly pre-Brunson times, the Knicks won one playoff series in 21 years. There were seasons when they only won 17 games, yet they secured 16 victories in a single postseason. They finished the 2026 playoffs with a 16-3 record, including a record-setting 13-game win streak. They lost one game in 51 days.
“To have the fans that we have in New York City, and to be able to bring home a championship after all these years, is absolutely amazing,” said head coach Mike Brown, bouncing his grandson on his lap. “It’s a surreal feeling. I don’t know how long it’s been since that final buzzer went off, but I still don’t believe it. I’m pinching myself.”
Even Brown had haters to silence. He had been fired four times as a head coach, and his last playoff series win in that position came in 2012. The Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau after last season ended because they felt they had reached their ceiling with him at the helm. They needed a coach who could dig deeper into his bench and further integrate Towns into the team’s offense.
The Knicks would not have won a championship without Towns. Despite his struggles in Game 5 of the Finals, his incredible postseason as the Knicks’ backup offensive hub powered them to 13 straight wins. Brown, far from the Knicks’ first choice to replace Thibodeau, had to adjust his coaching style so Towns could take the next step. But his team was already closely bonded, so he didn’t have much to change.
Before the season started, Brown had every player, including the deepest members of his bench, sign an “accountability contract.” He told his players that he would respect them more if they didn’t sign it than if they lied and signed it anyway. Immediately, everybody bought in.
“Mike was invaluable to this run,” Hart said. “He knows what it is to be a champion. He knows how to build a team, how to build habits that will put you in this position. We’re so grateful to have him at the top. He kept us even so many times. He brought the best out of us. He’s the reason why we’re here.”
In 2022, Brunson was Leon Rose’s first key acquisition. Two years later, Rose traded Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for Karl-Anthony Towns. But those were the first and final moves made to assemble the best starting five in the NBA.
Rose traded for Hart in February 2023. He sent five first-round picks to Brooklyn for Bridges in the summer of 2024. And in December 2023, he traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to Toronto for Anunoby.
Brunson was honored to win a championship with his father, assistant coach Rick, by his side. Rose has known Jalen his entire life because of his decades-long relationship with his father. There will never be another championship like this one because no other general manager will ever again take a gamble on an unathletic player they’ve known their entire life and turn him into the star of a championship team.
Jalen Brunson never fears failure, and the weight of the Knicks captaincy does not ail him. He has already overcome too much adversity in his life. He is immune to pressure.
“I’ve described pressure in the past,” Brunson said. “My dad being on eight or nine non-guaranteed contracts throughout his career, and not knowing when you’re gonna get cut, when a team’s gonna move on from you while your family’s on the East Coast and you’re wherever you are in the country — that’s pressure. Working out three times a day in the summertime and watching him push himself just to get a training camp deal — that’s pressure.
“I’m very fortunate to be in the position I am, and I like to think I work pretty hard. And so, when an opportunity presents itself like it did today, I just trust my work. If we win, we win, and if we don’t, we learn. We move forward. I’m just never afraid to fail.”
One day, every member of the Knicks’ starting five will watch their number get hoisted to the Madison Square Garden rafters. Brunson — 11. Hart — 3. Bridges — 25. Anunoby — 8. Towns — 32. But before that, the Knicks will likely raise two banners — one representing their NBA Cup championship, and the other a monument to their NBA title.
However, before any of that, the biggest ticker tape parade in New York City history will weave its way through the Canyon of Heroes on Thursday, June 18. This is a week of celebrations. The entire city has waited decades, even lifetimes, to revel in this moment.
The New York Knicks are NBA champions!
It has been my honor to cover the New York Knicks for all of you this season. From Opening Night, I knew this team had a chance to win it all. From that night forward, I repeated that this team had earned its right to be criticized at the highest level. I decided it was NBA-Finals-or-bust for this crew, but I believed they had what it took to bring a championship back home to New York City.
This is why we are sports fans — for moments like this. We endure the misery and the pain because even if we can’t imagine it, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully, it will not take this long for the Knicks to win their next championship, and now that the curse has been lifted from this city, perhaps even more titles are knocking at our door.
These Knicks showed us the power of heart and teamwork, not just talent and fame. They will be immortalized as an inspiration for generations of sports fans and aspiring basketball players because every single member of this team had critics to silence and adversity to overcome. And they overcame those hurdles while wearing the name of one of the country’s most tortured franchises across their chest.
