Nothing is more wonderful than the afterglow of a championship. All the effort and sacrifice made by the players, coaches and management comes to fruition in one glorious moment. The result is that history has been made, inscribed in the record books forever.
Such happened with the New York Knicks when they won the NBA Championship on Saturday night in San Antonio. For fifty three years the franchise and its loyal fans had been searching for another trophy to go with the two earned in 1970 and 1973.
That long wait ended in pure ecstasy. With the nail-biting, come-from-behind 94-90 victory, this Knicks squad has etched its name permanently among the greatest teams in both the NBA and New York sports history.
Undoubtedly, this team beat a very worthy opponent. Victor Wembanyama is a force to be reckoned with. Former Rutgers star, rookie Dylan Harper showed why he was such a valuable commodity with a scoring ability beyond his years and a pedigree that came from his father, five-time NBA champion Ron Harper.
After all, this Spurs team dethroned the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in a marvelous seven game series to reach the NBA Finals. In each of the five games played against NYK, San Antonio opened up a double-digit lead in the first quarter and had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. Bad teams don’t do that.
Absent serious injuries, the Spurs will be in the championship hunt for years to come. They will learn from this experience and improve on how to close out the opposition. All the parts are there—good shooting, smothering team defense and athleticism. What they lack is leadership, which they will look to Wemby for. Now that he has tasted defeat, he will be hungrier than ever with his enormous talent. If he closes out games unlike his missed free throws in Games 4 & 5 at critical moments, the Spurs will become champions.
But the resiliency of the Knicks was on full display during the Finals. New York had demolished its Eastern Conference foes to reach the final stage. This team accumulated a 13 game winning streak during the playoffs—the second-longest in NBA annals. They knew how to win and showed unrelenting determination and fight against formidable odds.
I heard an unreal statistic during the fourth quarter of Game 5—that NYK had only led in all of the games 27% of the time. However, I am certain that in the last two minutes of the games, that percentage rose dramatically.
One could argue that the Knicks were a lucky bunch. The OG Anunoby tip in to win Game 4 was nothing short of miraculous. Wemby missing free throws and Harper not converting shots that they had been consistently making easily earlier in the games worked in New York’s favor.
Yet, in the aftermath of this Finals series, the New York Knicks sit atop the throne as the newly-installed champions of the basketball world. Luck, skill and determination were a worthy combination for this team which will be deified in New York for what they accomplished.
Finals M.V.P. Jalen Brunson carried this team on his broad shoulders. The 6’2’’ guard—deemed by many to be too small to lead his team to the Promised Land—showed his detractors how wrong they were. He had ice water in his veins, repeatedly taking and making almost impossible shots and nearly converting all of his free throws after being bashed to the floor repeatedly by overzealous Spurs defenders.
Brunson is not quite the shooter like Steph Curry, another legendary guard who took his teams to 4 NBA Championships. His Golden State Warriors teams had an assemblage of talent that will wind up in the Hall of Fame—Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Andre Igoudala are all worthy of enshrinement.
Not unlike the Warriors, the Knicks had players with championship histories. Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikail Bridges all won NCAA titles at Villanova My wife and I actually cut through the Villanova campus on Sunday afternoon). Bridges and Brunson won two titles together—the second one in all places, San Antonio—just in a different arena. They are the first trio in NBA history to have won both a NCAA and NBA championship. (And an asterisk should be given to Donte DiVincenzo, a Villanova teammate who played on the Knicks with his Wildcat brethren and then was traded to bring in Karl-Anthony Towns, a critical piece of the NYK puzzle).
Former Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright, who was at MSG for Game 4, had to be so proud. Hart had 13 points, snared 11 rebounds and had the best NYK plus/minus at 15. Bridges scored 14 points on 5 for 10 shooting and, along with Hart, they both sank three 3 point shots each.
Hart was far from perfect. He made some critical mistakes late in Game 4 and Game 5 which could have cost the Knicks the game and maybe even the title. But his flame never flickered and he was integral in the team’s success.
Bridges cost the Knicks five first round picks which went to the rival Brooklyn Nets. While he may not have played at a Brunson-like level, his contributions were a necessary cog in the team’s wins.
Then there was Brunson, who put up dazzling numbers: 45 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals while being harassed by the Spurs defenders. The one-time Mr. Basketball in Illinois, the son of Rick Brunson, a former NBA player who was on Coach Mike Brown’s staff, wanted to come to New York. He took in salary what seemed to be a bargain in NBA terms for a $55 million extension to prove his doubters wrong.
This is a guy who was drafted in the second round by Dallas because the skeptics believed his height was a detriment in a big man’s league. Were those people ever wrong—just like they were about Curry, one of the greatest players ever to play in the NBA.
What Brunson and Curry had in common was an internal desire which never diminished, no matter how punished they were by their opponents, marginalized by the defenses presented to thwart them and by poor officiating not protecting them. They never stopped pushing and scoring and both used their enormous talents to will their teams to victory.
Curry and Brunson married their high school sweethearts. And they both had parents who were athletes—the fathers played in the NBA and the mothers were DI college volleyball players. A nice coincidence.
New York became the eighth NBA franchise in the past eight years to win a crown. Repeating is very difficult—OKC is the latest to learn that sad fact. Going forward, the likelihood of the Knicks winning in consecutive years is small.
This team, constructed by Team President Leon Rose, a Dickinson College grad from Cherry Hill and a Temple Law alum who was a former agent, was made to reach the pinnacle. Mission accomplished.
The Knicks also accomplished a first with this title. They also won the Emirates Cup. Who did they beat in Las Vegas? San Antonio. Think they had the Spurs’ number this season? Bet on it.
Is this the greatest NYK team ever? Too early to say. They were unique and different for certain.
The championships teams of 1970 and 1973 had basketball royalty on them—team Captain Willis Reed; Walt “Clyde” Frazier, a long-time TV analyst for the team; Bill Bradley, the Princeton All-American, Rhodes Scholar and former U.S. Senator from New Jersey; Dave DeBusschere, who played MLB baseball and NBA basketball before becoming a NBA executive; Dick Barnett, who earned a Ph.D; Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, who could shoot and gyrate unlike many other on a basketball court; Jerry Lucas, an incredible rebounder and passer; and a journeyman player named Phil Jackson, who found fame coaching Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant (we also went through Lower Merion Township outside of Philadelphia, where Bryant rose to stardom as a high school phenom) to a total of 13 championships. Everyone of the aforementioned names is in the Hall of Fame.
Moreover, the Knicks of that era didn’t have to play in as many rounds of playoffs as this NYK team did. In 1970, the Knicks brought out a hobbled Reed to make two shots and then let Frazier and his teammates do the rest in a Game 7 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. The 1973 team defeated the Lakers again in a rematch of the 1972 NBA Finals, this time in five games after LAL won in five.
Still, those Lakers teams were great and had enormous talent. The 1972 team won 33 consecutive regular season games. It is a tribute to the Knicks and their legendary Head Coach William “Red” Holzman, a Brooklyn native, who knew how to bring great players together as a team.
Brunson will certainly have his jersey hanging from the Garden rafters when he retires. He is likely to attain Hall of Fame enshrinement. The others on this team aren’t as compelling HOF players with the exception of Anunoby and maybe Towns. Hart seems to be a poor man’s Draymond Green.
Head Coach Mike Brown is a very sharp basketball mind. He out coached Mitch Johnson, his counterpart on San Antonio. Brown’s history contains a myriad of stops with success for the most part. He has coached Lebron James in Cleveland; took over for Phil Jackson in Los Angeles when Jackson retired; went back to Cleveland; sat on the bench next to Steve Kerr as a top assistant when the Golden State Warriors were winning their titles; had a bit of success at Sacramento where coaches languish; all before taking over in New York where the team had pinnacled with losses in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Brown’s regular season record is 507-333, which is a winning percentage of .604. His playoff record is 66-43, which is a .606 mark. Very consistent. Plus he authored the 13 game winning streak in these playoffs with a team that went a remarkable 16-3 overall.
The guy is a winner. He knows how to coach. His players love him. He is a legitimate Hall of Fame coaching candidate. Mike Brown deserves all the accolades coming to him.
So the celebrations continue in the New York metropolitan area. Some of it was excessive. The ticker tape parade is upcoming. Fans swarmed the streets in the five boroughs in jubilation. The monkey of 53 years without winning another title was off the team’s and the fans’ backs. Which is why there is unbridled joy today and for the next few months as the rabid NYK fandom savors this long-overdue championship.
I looked at the former Knicks who attended the games. Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Carmelo Anthony, Bernard King, Charles Oakley, John Starks, Stephon Marbury, Larry Johnson, Latrell Sprewell, Frazier, Bradley and Marcus Camby all attended games as part of the “Alumni Row.” They felt what this team had going for it and they shared in the emotion. I am as delighted for them as I am happy for the 2026 team.
There is nothing like winning a championship. At any level.
I won exactly one in my life—my Highland Park Junior League baseball team captured a title in 1965 with me playing centerfield. I was on cloud nine for the entire summer. I cannot imagine what these Knicks players are feeling where the stage is so different and the stakes so much greater.
In New York, we have had the Yankees spoil us. The Mets have two World Series wins. The Giants and Jets have won the Super Bowl. The Rangers, Islanders and New Jersey Devils have won Stanley Cups.
For all that greatness, New York prides itself the most as a basketball city. There is one team which galvanizes New Yorkers, and suburbanites in New Jersey and Connecticut. That is the New York Knicks, who play in the World’s Most Famous Arena.
On Saturday night, everything came together. For eternity, the 2026 New York Knicks are World Champions.
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