Knicks win 2026 NBA championship
Posted by Jim on June 14, 2026
End 53-year drought: 7 facts beyond the box score
The Knicks are NBA champions for the first time since 1973. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
June 14, 2026 Updated 1:32 am EDT
After 53 years of waiting, New York is finally a city of basketball champions again.
With a 94-90 win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the New York Knicks secured the franchise’s third NBA championship and first since 1973.
A team that knocked on the door several times before burst onto the game’s biggest stage and took full advantage of its time in the spotlight. A collection of players who, in many cases, were cast aside, overlooked, undervalued or deemed expendable, found a home in Manhattan.
And now ring measurements are in order.
You know most of the stats about the drought. More than five decades passed between Knicks title runs, but let’s look deeper.
Here are some facts beyond the box score about the Knicks’ 2026 NBA title.
Mike Brown
Legendary former San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich spent 29 years building one of the most influential coaching trees in NBA history. In the end, he had to watch his franchise fall at the hands of one of his own proteges.
Knicks coach Mike Brown became the fourth coach who either played for or coached under Popovich to win an NBA championship as a head coach.
Brown served as an assistant under Popovich in San Antonio from 2000 to 2003. During those three seasons, the Spurs averaged 58.6 wins, reached two Western Conference finals and captured the 2003 championship.
The other championship-winning coach connections to Popovich are Steve Kerr, Mike Budenholzer and, loosely speaking, Doc Rivers. Kerr played under Popovich from 1999 to 2001 and again from 2002 to 2003 before going on to coach the Golden State Warriors to four championships. Budenholzer spent 17 seasons as Popovich’s top assistant before leading the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 NBA title.
Rivers spent two seasons playing with the Spurs from 1994 to 1996 while Popovich served as the team’s general manager. Rivers later coached the Boston Celtics to the 2008 championship.
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Esfandiar Baraheni
Jalen Brunson
New York’s captain was originally selected with the No. 33 pick in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks. Now, Brunson has become the fourth second-round pick in NBA history to be named NBA Finals MVP after averaging 32.6 points and 4.6 assists while leading New York to a 4-1 series victory.
The first player to accomplish the feat donned the same fabled blue and orange as Brunson. Knicks center Willis Reed was selected with the eighth overall pick in 1964, which was the first pick of the second round. He was named NBA Finals MVP in 1970 and 1973, the previous two times the Knicks won the championship.
In 1976, Pepperdine guard Dennis Johnson was selected in the second round at No. 29 by the Seattle SuperSonics. In 1979, Johnson averaged 22.6 points, six rebounds and six assists in a 4-1 NBA Finals series victory over the Washington Bullets. He took home finals MVP honors for his efforts. Moses Malone won NBA Finals honors in 1983 after being a third-round pick in the 1974 ABA Draft.
Arguably the most dominant second-round pick in NBA history was famously selected during a Taco Bell commercial. Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić was selected No. 41 in the 2014 NBA Draft and has since become a three-time league MVP. He won NBA Finals MVP in 2023 after averaging 30.2 points, 14 rebounds and 7.2 assists in a five-game series victory over the Miami Heat.
Jalen Brunson averaged 32.6 points and 4.6 assists against Wembanyama and the Spurs in his first career NBA Finals.Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
Villanova boys
Brunson and Mikal Bridges became the fourth pair of teammates to win multiple NCAA championships and at least one NBA Finals on the same team. Fellow Knicks teammate Josh Hart was only on the 2016 Villanova championship team and not the 2018 championship-winning team.
The other three title-heavy teammates were:
- Bill Russell and K.C. Jones: (San Francisco – 1955, 1956; Boston Celtics – 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966)
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lucius Allen (UCLA – 1967, 1968; Milwaukee Bucks – 1971)
- Gail Goodrich and Keith Erickson (UCLA – 1964, 1965; Los Angeles Lakers – 1972)
The pair also became the 13th and 14th players in history to win multiple NCAA championships and at least one NBA championship.
Russell and Jones were the first, winning back-to-back NCAA titles at San Francisco before launching a decade of dominance with the Boston Celtics. A host of John Wooden’s UCLA alumni are also on the list, including Abdul-Jabbar, Goodrich, Erickson, Henry Bibby, Jamaal Wilkes and Bill Walton.
Nazr Mohammed won two national championships with Kentucky in the mid-1990s before capturing an NBA title under Popovich with the 2005 Spurs. A pair of Florida teammates, Al Horford and Corey Brewer, helped lead the Gators to back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007 before later winning NBA titles.