For 53 years, the New York Knicks chased a championship that always seemed just out of reach. Generations of fans came and went without seeing a banner raised above Madison Square Garden. On Saturday night, that wait finally ended with a 94-90 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
The New York Knicks are the 2026 NBA champions.
Our Knicks are the champions!!!
The squad that Leon Rose & Co. assembled was able to finish the job, doing what the franchise failed to do in 1994 and again in 1999. They have beaten
the San Antonio Spurs, XXX-XXX, and won the NBA Finals.
The banner was earned the hard way. New York had to mount multiple comebacks against a talented San Antonio Spurs team led by Victor Wembanyama. The defining moment came in Game 4, when the Knicks erased a 29-point deficit—the largest comeback in NBA Finals history—to stun the world and seize control of the series. OG Anunoby’s last-second putback turned a likely loss into a 3-1 lead and transformed the trajectory of the Finals.
Through the playoffs, Jalen Brunson repeatedly delivered in the biggest moments. Anunoby provided elite defense and timely scoring. Karl-Anthony Towns anchored the frontcourt and transformed into an even better version of himself in the playoffs. Josh Hart supplied rebounding and energy. Mikal Bridges and Landry Shamet had incredible shooting stretches. Together, they formed a unified whole that never seemed particularly rattled by the score, focusing only the next possession.
For us as Knicks fans, the championship means far more than a trophy. It belongs to those who watched Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, and Earl Monroe. It belongs to those who endured the near-misses of the Patrick Ewing era and the decades that followed. It belongs to my father, who regaled me with tales of Dollar Bill and the Pearl and Clyde while we drove around the dirt roads of my home town. It belongs to the fans who continued filling Madison Square Garden even when championships felt impossibly distant.
Now they have one of their own. After 53 years, the wait is over.
The New York Knicks are NBA champions.
Postgame and recap to come.
Go Knicks!
