This New York Knicks championship, the first since 1973, clinched on June 13 in a 94-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs, means everything to New Yorkers because we play this game, hoops, everywhere. On Parks Department courts, concrete cracked, rims crooked or tighter than the 5 p.m. subway or both, in community centers, and in Catholic grammar-school gyms with kitchen-tile floors and pillars in weird places, such as inbounds. The young don their first tiny jerseys, likely Knicks kits, for rec ball. The graying wrap their knees in thick white pads, still chasing Saturday-morning glory at 70. And when people from all over the United States and the world relocate here to pursue their passions, they may just join a hoops team, in the New York Urban Professionals League or the co-ed ZogSports operation, playing in some public-school fifth-floor gym or at a collection of courts near the South Street Seaport called Basketball City.
—Photo-illustration by Neil Jamieson for TIMEWe stuck with the Knicks through all the disappointment, and they in turn stuck with the Cleveland Cavaliers when New York was down 22 points in the fourth quarter of the Eastern Conference Finals opener, and with the Spurs when down by nearly 30 in Game 4. This squad represented us so well, because we too don’t let messiness—of, say, cramped space or vermin or astronomical rents—knock us out. We take the lumps of a sweltering train stranded under the East River, and like these Knicks, come out on the other side, knowing that with New York’s nightlife and the culture and history, and the absurdity of toiling amid the skyscrapers and scariness, this is the life for you.
New York Knicks fans celebrate after winning Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, June 13, 2026, in New York. —Heather Khalifa—APIn Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals, New York looked cooked. After winning 13 straight games in the postseason, the second longest streak in playoff history, they were up 2-1 in the series, but the Spurs, featuring 7-ft. 4-in. phenomenon Victor Wembanyama, had a 71-42 lead near the end of the first half. Still, New York kept chipping, chipping away, before the last two and a half minutes of a game that will be savored, dissected, and, take it to the bank, the subject of books and documentaries. (Ben Stiller is reportedly shooting one, on his phone, for HBO.)
Actors Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller and Timothée Chalamet look on during Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 8, 2026. —Al Bello—Getty Images
Hart caught a break when Wemby, usually so silky at the foul line, missed a pair. Then a floater by—who else?—the eminently clutch Brunson finally put New York ahead. After the Spurs went back up, 106-105, on a pair of Stephon Castle free throws, and Brunson missed with under 20 seconds left, Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox brilliantly tapped a loose ball to himself, then not-so-brilliantly drove for a layup rather than trying to dribble out the clock only to have OG Anunoby block the shot. With four seconds on the clock, Brunson launched a 30-footer over Wemby, an absolutely bonkers decision, had he not proven, over and over again, his ability to do unimaginable things on the court. The gall of that guy. He missed, but Anunoby came flying in for the winning tip. “The Right Hand of God,” Knicks All-Star forward Karl-Anthony Towns said afterward. Spectators lingered long after the final buzzer, still in shock, refusing to leave a euphoric scene.
Og Anunoby dunks over Victor Wembanyama during Game 4 of the NBA Finals on June 10, 2026. —Frank Franklin II—AP
Fans love the Knicks, but especially these Knicks. New York’s starters form a cohesive five. Three of them, Brunson, Hart, and Mikal Bridges, went to the same college, Villanova, Pope Leo’s alma mater, where Hart won an NCAA title and Brunson and Bridges won two. “My mayor’s still Muslim!” a fan shouted after the Game 4 win. “My bagel’s still Jewish! The Pope’s on our side, Knicks in five!!!” Brunson, the series MVP who scored 45 points in the clincher, and Hart have taken their buddy act to a podcast, Roommates Show, where they talk shop and needle each other. Brunson, whose father Rick was on the Knicks during their 1999 Finals run and is now an assistant coach with the team, is a stand-in for the outer-borough striver, underestimated at first glance, but blessed with moxie. The second-team All-NBA player is not particularly fast or athletic—how does he dribble, dribble, go one way, spin the other way, take a ridiculous fadeaway at an awful angle, and sink it anyhow? Towns, imported from Minnesota, via trade, before the 2024-2025 season, has lived up to his elite rep: his shotmaking early in the series and effort to stop Wembanyama—fans have given KAT flack for his D—were crucial. He’s also the local, a Knicks fan from central New Jersey, striving to raise a trophy for his late mother, who passed away of COVID complications in 2020, and hugging his dad, a regular presence at both home and away games.
New York Knicks forward Og Anunoby, right, New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, center and San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama battle for the ball during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Friday, June 5, 2026, in San Antonio. —Eric Gay—AP
But stats undersell why the Knicks are so uniting. They have no heels. Though they’re a big-market team with the second-highest payroll in the NBA, they fight like underdogs. They don’t feature a player considered a super-duper star, a Wemby, LeBron, Steph, Giannis, SGA, KD, Luka, Nikola Jokic, but still went all the way. They pull out games that, analytically speaking, should go to the other team. In all four of their wins during the Finals, the Knicks trailed by double digits. “We don’t show up at 8:30 — we show up at 9 o’clock," Brunson said after the title win.
The Knicks have formed a true brotherhood. Hart pointed to how, after he missed that Game 4 layup, a potentially devastating event, Brunson, KAT, and Alvarado all ran over to him to lift his spirits. “When you have a team that has that kind of togetherness in the most adverse situations, that breeds championship habits,” Hart said. Players up and down the roster stepped up. Journeyman Landry Shamet, for example, was given a final roster spot last season, when nobody in the league wanted him. Shamet dislocated a shoulder, rehabbed in the G League, and provided timely bench play throughout the playoffs: his game-tying three-pointer in the final minute of the comeback against Cleveland, which bounced off the rim and, in defiance of physics, fell through the net, was a defining moment of this magical run.
After that ‘73 title, New York and the Knicks entered a dark age. President Gerald Ford, no Brunson, refused an assist: after he wouldn’t help the city get through its fiscal crisis in 1975, the Daily News declared that Ford told us to “Drop Dead.” At the Garden, the team made a garish uniform color-scheme switch in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, from classic Knicks orange to maroon. On the front of these jerseys, a player’s number appeared above the “Knicks” name, which just looked weird. That’s the standout memory of that era.
Los Angeles Lakers' Wilt Chamberlain tries to block a shot by New York Knicks' Willis Reed, but Reed gets past him and scores during the second game of NBA championship playoff series in Inglewood, Calif., on May 4, 1973. —AP Photo
But King tore his ACL in ‘85, the season he led the NBA in scoring, and while the Knicks won the first-ever NBA draft lottery that year and took Ewing out of Georgetown as the top prize, the big fella needed a few seasons to get healthy and established. Those mid-’80s years, so crucial to a 10-year-old kid forming his fandom, were fallow. But Bob Thornton, Fred Cofield, Ken “The Animal” Bannister: you are not forgotten. This title’s for you too.
The current Knicks owner, James Dolan, began running the franchise around that time, after his father’s media company, Cablevision, bought the team. The next two decades were mostly disastrous. There were a few bright spots, like the rise of Jeremy Lin from random Harvard point guard to the star of Linsanity. Carmelo Anthony’s scoring punch propelled the Knicks to a 54-win season, and the second round, in 2013. But this century was mostly marked by 17 losing campaigns. New Yorkers loathed Dolan, who was seen as a nepo hire more concerned about fronting his blues rock band, JD & The Straight Shot, than developing a winning culture. He even feuded with Charles Oakley, the beloved bruiser from the Ewing era, banning him from Madison Square Garden for a time. Guess who Knicks Nation sided with?
The New York Knicks celebrate after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in San Antonio. —Ross D. Franklin—AP
The KAT and Bridges deals also panned out, as did Rose’s decision to fire coach Tom Thibodeau, whom he hired shortly after joining the organization and who last season led the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference Finals in a quarter century. The move made little logical sense at the time. But Rose bet that a less gruff voice, ultimately Mike Brown’s, was required to win it all. He was right. All the starters are under contract next season. Dolan and dynasty, in the same sentence?
Politicians and pundits and former residents have battered New York City in recent years, branding our town as a symbol of a country gone to hell. They mock our mayor as some out-of-touch socialist who’ll run us into the ground, and spotlight the few bad apples who took the celebrations too far. Now, maybe they’ll hesitate, for a brief second, before coming after us, out of respect for our basketball team. What a win that would be. Mike Breen, the son of a steamfitter from Yonkers, N.Y., just over the city line, who went to college in the Bronx and has served as the team’s play-by-play voice for 30-plus years, puts it best. “Bang!” Breen says after a big bucket. Double bang. Knicks in ‘26, once and forever.
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