The New York Knicks are NBA champions for the first time in 53 years.
Jalen Brunson scored 45 points Saturday night – 15 of them in a fourth quarter San Antonio never recovered from – and New York held on to beat the Spurs 94-90 in Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals. The drought stretching back to 1973 is over.
The Night Brunson Took Over
Brunson shot 14-for-27 from the field, connected on 4 of 7 threes, and converted 13 of 15 free throws. The Knicks trailed by seven points entering the fourth quarter. He answered by scoring 13 straight to flip the scoreboard, then made the plays that finished it.
“We fought all year,” Brunson said after the final buzzer. “Nobody gave us a chance. We just kept going.”
His series numbers: 32.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game, on 42.1% shooting and 38.9% from three across five games. All 11 Finals MVP voters chose him – unanimously. His 45-point closeout effort tied Michael Jordan for the most points scored to clinch an NBA title on the road, placing him alongside Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Bob Pettit as the only players ever to reach that mark in a Finals-clinching game.
A Series Built on Comebacks
The Knicks’ path through these Finals is almost hard to believe. New York trailed by double digits in each of its four wins – not once, not twice, but every time. Each victory came after a deficit that would have finished most teams.
The peak was Game 4: down 29 points at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks rallied to win 107-106. Brunson had 36 points that night. Game 5 followed the same template – trailing by seven with 12 minutes left, then Brunson simply took over.
Victor Wembanyama had guaranteed a Spurs win heading into Saturday. The French center competed throughout the series, but New York’s collective resilience wore San Antonio down in the final minutes. Per NBA.com, the Knicks rallied from double-digit deficits in all four of their series victories.
Fifty-Three Years
The last Knicks title came in 1973. Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, a team that became the template for New York toughness. The decades that followed added chapters without resolution – Patrick Ewing’s run to the 1994 Finals, Carmelo’s brilliant years without a ring, seasons of hope that faded before June.
That changed Saturday. Brunson, who averaged over 32 points through five Finals games with everything on the line, delivered the championship this city has waited half a century to celebrate. As the buzzer sounded in San Antonio, Madison Square Garden – thousands of miles away and ready anyway – erupted.
The Knicks are champions. After 53 years, New York rules the NBA again.
