The New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 on Saturday night to win the 2026 NBA championship series 4-1 and end a very long 53-year title drought for one of the league's most storied franchises.
However, while the final tally looked one-sided, the Finals were no walk in the park for the Knicks. And even if the team went 16-3 in its championship run, including a 13-game winning streak, winning it all was no easy task and required many sacrifices.
According to NBA insider Ian Begley, one of the things that the players had to give up to focus on making a deep playoff run was having sex.
Although the Knicks finished just third in the Eastern Conference standings during the regular season, many gave them a real chance of winning the championship because the No. 1 Detroit Pistons were unproven and the No. 2 Boston Celtics did not have a 100 percent healthy Jayson Tatum .
To make sure that they made the most out of the opportunity, Begley wrote that right before the playoffs started, team owner James Dolan gave a pep talk to the entire team inside the locker room.
"He talked to the players about the opportunity ahead of them, the importance of sacrificing for the next 10 weeks. He jokingly asked the players to avoid fornication during the postseason. Dolan also told the players to work through any issues with direct conversations, rather than passive-aggressive comments to the media. Mostly, he talked about how much he believed in this group of players, how confident he felt about their chances to snap the franchise's championship drought, how important it was to put the team first over the next 10 weeks," per Begley.
On Saturday night, the Knicks rallied from another double-digit deficit to beat the Spurs at home and win the series and their first championship since 1973. During the trophy presentation ceremony, Knicks president Leon Rose spoke about the team that took him six years to build and complete.
"There aren't really words you can put into what these guys have done, the character that they have, the fight they have, the grit they have, the never-say-die," Rose said . "Just by caring about each other and making sure that we all look out for one another, have each other's back, sacrifice, and do it for the better good."
In Begley's words, the 2026 championship was a product of trust and sacrifice. Back when they won the NBA Cup in December, they refused to celebrate and hang a banner because they did not want to lose focus on the bigger goal at hand.
Many laughed at them. When Dolan told them to avoid fornication for 10 weeks, it was probably a joke, and it's unclear if they stuck to that particular game plan. But remember that the Knicks closed out their title run with nine straight road wins, including Game 5. That's impressive focus.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jun 15, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
