Knicks win first championship in 53 years after NBA Finals Game 5 triumph vs. Spurs

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Knicks win first championship in 53 years after NBA Finals Game 5 triumph vs. Spurs

Brett Siegel, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Sun, Jun 14, 2026 ·

5 min read

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Knicks win first championship in 53 years after NBA Finals Game 5 triumph vs. Spurs appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

The New York Knicks and their fans have waited over five decades for this moment, and it has finally arrived. For the first time since 1973, the Knicks are NBA champions after taking down the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals on Saturday night.

Jalen Brunson was incredible in the Game 5 championship clincher for the Knicks, scoring 45 of the Knicks' 94 points en route to winning it all. As a result, he was named the MVP of the NBA Finals.

Immediately following their championship, Knicks owner James Dolan sent a clear message to all of the New York fans who made the trip to San Antonio to witness history for their franchise.

"Hey New York! I'm sorry it took so long, but here we are and hopefully it won't take that long again!"

The story of Game 5 was once again centered around the Knicks fighting back in the second half, which has been the theme of this entire series against the Spurs.

After trailing by double digits in each game of this series, the Knicks proved to be the tougher and more resilient team, overcoming numerous obstacles and fighting back in every game, no matter the score. Brunson was obviously the catalyst for the Knicks' success, but OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns also put together huge moments in this series that will forever live in New York sports lore.

Anunoby's heroics at the end of the Knicks' improbable Game 4 comeback over Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, the largest NBA Finals comeback ever , are already being labeled as one of the greatest moments in basketball history.

Despite trailing 76-49 at halftime, the Knicks never gave up in Game 4 on Wednesday night. Anunoby finished the game with 33 points while shooting 7-of-9 from 3-point range, proving to be the main factor in New York's second-half offensive success.

But what he did over the course of the final 10 seconds of this game will forever live in NBA Finals history. Anunoby sprinted down the court to block De'Aaron Fox's fastbreak layup, which would've put the Spurs up three points with under 10 seconds left, and then he ended up being the hero after tipping in the game-winning basket off Brunson's 3-point attempt with 1.2 seconds remaining.

"It feels cool. Everyone was pretty excited. I am excited too," Anunoby nonchalantly said immediately after the final horn sounded with Madison Square Garden in a frenzy. "It's pretty cool. But that's what we are, a team, like a brotherhood. We have each other's backs. That's just how it goes sometimes, and I mean we would all do the same for each other."

The Knicks won Game 4 at home 107-106, erasing a 29-point deficit and taking a 3-1 lead in the series. With all hope lost from the Spurs' perspective heading back to San Antonio, the Knicks put the finishing touches on the series and used their comeback from the game before to clinch the 2025-26 NBA championship in Game 5 on Saturday night.

Although Wembanyama and the Spurs lost this series and saw their championship dreams vanish on Saturday night on their home floor, this young team showed a lot of fight against the Knicks. If it weren't for some mental mistakes late in both Game 2 and Game 4, perhaps this series would've been completely different, with the Spurs potentially holding a 3-1 lead heading back to San Antonio for Game 5.

This was the Knicks' moment, though, and Mike Brown 's persistent group never backed down from the moment this NBA Finals series began.

"You talk about a total team effort when we hit adversity. That's all we talked about all year, hitting adversity, hitting adversity, hitting adversity. I embrace it through the year. We have to hit it," Brown said after the team's 29-point comeback in Game 4. "We have to see if we're connected enough for moments like this. And our guys showed their resiliency and showed their connected enough to handle a moment like that."

This championship for the Knicks is the culmination of what executive Leon Rose and New York's front office envisioned when they made moves to bring in Brunson, Anunoby, Towns, and others.

To say the Knicks took major risks over the years would be an understatement, but they constructed a team built around character, toughness, and grit. Those are the three traits that have defined this team all year, and it's why they have received the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy for the first time since 1973.

It may have taken 53 years, but Knicks fans will be the first to admit that the wait was worth it. New York can once again call themselves NBA champions.

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