Knicks Break 53-Year Curse with Epic Championship Win
SAN ANTONIO — It’s no longer a dream.
This will really still be there when Knicks fans wake up. This is actually reality. This is forever.
For multiple generations, this was only something Knicks fans could see when they closed their eyes and let their minds wander. It was a ghost of the past — 53 years to be exact. It was a hypothetical.
No longer. Jalen Brunson and Co. brought it all to life.
Brunson had a look in his eye that was visible even from the stands. It was noticeable everywhere in the arena.
He was in the middle of one of the great Finals performances in NBA history. He knew it. His teammates knew it. The Spurs knew it.
Everyone knew it. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it until it was over. Until the final score read Knicks 94, Spurs 90 and the celebrations began Saturday night at the Frost Bank Center.
Until the Knicks were officially champions.
“It’s everything I dreamed of,” Brunson said. “This is why I came to New York.”
Move over Willis Reed’s Game 3 in 1970. Move over Walt Frazier’s Game 7 that same year. This was the best performance in Knicks history. This was the stuff of legend.
This was a legacy in the making.
A title was within reach and Brunson would not be denied. He erupted for 45 points and cemented his place in basketball lore.
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As the final whistle blew, Brunson embraced his father, Rick, tightly near the sideline. It was the first time he allowed himself to release any sort of emotion. His job was done.
Brunson scored eight straight Knicks points in the second quarter as the Knicks shaved a 16-point deficit to five by halftime. He scored 14 in the third quarter as the Knicks clawed back from a 15-point deficit.
Then he saved his best magic for the fourth quarter, when he scored 13 straight Knicks points to turn another double-digit deficit into Knicks glory. The Knicks trailed by 10-plus points all five games of this series. They are the Comeback Kings and finished off this magical season in the most fitting way possible.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
The Knicks led for just 23.6 percent of the series — by far the lowest time spent leading by a champion since the 1971 Finals, according to Elias Sports Bureau. But the Knicks kept rising like champions in crunch time. The young Spurs kept crumbling.
“We absolutely dominated for most of the series,” Victor Wembanyama said. “But our errors, our mistakes, are punished so hard that we can’t have ups and downs like this.”
Brunson is just the second player in history to score 45 points on the road in a title-clinching victory. The other? Michael Jordan.
Karl-Anthony Towns was in foul trouble all night and had just two points. Mikal Bridges added 14, Josh Hart had 13 and OG Anunoby pitched in 11. The Knicks got just nine points from the bench. In totality, the Knicks only got 49 points from everyone other than Brunson.
The Knicks this postseason have been one of the great team efforts you’ll ever see. But to close it out, they rode their face of the franchise. There was some question about who would be Finals MVP entering Game 5. By the end, there was no doubt that it would be Brunson.
Finally, at last, the 1969-70 and 1972-73 banners have some company. Finally, a new era of Knicks are champions.
Finally, the Knicks are back atop the basketball world.
“I’m sorry it took so long but here we are,” owner James Dolan said, “and hopefully it won’t take that long again.”
And remember that the Knicks won the NBA Cup as well. There is no ambiguity — these Knicks are the cream of the crop.
There will be no more “0-0” quotes from Brunson and the rest of the Knicks. No more need to talk about playing with desperation.
No more avoiding the Larry O’Brien trophy out of superstition. All there was left to do was lift it.
“People don’t understand, we don’t really talk about it, but the weight of that jersey, the expectations, the pressure of that jersey,” Hart said. “And like I say, today, right now, it’s the lightest it’s ever felt.”
There were years of torment. Years of stars rejecting them at every turn. Years of being the butt of jokes across the league.
These Knicks have taken a torch to all that misery and restored glory. All those championship memories the older generation constantly told those younger than them? About how special it would be if the Knicks could ever get there again?
These Knicks just created new ones that will live in immortality.
