Category: Basketball

The New York Knicks, for the first time since 1973, are NBA champions. Their victory represents something unique in the modern NBA. They are the first team since Isiah Thomas and the 1990 Detroit Pistons to be led by an undersized, physical guard all the way to a championship. Sure, you can point to Steph Curry as the best player on the Golden State Warriors dynasty. But Curry doesn’t occupy the same space as Jalen Brunson. And once Kevin Durant arrived in Golden State, much of the burden was lifted from Curry’s shoulders for two of those four championships.

Brunson is different. He is the exception to the rule. Historically, smaller players struggle to withstand the physical toll of four consecutive playoff rounds. I think of how Chris Paul broke down in 2021 and am reminded that’s one of the reasons teams built around undersized guards rarely end up holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy at the end of the season. Yet that’s exactly what Brunson and the Knicks accomplished.

The NBA has always been a copycat league. Whenever a team wins a championship, the natural reaction is to point to that team and declare it the blueprint. Front offices study it. Fans debate it. Media members write about it. Everyone searches for the secret formula. 

What I find fascinating about the Knicks’ title run is that it serves as another reminder that there is no singular blueprint. In fact, this is now the third consecutive season in which the league’s perceived North Star has changed. Three years ago, the focus was on one model. Then another champion emerged and shifted the conversation. Now the Knicks have done it again.

Three seasons ago, the Boston Celtics hoisted the trophy in 2024. Their recipe for success was straightforward. Build from within around two elite wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, then supplement that core through the trade market. They added Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday, creating a roster that was deep, versatile, and built to complement its stars. They also leaned heavily into modern basketball. The Celtics attempted more three-pointers per game than any team in the league while finishing second in three-point percentage. They combined elite shooting with elite roster construction and rode that formula to a championship.

The following season, the Oklahoma City Thunder won the title. Their path looked completely different. Yes, they benefited from acquiring Shai Gilgeous Alexander in the Paul George trade, and yes, he developed into an MVP-caliber player. But Oklahoma City’s blueprint centered on drafting and development. They identified Shai as their cornerstone, then strategically surrounded him with players and archetypes that complemented his skill set while creating one of the most disruptive defenses in basketball.

Then came this season and the New York Knicks. Their roster was assembled through a completely different process. Jalen Brunson arrived via free agency, but much of the roster around him was built through trades. Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart all arrived through deals that required New York to part with significant assets.

In many ways, the Knicks are an example of what the Suns attempted to become in 2023. Phoenix pushed its chips to the center of the table, sacrificing future assets in pursuit of a championship. The Knicks did the same thing. The difference is that New York found the right combination of players, chemistry, timing, and health to make it work.

That’s the lesson. Many teams attempt to build a champion through aggressive trades. Very few actually pull it off. This time, the Knicks did.

All of this is a reminder that there is no singular blueprint for building a champion in the NBA. This isn’t the NFL, where a dominant running game and consistent defense can dramatically raise your ceiling. This isn’t Major League Baseball, where the absence of a salary cap allows teams to backload contracts, stockpile talent, and overwhelm opponents with financial muscle. 

The NBA is different. It’s restrictive. It’s unforgiving. And it requires an incredible amount of precision to build a contender, let alone a champion. What the last three seasons have shown us is that there are multiple paths to the top of the mountain. Boston built around homegrown stars and supplemented them through trades. Oklahoma City built through patience, drafting, and development. New York aggressively utilized the trade market and surrounded its star with complementary pieces that fit.

Different paths. Same destination. So, how does this relate to the Phoenix Suns?

Well, the Suns are operating with a $23.2 million anvil tied to their ankle in the form of dead cap money. Every decision they make is impacted by it. Every move they consider has to be weighed against it. It limits flexibility, limits options, and limits margin for error. If Phoenix were somehow able to navigate those challenges and win a championship during this era, it might be the most impressive accomplishment of all the examples we’ve discussed.

But that’s also why there should be hope. The last three champions have reminded us that there isn’t only one way to build a winner. There isn’t a universal formula that guarantees success. Every organization has different circumstances, different strengths, and different obstacles. The challenge is identifying who you are, committing to a direction, and executing it better than everyone else. That’s the task in front of the Phoenix Suns. And while the road ahead is difficult, recent NBA history reminds us that difficult doesn’t mean impossible.

The New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs four games to one last night, overcoming multiple double-digit deficits along the way. While much of New York City and New Jersey celebrate the Knicks’ extinguishing New York’s long title drought across the Big Four sports leagues (stretching back to the Giants in 2011), Rutgers nation can take pride in seeing one of their own step up big time for the Spurs. Dylan Harper not only played extensive minutes, but he looked like the best Spur on the court for large parts of this series.

Despite coming off the bench the entire series, Harper averaged 18 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3 assists per game. As the series got better, so did the rookie out of Rutgers, with his crowning performance coming in an elimination Game 5 at home. Harper led the team with 25 points while also contributing 5 rebounds and 4 assists while playing 31 minutes off the bench.

While much of the team struggled, including De’Aaron Fox throughout the series, Harper stepped up in clutch moments and time again. His crafty finishing around the rim caught the eyes of fans nationwide, while his tenacious defending made things difficult for New York throughout the series. He was the second-leading scorer behind Victor Wembanyama in the NBA Finals as a rookie while coming off the bench, which says just about everything you need to know about his career trajectory

If there is one area where the budding star guard could improve, it would be his three-point shooting. Harper got off to a slow start from deep this series, scoring 16 points in Game 1 on 1-4 from downtown. In Game 2, he missed all three attempts from deep while finishing with 15 points, before going 1-8 from long range during Game 3 at MSG. Coincidentally, that was the lone game the Spurs were able to win over the eventual champion Knicks.

Some of those threes were wide open as well, which made me think about just how good Harper could be if he had even a respectable three-point jump shot. In Game 4, Harper went 8-12 from the field and converted 3 of 6 threes, coming up with 21 points despite the Spurs blowing an unfathomable 29-point lead, the largest in Finals history. Due to the catastrophic loss, San Antonio went from a possible 2-2 tied series to trailing New York 3-1 as the series returned to Texas.

In Game 5, Harper put it all together when his team needed it most. On a night where starting guards Stephon Castle (1-10) and De’Aaron Fox (3-15) combined for 13 points on horrifically poor shooting, the New Jersey native came off the bench and dropped 25 points. As in Game 4, this time he cashed in on two of four from downtown while continuing to play aggressive defense, getting stops and forcing a backcourt violation.

Despite this, Harper was relegated to the bench for some of the game’s most important swings, including when the Knicks roared back yet again. When the Spurs rookie returned to the floor, the Knicks were trailing, and Harper was unable to hit the game-tying layup.

With San Antonio then trailing by three, Landry Shamet fouled Harper off an inbounds pass to prevent a three-point shot attempt, and Harper missed both free throws; the second one may have been an intentional miss. But none of that takes away from the series he had and the poise he showed as a rookie under pressure.

During the Spurs’ postgame press conference, Devin Vassell told reporters, “I know that he’s gonna put so much work into the offseason. It’s not just offensively, but defensively, he’s made a lot of plays. He’s grown so much. And was he 20, 21 years old? I mean, the sky’s the limit for him.”

With De’Aaron Fox going 24-70 from the field and contributing to some of the most head-scratching moments for the Spurs, many fans and analysts see him being traded this offseason, possibly to the Nets. Even if not, it will be hard to see how Harper does not crack the starting lineup next season after outproducing both Castle and Fox, all while coming off the bench in basketball’s biggest stage.

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Saturday’s Game 5 victory that sealed the first Knicks championship since 1973 was an emotional moment for fans everywhere, many of whom have been waiting their entire lives for a championship.

On Sunday morning, Joe Benigno joined WFAN to share a message to Knicks fans who have been waiting patiently for this moment for many years.

“All the pain, all the disasters. Oh my God, all the ghosts are buried now. The dragon has been slain. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “All of that, all the pain, all the suffering, all the aggravation. It’s gone. It’s over. We are world freaking champions.”

Benigno, a longtime Knicks fan, is referring to the years where the team was at the bottom of the barrel.

Since the arrival of now-captain Jalen Brunson in 2022, however, the team has had a magical turnaround from irrelevancy to playoff contenders the past four seasons.

Beyond the historic finals win that brought the Knicks their third championship in franchise history, the team had an incredibly dominant playoffs. They went 16-3 and won their last nine road games in a row.

Their 13 consecutive wins, stretching across sweeps of the 76ers and Cavaliers and into the finals against the Spurs, is the second longest winning streak in the history of the NBA playoffs.

In the finals, the Knicks overcame double-digit deficits in each of the five games, winning every one outside of the Spurs’ Game 3 victory.

Benigno’s podcast, appropriately titled “Oh the Pain,” has been a succinct description of his experience rooting for his New York sports teams over the years.

Oh the pain no more for the Knicks.

It’s tremendously alienating. I’ve had plenty of time to reckon with this inevitable championship for the Knicks, not just a great team but the clear Team of Destiny for weeks now, but it’s still hard to swallow.

I am not actually happy for the innumerable Knicks fans around me. I am not quite “happy for the city” either, a begrudging middle ground that, as a born-and-raised Manhattanite who roots for the Yankees, Giants, and even the Rangers with an incurable case of New York Exceptionalism that would disgust the many New Jerseyans that visit this site, I thought I could get to. No. I am an outsider in my own home. This, of course, is the true essence of Nets fandom…

I’ll say it so you don’t have to: It doesn’t really matter that the New York Knicks are champions, not as it pertains to Brooklyn’s on-court success. Of course, those future Knicks picks might not be so valuable…

…but that’d still be the case even if Victor Wembanyama made eye-contact with Stephon Castle before throwing that pass. You, Nets fan, are still allowed or even encouraged to be excited for a future with Egor Dëmin and whoever the team drafts at No. 6 overall in ten days.

Regarding the rest, there’s little to be done. If there is anything, anything at all surprising about Fort Greene/Downtown Brooklyn/Park Slope drowning in blue-and-orange ecstasy…

…it’s that any of us lived long enough to see the Knicks win another title. As Ock Sportello told me, this would be easier to accept if the franchise were an indomitable, Laker-esque force rather than a tortured soul with The Greatest City in the World and, therefore, the moral arc of history behind them. LeBron James told Cleveland that his crowning achievement was for them. He wasn’t exactly lying, but we all know that 2016 as The LeBron Title. Kawhi Leonard put a whole nation in The North on his back in 2019; alas, that is The Kawhi Title.

But 2026 is The New York Title. Jalen Brunson cemented his place in NBA history, of course, but he also cemented his place as a contender for the most beloved athlete in NYC history, simply a different plane of existence. I will always remember his 45-point NBA Finals closeout game; many more will remember what felt like eight million New Yorkers partying on the streets until the sun came up, from the true die-hards to the property-destroying streamers to the Kips Bay transplants singing their “Empire State of Mind” transplant anthem because it’s something to do on a Saturday night and hey, New York is about all those things.

So does it matter that the Knicks are growing their fanbase faster than the Nets? Does it matter that this mode of achievement is inaccessible for your favorite team despite also playing in New York City?

“No” is a very reasonable, healthy answer. We’ll all rejoice when the Brooklyn Nets are one day competitive again, perhaps an evil thorn in New York’s side just as they were in the mid 2000’s. I was in the building for Nets-Bucks Game 5 in 2021; the crowd was packed, loud, and very pro-Nets, a low bar but cleared nonetheless. I enjoyed not just the talent on that team, but I loved the vibe. Their best players were hired guns, mercenaries who, under cover of darkness, joined forces in Brooklyn of all places to wreak havoc on the NBA. It fit.

Admittedly, cold villainy is a difficult vibe for a franchise to lean into — I’m not writing this to ask the Nets for anything in particular, maybe other than more Josh Minott quotes. But as Ock Sportello explains: “My grievance, ultimately, is not with the Knicks for reminding me that I will never be a New Yorker, but for the Nets for attempting to convince me that that is something to be ashamed of.”

As a New Yorker, my shame is slightly different, though still distinctly Nets-flavored. I root for the team that moved here and immediately shed any trace of their New Jersey past when I wouldn’t tolerate that quality in a friend. It is the irrepressible feeling that Mikal Bridges was justified in committing the Nets’ cardinal sin, openly pining for a trade across the river, which allowed him to better his life and career and become a local legend. He won.

When I woke up on June 25, 2024, I did not think I’d be standing alone at the Belmont LIRR station at 2 A.M. on June 26, so I did not throw a hoodie in my backpack. Of course, I did not know the Nets were going to make a franchise-altering trade during the fourth quarter of the Commissioner’s Cup Final between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, moved to UBS Arena from Barclays Center so as not to interfere with next day’s NBA Draft.

But I couldn’t tell if I really was cold, or if it was coffee jittters, or if the Six-Pick Mik trade(s) had given me goosebumps all by itself. In any case, I called anybody I figured would be awake, excitedly explaining that the Nets had saved themselves from mediocrity. That the next two years would be painful, but perhaps Cooper Flagg or Ace Bailey or AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson could be in black-and-white.

As you all know, that didn’t happen. Lottery luck was never guaranteed. Such is life. Brooklyn still owns future picks from that deal, and they do have flexibility; not every trade or signing or draft pick reaches its ideal outcome. But only the Nets could make one of the great trades in franchise history, setting themselves up to tank for a two-year period that produces the #8 pick, the #6 pick, and said trade being mocked by a rival team as they accept their Larry O… 

Only the Nets, I tell ya. 

Alright. No more. For real. Let’s have a great summer! 

The airing of grievances is a Festivus tradition.

The Knicks’ playoff run began with a Festivus of their own.

Head coach Mike Brown met individually with each of his five starters — Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart — and then all of them collectively for them to air their grievances before the Knicks entered the postseason, according to SNY.

The meetings were conducted for the players to get lingering issues off their chest, and Brunson’s dad Rick, one of the Knicks’ assistant coaches, told SNY that those meetings “were pivotal to New York’s playoff success.”

After the Knicks fell behind 2-1 in the first round against the Hawks, they reeled off 13 straight victories as part of a surreal run to their first NBA championship in 53 years, culminating with Saturday’s 94-90 win over the Spurs in Game 5 to win the NBA Finals 4-1.

Jalen Brunson was unanimously voted NBA Finals MVP after carrying the Knicks in the finale with 45 points on 14-for-27 shooting while going 13-for-15 from the free-throw line.

Brown, the 56-year-old in his first season with the club, set the tone from the outset by having everyone put their commitment in writing.

“The buy in. It was a contract that I had everybody sign opening dinner night and I still have it framed,” Brown told MSG Saturday night. “Everybody’s signature from Mr. Dolan to Leon Rose, all the coaches, all the players, all the staff that was there that night signed it and basically it was about committing to sacrifice, having a competitive spirit, being connected, believing in each other in the process while holding everybody accountable — even myself. I’m not above the law, I’ve gotta be held accountable too.

“I told everybody that night, if you’re not gonna abide by this, I’d have more respect for you to not sign it than to sign it and BS your way through the night and BS your way through this and everybody bought in from Day 1. And that speaks volumes to all of these guys as individuals and especially the leadership on this team, starting with Jalen Brunson.”

I must admit, the way this series has gone, I felt pretty certain heading into the fourth that San Antonio was going to lose this game. Simply put, the Spurs showed time and again that they could play well enough to hold a lead against the Knicks late in the game, but inevitably that edge would wither away in the face of missed opportunities, mistakes, and poor composure. In short, these contests against New York really do seem to have come down to the advantage earned through experience, as the Knicks consistently exhibited an ability to outperform San Antonio at the most critical times.

Despite it’s disappointing ending, we would be remiss to overlook how amazing this season has been. Back in October, the Spurs were expected to be a fringe playoff team that would be thrilled to get past the play-in and go down fighting in the first round. Instead, they won 62 games and marched through a series of tough Western Conference opponents. Replicating that feat next year won’t be easy, but the core of this team is still well within the age range in which substantial year-over-year improvements are the norm, so we have every reason to believe that next year’s squad will be even more impressive. In the meantime, let’s review our last box score of the season:

Note: Now that we’ve moved into the postseason, the reference period used for grading changes from the set of regular season games since 2012-2013 to the set of postseason games since 2012-2013. Unless otherwise noted below, this set DOES include play-in games. As of the end of June 13 2026, this group include 1,206 games.

Factors that decided the game

• This was yet another game in which many key battles were essentially draws. For example, New York edged out the Spurs in defensive rebounds (+2), but San Antonio had a +1 edge on the offensive glass. Similarly, the Knicks had one more turnover than the Spurs, but San Antonio’s edge in points off of turnovers was just +3 (certainly an advantage, but unlikely to swing a game).
• Shooting volume and efficiency from the field was similarly balanced. The Spurs did have a key edge in overall FG% (+2.74 percentage points), which would normally provide a sizeable advantage in terms of winning. Though San Antonio did make two more field goals than New York, both teams had exactly the same performance from distance (12-of-37), and the broader context is that neither team shot well from the field.
• Because points from the field were so scarce, the free throw line played a dominant role in this game, and unfortunately this was the one area where the Knicks clearly outplayed San Antonio. In addition to having a FTA margin of +9 (part of which can be explained by fouling at the very end of the game), New York enjoyed a FT% differential of +8.27 percentage points. As a result, they outscored the Spurs by eight from the charity stripe, which ultimately proved decisive.

Rare Box Score Stats

• It is EXCEPTIONALLY rare in the modern NBA for a team to win a postseason contest with the dismal shooting efficiency that New York achieved last night. In fact, there has been only ONE other postseason game since 2012-2013 in which the winning team logged FG%, 3P%, and FT% values at least as bad as 35.63%, 32.43%, and 71.43%, respectively. That other occasion was a May 11, 2013 game in which Indiana beat the Knicks 81-72 in the Eastern Conference Semis.
• Of course, New York was able to win with these terrible percentages because the Spurs were even less efficient. In fact, since 2012-2013, just three teams have lost by no more than four points while recording FG%, 3P%, and FT% values at least as bad as 38.37%, 32.43%, and 63.16%, respectively. On average during this period, a postseason loser with a shooting percentage line that bad in all dimensions loses by about 21 points.
• Although both teams were woefully inefficient from the field, I must grudgingly admit that Jalen Brunson was exceptional, as he scored 45 points on very good efficiency and accounted for nearly half of his team’s points. In fact, since 1996-1997, only 18 other players have put together a playoff performance in which they scored at least 47.87% of their team’s points.

What are Team Graded Box Scores?

Very briefly, these box scores grade winner-loser differentials for basic box score statistics, with the grade being based on the winning team’s differential relative to other NBA winners during a defined reference period. Think of it like a report card for understanding how a given winner performed relative to other winners. The reference period used runs from the start of the 2012-2013 season to the latest date of play, including only games in the same season category (i.e., regular season and playoff games are not compared to each other).

Data Source: The underlying data used to create these box scores was collected from Basketball Reference. In all cases, the data are collected the morning after the game is played. Although rare, postgame statistical revisions after data collection do occur and may affect the results after the fact.

Spike Lee saw one championship and immediately started thinking about the next one.

After the Knicks clinched their first NBA Finals championship since 1973 on Saturday night, the longtime fan was asked his thoughts.

“Back to back!” Lee answered with a smile.

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The Knicks superfan has been a season ticket holder since 1985, which also happened to be Patrick Ewing’s rookie season.

He has become so well-recognized as one of the most passionate celebrity Knicks fans that folks online, including actor Kevin Hart, have called for Lee to receive a championship ring from the team.

Hart posted a video to Instagram and Facebook Sunday morning saying that the Knicks should give the filmmaker a ring.

“Give @officialspikelee a CHAMPIONSHIP RING DAMN IT!!!!!!!! Congrats Knicks and Congrats New York!!!!! Long overdue,” Hart captioned his video.

Lee’s Knicks roots run deep. Despite being born in Atlanta, his family moved to Brooklyn when he was young, and later received his masters in film and television from New York University.

The 69-year-old said in a recent CNN interview that he would trade his honorary Oscar for a Knicks title.

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Fortunately, Lee won’t have to worry about that anymore.

The Knicks ended their 53-year championship drought on Saturday night with a 94-90 victory over the Spurs in Game 5.

They trailed by double digits in all five games and came back to win the four they needed to clinch their third championship in franchise history.

If Lee’s wish of back-to-back championships comes true, the Knicks could be on their way to building a dynasty on the back of their captain and reigning Finals MVP, Jalen Brunson.

Since Brunson’s arrival in 2022, the Knicks have won at least one playoff series every season. In the 21 seasons prior, they had won just one.

Jalen Brunson didn’t address his haters after winning the NBA Finals MVP, but his sister Erica took a different approach.

Erica took to X the morning after the Knicks won their first title in 53 years, calling out critics of her older brother who claimed that he was not a player capable of leading his team to a championship.

The critics were clearly proven wrong on Saturday night, when Brunson scored 45 points in the deciding Game 5.

One of Erica’s targets was Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, who in 2023 commented that Brunson was too small to be a team’s No. 1 option.

“Now what?” Erica tweeted over Hammon’s comment.

Erica then reposted a clip from Colin Cowherd’s show “The Herd” where the longtime sports personality claimed Brunson was “a number two, on a great team a three.”

“Unfortunately I’m petty and idc. WHAT. NOW!!! Where will the goal post move now?” Erica wrote.

It’s going to be difficult for Brunson’s critics to keep it up. With his huge performance in the closeout Game 5 and the upswing the Knicks have been on since his arrival in free agency in 2022, Brunson has cemented his place as one of the greatest Knicks in recent history.

In the past four years with Brunson, the Knicks have won at least one playoff series every season. In the 21 seasons before the three-time All-Star? The Knicks won one playoff series.

After the Finals win, Brunson was asked about those who have claimed he isn’t a 1A player.

“I didn’t respond to them then, I’m damn sure not gonna respond to them now,” Brunson said pointedly.

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Knicks point guard Jose Alvarado started his victory tour in his native Brooklyn by making a surprise appearance in the Knickerbocker Avenue Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday.

Alvarado ditched his white tank top and waved it over his head while the crowd chanted “Knicks in five!” during the eighth annual parade in Bushwick.

“Thank you guys so much, it means the world to me. Really,” Alvarado said as he stood on a float. “I’m a kid from Brooklyn. And the Knicks party f–kin’ did it.”

Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson was also seen posing with fans at the celebration.

The parade typically starts before noon, but was pushed to 3 p.m. – likely to accommodate this year’s special guests.

Alvarado is the only born-and-raised New Yorker on the current Knicks roster.

He grew up in Williamsburg before his family moved to Queens, where he quickly established himself as a standout athlete at Christ The King High School in Middle Village.

Alvarado is of Puerto Rican descent and helped the island’s basketball team qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

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For their first NBA championship in 53 years, the Knicks will also get a bump in their bank accounts.

Per Sportico’s Kurt Badenhausen, each player on the Knicks will earn an additional approximately $770,000 for winning the title.

The team share for winning the NBA Finals is $9,078,000, and this will be split amongst the team.

As Badenhausen pointed out, the added money is huge for players on the team with lower salaries. Jeremy Sochan has the lowest salary on the team of those not on two-way contracts with $806,000. Mohamed Diawara makes $1.3 million and Jose Alvarado makes $1.7 million.

The franchise will also receive $471,000 for finishing as the third seed in the Eastern Conference this season, alongside bonuses for going through the first round, the conference semifinals and the conference finals.

Players will also likely receive more money from outside the NBA playoff prize pool that is tied to their individual contracts through incentives.

The full NBA playoff pool including all teams and results is worth $35.74 million. Payouts for each team differ based on regular-season finishes and playoff results.

The San Antonio Spurs, as the Finals runner-up, will bring home an extra $3.921 million alongside their prizes from their progress through earlier playoff rounds.

There are also rewards for the best regular-season results. The team with the best record in the NBA earns $896,000, while the top record in each conference merits $784,000. The bonuses proceed down to the sixth-best record in each conference, which gets $210,000.

Of course, the biggest prize will always be the championship itself, but the money that comes with it, especially for the players earning less money, is a nice add-on too.

Mere hours after his Knicks won their first NBA championship since 1973, Mitchell Robinson celebrated another victory.

Robinson posted a video on his Instagram Story on Sunday morning of him holding up a snake, which he says he caught in San Antonio before Game 5.

Robinson, 28. shows the snake close-up on camera before being told to put it down.

“I’m about to put it down! Calm down!” Robinson said.

Throughout the NBA Finals, Robinson was nursing a broken right hand he suffered after the conference finals. It is still unclear how Robinson sustained the fracture, as the team would not reveal the cause of the injury.

Robinson played the entire series after being listed as questionable for Game 1.

Robinson, the longest-tenured Knick who has been with the team for eight years, made a clutch offensive rebound in the last minute of the fourth quarter in Game 5 to help the Knicks secure the 94-90 win to take the series 4-1 over the San Antonio Spurs.

Robinson talked about the snake he caught in his postgame press conference.

“You know what’s crazy? [Friday] at the hotel I caught a snake — again,” Robinson said. “When I caught a snake in the beginning of the playoffs when we played Atlanta, we won. I caught one last night, and we won today.

“So I think it’s something about snakes.”

Perhaps it’s that, but it’s certainly also the work of Robinson’s captain. Jalen Brunson had 45 points in the closeout game and was awarded the Bill Russell Trophy for Finals MVP.

“It was unreal,” Robinson said of Brunson’s performance Saturday night. “Literally just unreal, like I’m speechless…

“To do it in a closeout game against a good team like that, it’s just different.”

This Knicks team is different indeed.

I was a big fan of Roger Ebert. I suppose, in a way, I still am.

Any time I watch a film that I know was made prior to April of 2013, I scramble to look it up after the movie is over, curious to see if our assessments are in the same ballpark.

About three-quarters of the time, I’m delighted to find that we shared a similar experience as viewers.

This is, for me, a big deal. I do not care for critics. However, this is largely due to the prevailing nature of critical disposition, rather than an issue with dissenting opinions themselves.

There is no critic who gets every assessment right. I was also very fond of the literary criticism of the late Harold Bloom, and I agreed with/fully enjoyed about 60% of it.

Sixty percent is no small amount of agreement between two human beings. In fact, when one considers factors such as personality, background, education, and regional affiliation, it might be considered some degree of minor miracle to agree with anyone to that extent.

We are not, as history has repeatedly demonstrated, an agreeable species.

Sir Thomas More understood this when he coined the word ‘Utopia’ as a clever linguistic pun. The Greek prefixes of ‘Ou’ and ‘Eu’ are so similar in phonetic pronunciation that they are more-or-less indistinguishable when the word is spoken aloud.

The difference in their effect on the meaning of the word is, however, substantial, with ‘Eutopos’ translating to ‘the good place’ and ‘Outopos’ translating to ‘no place’.

Both of those meanings are contained within the same word — not unlike the phrase ‘NBA Finals’.

And while critical opinion of More’s book Utopia is now largely united in agreement that his now-500-year-old text is satirical in nature, there’s still a lot of disagreement about what More was satirizing in particular.

Some believe that his target was the monarchy. Others are of the opinion that he was targeting Catholicism, Christianity, or even religion as a whole.

Time goes on, and the list grows longer to include (among others) The Protestant Reformation, The Church of England, Platonic Humanism, Foreign Policy, Colonialism, Politics, Penal Codes, Materialism, Capitalism, Religious Intolerance, and even one of his friend’s books (Erasmus’s ‘In Praise of Folly’).

And the fascinating thing about each suggestion and argument is that they have this subtle way of telling you more about the individuals who proposed them than about More’s actual intentions, which remain somewhat nebulous.

It’s not terribly dissimilar from the revelations a person might encounter in the critiques and opinions of the fans of a sports team.

And there are certainly a lot of opinions floating around out there right now, in the wake of what is only San Antonio’s 2nd series loss in seven attempts.

Tirades about Mitch Johnson and De’Aaron Fox that have been waiting until the opportune time to rear their heads, as if they weren’t preexisting opinions that were occasionally held back in the wake of victory, for lack of receptivity at the time.

Hair-trigger monologues demanding the trades and/or releases of half the roster and the firing of critical staff. Thoughtful analysis shifting the weight of disappointment to something more palatable.

Exercises in gratitude that belie a long-standing lack of faith in the team’s ability to accomplish the loftiest of goals. Deep reservoirs of sadness that suggest that hope for a better outcome was holding together the structure or foundation of something else.

Almost every Spur receiving blame or adulation in a way that seems indicative of a very particular or personal preoccupation with the player.

And honestly, this is fine. This is natural. This is human.

I do not (and cannot) exempt myself from feeling any-and-all of these things at different times in the course of a single game, much less a single series, or, for that matter, postseason. I cannot help but admit that.

Which is the crux of my issue with critics (and journalists). I don’t mind if we disagree. I don’t mind that they might be wrong.

What I mind, most of all, is a refusal to admit that one’s viewpoint (and therefore, opinion) might be subject to any one of a million different prejudices and points of vested interest.

And moreover, that one might not even be able to see it.

And to be fair, no one is perfectly aware of all of their partialities. To be so would involve being something other than human.

But I have no more respect for the critic who cannot admit to bias than I do for the sports journalist unable to admit that they have a favorite team that might color some of their discourse.

(Watching journalists and fans defending Mike Breen’s impartiality as a commentator in a championship final featuring the Knicks infuriated me to no end)

And I think that’s a big part of why I had such a fondness for Ebert, who, despite his social prominence as a preeminent film critic, was frequently honest about the nature of his reservations.

He was, in my opinion, much more often right than wrong in his evaluations, but he was also not above revisiting and reassessing films that he knew he had been wrong about.

And in 2002, he was wrong about my favorite film of all time, ‘Road To Perdition’.

Contrasting the film with Coppola’s iconic Godfather, he compares the difference between them to “the difference between Sophocles and Shakespeare”, summarizing that he prefers Shakespeare, calling Perdition a coldly preordained (though admirable) tragedy.

That Shakespeare (and the whole of Western drama) was inspired and influenced by the works of Sophocles is an observation that somehow escapes him. By his own admission, it appeared to be the result of his preference for a stronger illusion of free will.

And this is an opinion I’ve encountered in those unwilling to simply admit that they prefer Shakespeare.

This idea that Hamlet accidentally driving his beloved to suicide rather than the safety of a nunnery, or Lear failing to recognize the faithfulness and love of a daughter who refuses to flatter him is somehow more palatable or moving than Orpheus looking back for Eurydice, or Odysseus’s dog Argos recognizing him by scent and wagging his tail before his heart gives out, after 20 years spent waiting for his master.

Tragedy is tragedy. We can only measure it by how it moves us.

The tragedy of watching a father who has lived his life in villainy do everything he can to prevent his son from meeting the same fate is no less than the tragedy of a mafioso father having to call in a favor with an undertaker for an outcome he couldn’t foresee when he indebted him.

The tragedy of watching Ray Allen snuff out the victory of Duncan’s Spurs in sight of the Larry O’Brien is inseparable from the tragedy of watching Wemby’s team of young upstarts give up lead after lead and knowing what the outcome will most likely be.

Both of them wounded me equally, just in completely different ways.

One was on the cusp of victory. The other never truly looked close.

And that’s the thing about Greek tragedy: you can warn the protagonist endlessly and have no real effect. You can give them the advice and guidance and watch them make the mistake anyway.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Daedalus Popovich (no need to check, that was totally his last name), the greatest mythical inventor of Greek antiquity — your son is still going to forget/ignore your warning.

And, almost as tragically, eventually people are going to forget that your warning was twofold — to neither fly too high, nor too low. They’re going to forget that your story was actually about balance (not ambition), the very thing Icawemby and those young Spurs were lacking, and that cost them the most.

You think that knowing the ending makes it hurt less, Ebert? Please. You’re talking to someone who willingly sat there getting his heart repeatedly ripped out as the Spurs and Knicks traded fouls in the closing seconds of a game (and series) that he had known was over halfway through the quarter!

Did you somehow imagine that Prometheus experienced less pain because he already knew that the eagle was coming to rip out and devour his liver each day?!

But here I am, bellyaching about a review that is almost a quarter of a century old, in the hopes that the animus will somehow keep me from thinking about how the season just ended.

And the thing is, it was kind of working there for a minute. In nursing my grudge, I had almost forgotten what this whole thing was about. Anger is a potent narcotic. (Some studies have compared its effect to that of cocaine)

I have this sneaking suspicion that human fallibility was the subject of Thomas More’s Utopia — the fallibility so deeply rooted in our pain and anger that we are doomed to live in the borderlands between the good place and no place.

The Spurs are living in those borderlands. So are their fans. But that’s okay, because that’s where everyone lives.

The Knicks aren’t going to find that championship any more utopic than the silver-and-black would have.

Oh, they might get a few more days of respite, but then it’s back to real life. Then they get to resume their pursuit of the place that cannot be.

It’s a noble pursuit, and the Spurs came up just short.

It’s a tragedy. It’s a moral lesson. It’s life. And I can’t wait for next year.

No doubt about it. I am ready to get hurt again.

Takeways

• What an absolute rock-fight of a series. Not a single game was decided by more than 10 points. 4 games were decided by 4 points or less. On Twitter/X the question was posed as to whether this was the most competitive 5-game series in Finals history, and it’s a fair question because nothing in my memory stirs to contradict the assertion that it was. I’m honestly shocked that we didn’t have a single contest go to overtime. And while I understand that it’s far from the most soothing commentary on the loss, it really is an indicator of how close the Spurs already are. We can talk about expectations all we want, but the reality is that this team missed by a painfully small margin, and that means that the wholesale changes that some are stumping for aren’t necessarily needed. Yes, the Spurs have got to add one more scorer (of the shooting variety). The lack of depth in that department was exposed by the Knicks’ defense. As was the lack of depth in the front-court, where there was really no lineup option outside of Luke Kornet. Thankfully, the Spurs already have the resources to patch both of those holes. And of course, don’t discount the rippling effect of further growth from the young trio of Wemby, Castle, and Harper. I expect the Spurs to pick their spots and strengthen the team accordingly, but I also think they may move with more urgency than expected, with contract extensions on the very near horizon. It’s not as sexy or as satisfying as some might like, but even if the Spurs were to split the difference between the extremity of fan desires and their typically slow-moving pace, that would be one hell of an off-season.
• I don’t think De’Aaron Fox is going to get traded. However, if he were, I think you’d be most likely to see it happen in the next 9 days or so, either prior to or during the draft. With Giannis on the market and the current CBA incentivizing cap gymnastics, there are bound to be a lot of teams looking to move players for a variety of reasons, and the Spurs are in a good place to capitalize on that. If history is any indicator, the draft is an opening the Spurs are not uncomfortable making moves within, so keep your eyes peeled. On the other hand, the Spurs also have a knack for turning later picks into roster gold, so don’t be shocked if they hit on someone taking a draft tumble instead. In any case, if Fox doesn’t end up on the move, I think you can expect more three-guard lineups next season. On a night where Fox and Castle combined to go 4-25, Harper was a godsend and is already at the point that he can keep the team afloat. If each of those guards gets 30+ minutes per game next year, it’s going to lead to some interesting rotational quirks and changes. So, get ready for some weirdness, because the Spurs have never really been in such an enviable pickle, and I’m not sure any of us can predict how they’re going to balance it out.
• I’ve talked about the likely Champagnie extension coming in the off-season, and I don’t think that’ll be painful at all, but there are two interesting contracts on the roster in Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson that may make or break their time with the team in the coming seasons. It’s worth noting that Keldon’s is the one expiring after next season, and it makes me wonder how the Spurs will play that after his 6th Man of the Year award. With Castle, Harper, and Wemby’s contracts all likely to come with some serious sticker shock (not to mention Fox’s), it’s very likely that we’ll be saying goodbye to one (or both) of Devin and Keldon in the next year or two. It really makes me hope that the Spurs will turn next season into a revenge tour so that those two can taste championship victory after so many uncomplaining years toiling in non-contention.
• Coming into the series, I was concerned about San Antonio’s relative weaknesses in rebounding and three-point shooting, which turned out to be just enough to be fatal, but was actually not as considerable a difference as I had anticipated (the Knicks averaged about 1 rebound and 1 three-pointer per game more than the Spurs). What I didn’t anticipate was the Spurs struggling at the free-throw line so significantly that it ultimately cost them the series. They shot 63% from the free-throw line last night, missing out on 7 very crucial points in the process. It was one of two Finals games in which they shot 70% or worse from the line. I’m curious to see what their free-throw shooting ends up being like next season. I know I’d be shooting them all day, every day, out of sheer fury. Turns out you can’t escape the trappings of the fundamentals. Story of the series, really.

Playing You Out – The Theme Song of the Evening:

In a Big Country by Big Country

The Knicks’ championship celebration was cleared for takeoff.

The party began on the ground in San Antonio, but continued high in the sky on the team’s chartered Delta flight to New York just hours after its first championship in 53 years.

“And if you can, tell those guys congratulations, enjoy the moment,” one air traffic controller who cleared the team for takeoff in Texas is heard saying on newly released audio.

“Oh, they’re enjoying it back there; you probably can hear them,” one of the pilots replied. “They’re having a good time, we’ll pass it on.

“The plane’s rocking,” he said. “They’re having a party.”

The air traffic controller explained that he wanted to pass along congratulations before the players “fell asleep” — but the newly minted NBA champs chose celebration over slumber.

The flight was later cleared for a scenic detour that took them over the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge and up the Hudson River before heading north to Westchester County Airport.

“Please let the guys know, New York TRACON, LaGuardia tower, Kennedy tower, maybe even Newark tower and Westchester tower, we’re all running on about three or four hours of sleep but as happy as we could ever be,” one air traffic controller broadcast before the plane hit the runway. “Congrats.”

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“They finally settled down about 30 minutes ago,” the pilot answered,” but before that, it was a pretty excited bunch back here,” the pilot replied.

“I believe we’re all excited here,” the controller answered. “We’re on our second box of coffee this morning. “Go New York.”

The accolades continued after the Delta flight touched down at the Westchester airport after a four-hour flight Sunday morning, where the team was greeted with a water cannon salute.

Delta had been on board with the Knicks throughout their magical playoff run, handing out more than 2,000 rally towels and gifting two lucky fans tickets to Game 4 of the NBA Finals at MSG.

“New York has long been an important part of Delta’s story, and it is an honor to celebrate alongside the Knicks, MSG and our customers with this exciting win,” Emmakate Young, managing director of sponsorships for the airline, said in a statement.

New Yorkers across the city celebrated the Knicks’ win over the San Antonio Spurs all of Saturday night and into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

While there were 63 arrests stemming from some violent celebrations, the city became a sea of orange-and-blue bliss, with some committing to naming their newborns after Knicks stars and a bus driver dancing with fans.

A ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes is scheduled for Thursday. 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shared his reaction to the viral rhyme that starts “My mayor’s Muslim, my bagel’s Jewish” and celebrates the New York Knicks ending their 53-year NBA championship drought.

Mamdani, 34, was asked about the viral rhyme Sunday morning during an interview with MS Now’s Jacob Soboroff, hours after the Knicks overcame a 16-point deficit in game five of the NBA Finals, sealing their victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

Soboroff played the viral clip of MD Ahnaf Hossain, the originator of the rhyme, exclaiming: “My mayor’s still Muslim, my bagel’s still Jewish, even the Pope’s on our side, Knicks in five!”

“He is a New Yorker whose words have really stayed with all of us,” Mamdani, who was wearing a Knicks jersey over his dress shirt and tie, said with a chuckle. “And thanks to him, there are a lot of people who have just been running up to me over the last few weeks just shouting, ‘My mayor’s Muslim!’ I said, ‘It’s true. I am.’”

The viral fan chant, which originated as “My mayor’s Muslim, my bagel’s Jewish, my Christian Dior, Knicks in four,” took on new life — and became something of a mantra in the Big Apple — as New Yorkers shouted out their hometown pride and stood united ahead of Game 5 Saturday night.

Mamdani noted that the viral chant “speaks to what the city is and even this team.”

“It’s not just a cookie cut out of the same thing again and again, it’s every single player having a role, bringing together all of the five boroughs in this moment. It’s truly a joy,” he added.

The mayor noted the high, electric energy that has been radiating in New York City as of late due to the Knicks’ historic run in the NBA finals and the World Cup. Thousands of New Yorkers gathered Saturday to take in the historic win, with many taking to the streets after to celebrate the team’s first victory since 1973.

“People have been waiting for this for 53 years. And there have been so many heartbreaks, so many near misses, so many years every year where we have told ourselves it's the year,” Mamdani said. “And for it to actually happen now, I mean, there's nothing more we can ask for as New Yorkers.”

“ It's honestly a beautiful thing,” he added.

“I was reading a piece this morning that really wrote about it quite beautifully, where it said that oftentimes this kind of unity comes in moments of tragedy. And to see it coming now, in a moment of joy, it's something that I have never seen before across our city, where the nation's largest city has become what feels like the world's smallest town, where everyone is thinking and hoping and praying for the same thing,” he added.

Several notable quotes from the viral fan chant have been replicated on hats and T-shirts. It has also been declared “pure New York City poetry” by The New York Times. Meanwhile, the man who went viral for the championship mantra, 23-year-old Hossain, told the Washington Post it was about unifying the city at a crucial time.

“I grew up with Jews, Muslims, Haitians, Pakistanis, Bengalis,” Hossain said. “I just had to bring everyone together.”

Meanwhile, other Knicks fans rattled off their own spin on the viral fan chant online.

“My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish, my Saturday Night Live, Knicks in five,” one fan riffed on the original.

Another person mused: “My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish, my cream cheese chive, Knicks in five.”

Even the official New York Knicks account shared their take on the viral chant, writing, “NEW YORK FOREVER, WE DID THIS TOGETHER, THE CITY'S ALIVE, KNICKS IN FIVE.”