Guard Jalen Brunson scored 45 points in leading the New York Knicks to another fourth-quarter comeback and first NBA championship win in 53 years with a 94–90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on June 13 in San Antonio’s Frost Bank Center.
The Knicks trailed by as much as 16 points in the first half and by 10 early in the final quarter before Brunson’s free throw at 3:40 remaining gave New York its first lead since the game’s opening minute, 86–85.
The Spurs could only score two more field goals, going 1-for-4 from the free-throw line in the waning minutes, as the Knicks won their third NBA championship in their 80-year existence, their first since Richard Nixon was president.
Brunson’s 45 points included 13–15 from the free-throw line, earning him the Finals MVP award. Mikal Bridges added 14 points, and Josh Hart netted 13 with 11 rebounds. Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns made key free throws late in the game to keep the Spurs at bay.
Guard Dylan Harper led the Spurs with 25 points off the bench. Center Victor Wembanyama scored 19 points and had a game-high 14 rebounds while Julian Champagnie added 14 points for the Spurs, who lost all three games to the Knicks on their home court in their quest to win a sixth NBA championship.
Keldon Johnson’s 3-pointer with 3:06 remaining in the first quarter gave the Spurs an 18–8 lead, marking the third straight game in which San Antonio took a double-digit lead in the opening 12 minutes. The Knicks were outscored 9–0 during a four-minute first-quarter scoreless span that allowed the Spurs to take a lead they never relinquished until three minutes remained in the game.
Devin Vassell’s bucket at the buzzer gave San Antonio a 42–37 halftime lead to end a flurry that saw New York whittle back a 16-point deficit. Halfway through the second quarter, the Spurs had held the Knicks to just 15 points with the visitors shooting just 2-of-18 from inside the arc. But the Knicks used a 22–7 run to make it a one-possession game before Vassell’s banker as time expired.
With San Antonio leading 45–41, Wembanyama began what turned out to be a 6-point play, drawing a flagrant foul by the Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson during a basket-scoring drive. He sank one of two free throws and then Champagnie drained a trifecta at the 9:23 mark to again give the Spurs a double-digit lead, 51–41.
It was a sloppy, physical game with fierce body slamming and scissor hand slicing and dicing inside the paint. At the 5:25 mark of the third quarter, Brunson openly lobbied for a flagrant foul after being knocked to the floor while sinking a 3-pointer to pull the Knicks within nine, 62–53. Four successive possessions after that were mired in loose ball fouls in a game ultimately won at the free-throw line.
The Spurs grew their lead to 15 points when Stephon Castle sank two free throws, 70–55, with 2:25 remaining in the third quarter. The Knicks, behind Brunson, who scored 14 points in the quarter, used a 10–2 run to close the third on Robinson’s tip-in to trail 72–65 going into the fourth quarter.
Brunson tied the game with free throws with 4:41 remaining 85–85, and then gave them the lead 90–88 with a bucket inside the last minute. Free throws sealed the win.
1st Title Since Nixon
It is only the Knicks’ third championship in nine trips to the finals—first since 1999 when they were defeated by the Spurs—in the 80 years since they were established as a foundational franchise of the fledging Basketball Association of America, precursor to the NBA, which was created in 1949.The last time the New York Knicks won an NBA Championship on May 10, 1973, it was a clear, breezy Thursday night in the city with temperatures dropping into the 40s after sunset. That same night the Yankees, under new owner George Steinbrenner, beat the World Series-bound Mets, 8–4, in the Mayor’s Trophy Game, the annual rivalry game played before the advent of interleague play.
On May 10, 1973, the horoscopes said Mercury was ascendant and Gemini ruled the stars. “My Love” by Paul McCartney and Wings topped the charts, and Bruce Lee’s “The Chinese Connection” was the lead box-office draw. Pre-Arab oil embargo gas was 39 cents per gallon and televised Senate Watergate hearings were captivating the nation.
Knicks fans had enjoyed a span of success since the late 1960s with a Red Holzman-led team that featured legendary names that still resound in New York City: guards Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, forwards Dave DeBusschere and future three-term Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), and center Willis Reed. The bench included NBA Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas, future coaching icon Phil Jackson, and fan favorite Harthorne Wingo.
The Knicks had beaten the Los Angeles Lakers in 1970 for their first NBA championship but lost in five games in 1972 to the Lakers, led by Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Gail Goodrich, Jerry West, and Flynn Robinson.
Frazier and Monroe combined for 41 points and Bradley added 20 as the Knicks beat the Lakers 102–93 to claim their second NBA championship that Thursday night in Los Angeles, but in the New York City borough of Manhattan, hundreds of thousands of fans flooded the streets, blocking traffic, honking car horns, and cheering in a communal cacophony of joy that lasted to sunrise.
That Big Game vibe—for too long absent in Manhattan—has been radiating from Gotham’s sidewalks into the city’s ambience for weeks as the Knicks advanced to the finals. With each win—including an NBA record 12 straight playoff victories–strangers in stride shared a common blue-and-orange pulse.
In Manhattan, a pedestrian could easily track the game from TVs near open apartment windows, spilling from restaurants and bars, or blaring from car radios surrounded by listening passersby.
The San Antonio River Walk may not have the same vibe, but it has enjoyed more basketball success than Manhattan this century. The Spurs were in their seventh finals appearance, their first time since 2014, which ended a 15-year span in which the Tim Duncan-era Spurs made the finals six times. They won five championships, including in 1999 against, and in, New York City, another open-wound grievance borne by the long-suffering Knicks faithful—now suffering no more.
