Knicks win first NBA title since 1973, beat Spurs in Game 5

The Knicks turned San Antonio into a portable slice of New York, then walked out with the franchise’s first NBA championship since 1973. Jalen Brunson scored 45 points in a 94-90 Game 5 win over the Spurs on Saturday, June 13, 2026, closing the Finals 4-1 and earning Finals MVP.

The clincher carried the weight of the whole series because New York had already delivered its defining blow in Game 4. Down by 29 points, the Knicks stormed back for the largest comeback in NBA Finals history and seized a 3-1 lead, leaving San Antonio trying to survive one more night without letting the title slip away.

This was the Knicks’ third NBA title overall, but the first for a fan base that had waited more than five decades for another parade. Their last championship came in 1973, and their last Finals appearance before this run was in 1999, when the Spurs beat New York in five games. Winning the title in Texas gave the result a clean edge of symmetry, and for Knicks fans it turned an old defeat into a new ending.

The away-game setting only sharpened the celebration. Timothée Chalamet was among the famous fans who made the trip to San Antonio, while the scene back home spread across Manhattan and Brooklyn, with crowds gathering outside Madison Square Garden and in the streets. During the Finals, the Empire State Building and other New York skyscrapers were lit in Knicks colors, a skyline signal that followed the team all the way to the road and stayed on through the final buzzer.