June 15, 2026
After 53 long years of heartbreak, near-misses, and “wait till next year,” New York City has its NBA champion. The Knicks are world champions. Take a second to actually let that sink in. The Larry O’Brien Trophy is going to Manhattan, and Madison Square Garden, the self-proclaimed Mecca of basketball, finally gets to live up to the name.
But before we pour out all our love for the Knicks, let’s take a step back and appreciate just how wild and wonderful this entire 2025-26 NBA season was from tip-off to final buzzer.
The Regular Season: SGA’s World, We Just Live In It
If there was one constant in an otherwise unpredictable season, it was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being absolutely unstoppable. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s superstar captured his second consecutive MVP award, putting up 31.1 points and 6.6 assists per game while leading OKC to the best record in the league. His case was so clean, so hard to argue with, that it almost felt like cheating. Back-to-back MVP. The kid from Canada is firmly in the “best player on the planet” conversation, and honestly, it’s not even close right now.
The Thunder finished 64-18, and for most of the year, a repeat championship felt like a formality.
Then there was Nikola Jokic, who was in the middle of yet another historically bonkers campaign before going down with a hyperextended knee in late December. We’re talking about a guy who put up 56 points, 16 rebounds, and 15 assists in a single game against Minnesota, a stat line that had never been done in NBA history. His injury reshaped the whole Western Conference picture, and honestly, we might never know how good that Nuggets run could have been.
On the defensive end, Victor Wembanyama became the NBA’s first-ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, leading the league in blocks for the third straight season. The alien from France is turning into something we genuinely don’t have words for yet.
The Rookies: A Duke Reunion Tour
This year’s rookie class was something special. Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 pick out of Duke, came in with enormous expectations and somehow met them, averaging 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game for the Dallas Mavericks. He became the youngest player ever to score 50 points in an NBA game and edged out his former Duke teammate Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets for Rookie of the Year by just 26 voting points. Twenty-six points. That’s how close it was. Both of these guys look like future stars, and the NBA is genuinely in good hands.
The Playoffs: Chaos, Drama, and a Giant-Slayer
The postseason delivered everything you could ask for. The Detroit Pistons, yes those Pistons, won the Eastern Conference’s top seed for the first time since 2007. J.B. Bickerstaff had that team playing hard and together all season long, and it was one of the better coaching jobs we’ve seen in years.
But the real story in the East was the Knicks quietly going to work. New York swept the Cleveland Cavaliers 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, a statement series that basically announced to the whole league: we’re not here to mess around.
Out West, things got even wilder. The San Antonio Spurs, led by Wembanyama and a loaded young core of Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, and De’Aaron Fox, took down the defending champion Thunder in a thrilling seven-game series. The reigning champs were dethroned, and just like that, the Spurs dynasty-in-the-making officially announced itself. San Antonio proved they weren’t a fluke. They were a force. And the scariest part is they’re only going to get better.
The Finals: The City That Never Sleeps Gets Its Crown
Knicks vs. Spurs in the NBA Finals. A rematch of the 1999 Finals, a series the Spurs won in five games during a lockout-shortened season. This time, the script flipped.
New York won in five, but nothing about it was easy. The Knicks trailed by double digits in all four of their victories, which is either a sign of a team with serious heart or a team that loves giving their fans anxiety. Probably both. In Game 5, they were down 83-73 with under eight minutes to play, and you could just feel it starting to turn. The Knicks made every possession count, forced the Spurs into mistake after mistake, and clawed their way back like they’ve been doing all playoffs long.
And who was right in the middle of it all? Jalen Brunson. The guy dropped 45 points in the clinching game, a Knicks Finals record, and walked away with the Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy. He, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart also became the first trio of teammates to win both an NCAA title and an NBA championship together. That’s the kind of footnote that ends up in a documentary someday.
For Wembanyama and the young Spurs, the loss clearly stung. But Wemby put it better than anyone could: “This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment.” San Antonio’s window is just opening. The rest of the league should be paying close attention.
The Big Picture
This was one of those seasons that felt historic from the jump and somehow still exceeded expectations. Eight straight years with a unique NBA champion, the longest such stretch in league history. A rookie class that could genuinely redefine the next decade. The Spurs re-emerging as a power. And finally, after all of it, New York getting its moment.
The Knicks last won in 1973. Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, that whole legendary squad. Half a century later, a different group of guys made the city believe again. Jalen Brunson. Mikal Bridges. Josh Hart. Tom Thibodeau. And a Garden crowd that showed up every single night.
The 2025-26 NBA season was everything sports is supposed to be: drama, heartbreak, unlikely heroes, and a city losing its mind with joy.
New York, New York. It’s a hell of a town.
Written June 15, 2026
Saketh's Blog 
Leave a comment