The Knicks are still looking for a challenge

For the first time in (checks notes, “Wait…”) six months, the New York Knicks have won a championship.

Alright, fine, so this is a slight step above the NBA Cup. Congratulations to all of you Knicks fans out there!

The New York Knicks didn’t just win the NBA Finals. They sliced through their playoff competition like a hot knife through those tasty cheese biscuits you get at every churrascaria. They won in utter, dominating fashion, dropping jumpers like raindrops while preventing their foes from doing the same.

New York ends with the highest point differential in NBA playoff history. They had the best offensive and the best defensive rating of any playoff team in this year’s field. They won 13 straight playoff games, many by obscene margins.

Remember when they were 1-2 against the Hawks, bullied by CJ McCollum? Remember when Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges were struggling so badly that fans wanted them benched (and not for the first time)? Yeah, me neither.

Sure, opening blips caused Mike Brown to re-install a scrapped offense around Karl-Anthony Towns (one he scrapped again weeks later!), but in retrospect, there was a whole lot of LeBron-tied-2-2-with-Toronto energy: “I’ve been a part of some really adverse situations. And I just didn’t believe that this was one of them.”

The Knicks spent the rest of the playoffs looking for a greater challenge. Boston's inexplicable fall to a battered Philly team rendered the second round moot before it began. New York, bored, spotted Cleveland a 22-point Game 1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals, but that still wasn’t enough of a handicap.

Led by a precocious, unprecedented physical specimen, the San Antonio Spurs promised to be a real test. They stormed out to big leads in all five games, finally corked New York’s effervescent offense, and even earned the aid of some questionable officiating at times. Simply looking at mid-game win probabilities, I’d probably be praising the Knicks’ resiliency and stick-to-it-iveness if they were heading to Game 6 down 3-2!

The Spurs won all five first quarters handily. They even held the lead or were tied with fewer than two minutes remaining in all five games. After going up 2-1 in the series, New York dialed up the difficulty sliders to their highest level, spotting San Antonio a 29-point third-quarter lead in Game 4. Jalen Brunson took every first quarter off and turned his ankle multiple times. Karl-Anthony Towns battled foul trouble. Only two Knicks (Towns and OG Anunoby) posted a true shooting percentage above league average for the series, and the pair combined for a grand total of 13 points in the closeout Game 5.

Didn’t matter. Nothing could stop the Knicks, not even themselves.

New York kept their composure where lesser teams — hell, where New York three months ago — would’ve fallen apart. Jalen Brunson, the deserving 2026 NBA Finals MVP, found his shooting touch whenever it was needed most, and he grew stronger as the series went on. Anunoby and Towns and Bridges (worth those picks after all!) and Hart and Jose Alvarado and Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet and De’Aaron Fox and Jordan Clarkson and Deuce McBride and even Ariel Hukporti all had their moments for the blue and orange. Some bigger, some more, but each can say they contributed to the NBA’s freshest banner.

Perhaps no one save Brunson was more important to the Knicks’ run than Mike Brown, who finished the playoffs on a coaching heater the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. Every rotation choice was golden, every strategic adjustment perfect.

Remember, Brown was something like New York’s fifth choice in the initial interview process! And now, my lasting memory of Brown will be him holding a baffled-looking child while inexplicably singing “Who Let The Dogs Out?” at midnight on a confetti-strewn stage. I did not expect this much Baha Men in my NBA in 2026, but I’m not complaining. There’s no sound in GIFs, but I know you know the song:

“Damn, don’t it look good when it says ‘Champions’ on a shirt?” asked Towns back after the Knicks beat these same Spurs in the NBA Cup championship game. Now, he can ask it again, with feeling this time.

New York spent all postseason looking for a challenge. It’s the ultimate testament to them that they never found it.