It’s been 52 years since the New York Knicks last raised an NBA championship banner at Madison Square Garden, but on Tuesday night they earned the right to hang a different kind of hardware.
OG Anunoby poured in 28 points and NBA Cup MVP Jalen Brunson added 25 as the Knicks rallied to beat Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs 124–113 to capture the NBA Cup. New York will now raise an NBA Cup banner alongside its 1973 championship banner in the Garden rafters.
Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for New York despite battling a calf injury. He headed to the locker room late in the first half and again in the third quarter before returning in the fourth.
The Spurs controlled much of the game, but the Knicks flipped the script with a 13–1 run late in the third quarter to go up 100–95 and never trailed again.
“This is great and we’re going to enjoy this,” Brunson said. “But once we leave tomorrow, we’re moving on.”
New York dominated the interior, outrebounding San Antonio 59–42, with Mitchell Robinson grabbing 15 boards (10 offensive) in just 18 minutes. The Knicks outscored the Spurs 56–44 in the paint.
For San Antonio, Dylan Harper led the way with 21 points, Wembanyama scored 18, and De’Aaron Fox added 16.
After the game, Wembanyama briefly addressed reporters before excusing himself, saying he had “just lost somebody” on Tuesday.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said the game highlighted both the team’s potential and its flaws:
“After 25 games in, I believe that we’ve shown some signs that we can be a pretty good team. We’ve also shown that we have a lot of areas of improvement. I think that’s where we were living today.”
For the Knicks, the Cup brought both prestige and pay: each player on a standard contract earned an additional $318,560, bringing their total Cup earnings to $530,933 apiece.
Because the NBA Cup final does not count toward regular season standings, both teams officially remain 18–7, still sitting atop their respective divisions.
