New York Knicks
The New York Knicks are a three-time NBA champion at Madison Square Garden, winning the 1970, 1973 and 2026 titles behind Finals MVP Jalen Brunson.
The New York Knicks are one of the National Basketball Association’s founding franchises, established in 1946 and rooted the entire time at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. For most of a half-century they were defined by a paradox: the league’s most valuable and most visible brand, playing in what the sport calls its most famous building, yet unable to win a title from 1973 onward. That ended in the 2025-26 season, when a roster built around Jalen Brunson and a first-year head coach, Mike Brown, delivered the third championship in club history and closed a 53-year drought.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1946 |
| League / conf. / div. | NBA — Eastern Conference, Atlantic Division |
| Arena | Madison Square Garden, New York |
| Owner | Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (James L. Dolan, executive chairman) |
| Head coach (Sep. 17, 2026) | Mike Brown |
| Titles | 3 — 1970, 1973, 2026 |
Origins and the first golden age
A charter franchise. The Knickerbockers were one of the Basketball Association of America clubs that formed the NBA, and they have played at some incarnation of Madison Square Garden for their entire existence. The early teams reached three straight NBA Finals (1951, 1952, 1953) and lost all three, and the franchise then spent a decade in the league’s second tier.
The Holzman champions. Under coach Red Holzman the Knicks became the model of team basketball and won the only two titles of their first 79 seasons. The 1969-70 club, powered by Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley and Dick Barnett, beat the Los Angeles Lakers in a seven-game Finals still remembered for Reed limping out for Game 7. After losing the 1972 rematch, New York returned to beat the Lakers again for the 1972-73 title, with Earl Monroe now alongside Frazier. Six championship-era jerseys hang in the Garden rafters, along with a banner reading 613 for Holzman’s win total.
The Ewing era
A generational center. New York won the 1985 draft lottery and took Patrick Ewing first overall, anchoring nearly 15 years of contention. Under Pat Riley and later Jeff Van Gundy, the Knicks became a defense-first, physical team that repeatedly ran into the era’s dynasties. They reached the 1994 NBA Finals and lost a seven-game series to the Houston Rockets, then made an improbable run as a No. 8 seed to the 1999 Finals, where a shorthanded roster fell to the San Antonio Spurs. It was the franchise’s last Finals appearance for 27 years. Ewing, whose No. 33 was retired in 2003, remains the most decorated player in club history and entered the Hall of Fame in 2008.
The long drought
Two decades in the wilderness. From 2001 onward the Knicks became a byword for dysfunction — costly free-agent misses, front-office turmoil under Isiah Thomas, and only one playoff series victory across two decades. The lone bright spot came in 2012-13, when a 54-win team led by scoring champion Carmelo Anthony won the Atlantic Division and reached the conference semifinals. The rebuild that followed bottomed out at a franchise-worst 17-65 in 2018-19, and across their history the Knicks still carry a losing all-time regular-season mark of 3,078-3,191.
The Brunson rebuild
A homegrown cornerstone signed away. The turn began in July 2022, when New York signed guard Jalen Brunson — son of former Knick Rick Brunson — to a four-year, $104 million contract after his breakout in Dallas. Under coach Tom Thibodeau the Knicks returned to the playoffs, won a first-round series in 2022-23, and stacked 50- and 51-win seasons in 2023-24 and 2024-25. Brunson re-signed on a four-year, $156.5 million extension in July 2024, and a trade that autumn brought in Karl-Anthony Towns. The 2024-25 team reached the Eastern Conference finals — the franchise’s first appearance there in 25 years — before losing to the Indiana Pacers in six games.
The Brown hire and the 2026 title
A surprising coaching change. Days after the 2025 conference-finals loss, the Knicks fired Thibodeau, a former Coach of the Year, and on July 7, 2025 hired Mike Brown, himself a two-time Coach of the Year (2009, 2023). The decision was widely questioned; it was vindicated within a year.
The championship season. New York went 53-29 in 2025-26, finishing third in the Eastern Conference. In the playoffs the Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks 4-2, swept the Philadelphia 76ers 4-0, and swept the Cleveland Cavaliers 4-0 in the conference finals. Facing the San Antonio Spurs — the West’s No. 2 seed, who held home-court advantage in the Finals on a 62-20 record — New York won the 2026 NBA Finals 4-1, stealing the first two games in San Antonio and clinching on the road on June 13, 2026, by a score of 94-90. Brunson scored 45 points in the deciding game, was named Finals MVP, and led all playoff scorers with 539 points. It was the Knicks’ first championship since 1973.
By the numbers
| Season | W-L | Finish (East) | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | 31-51 | Lottery | Did not qualify |
| 2017-18 | 29-53 | Lottery | Did not qualify |
| 2018-19 | 17-65 | Lottery | Did not qualify |
| 2019-20 | 21-45 | Lottery | Did not qualify |
| 2020-21 | 41-31 | 4th | Lost first round (ATL 1-4) |
| 2021-22 | 37-45 | Lottery | Did not qualify |
| 2022-23 | 47-35 | 5th | Lost conf. semifinals (MIA 2-4) |
| 2023-24 | 50-32 | 2nd | Lost conf. semifinals (IND 3-4) |
| 2024-25 | 51-31 | 3rd | Lost conf. finals (IND 2-4) |
| 2025-26 | 53-29 | 3rd | NBA champions (def. SAS 4-1) |
All-time
Ranks
- 3rd Franchise valuation, NBA ($9.75B, 2025)
- 6th Total home attendance, 2025-26
Honors
- 2026 NBA champion
- 1973 NBA champion
- 1970 NBA champion
- Jalen Brunson — 2026 Finals MVP
- Willis Reed — Finals MVP (1970, 1973)
- 8 retired numbers (Frazier, Reed, Ewing and more)
Per Basketball-Reference, StatMuse, the Knicks and Forbes, through the 2025-26 season.
The arguments
The debates around the Knicks are mostly about money, expectations and the man who signs the checks. James Dolan, whose family’s Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. has controlled the team since 1997, has drawn sustained criticism for a run of front-office instability and for high-profile clashes with former players and fans, most notably the 2017 arena confrontation with franchise great Charles Oakley that ended in litigation. Supporters counter that Dolan’s ownership coincided with the Garden’s rise to the most-valuable tier of the NBA and, ultimately, a title. The other live argument is over the 2025 coaching change: critics said firing Thibodeau after a conference-finals run discarded the coach who rebuilt the culture, while the result — a championship in Mike Brown’s first season with essentially the same core — is cited by the decision’s defenders. How much credit belongs to Thibodeau’s foundation versus Brown’s adjustments is unlikely to be settled.
Why it matters
The Knicks matter because they sit at the commercial and cultural center of American basketball: the league’s marquee market, a home arena marketed as the world’s most famous, and among its most valuable franchises regardless of results on the court. For 53 years that stature outran the trophy case, which made the 2026 championship one of the more consequential title runs of the era — proof that the sport’s biggest stage could, at last, produce a winner to match it.