New York Knicks Garden Glory Book Preview

GARDEN

GLORY The New York Knicks and the NBA Championship Five Decades in the Making

FOREWORD

After all the suffering, Knicks fans have lived to see the mountaintop STEPHEN BORELLI

We are New York … and we love basketball, we’re gonna take it all, ’cause we’re the New York Knicks! ….

IF YOU REMEMBER THOSE WORDS, and that song, with its Rockettes-like f lash filling Madison Square Garden, count yourself as a diehard Knicks fan.

It harkens back to an era when Bernard King, wearing those small shorts with the “NY” insignia, would play big, taking over games at the Garden before sometimes sparse crowds.

But first, he warmed up, swishing ball after ball to that intro song.

If you can believe it, the Knicks didn’t sell out much during this era, even after they drafted Patrick Ewing, the consensus top collegiate player out of Georgetown in 1985. As a boy growing up just north of New York City, I remember the team advertising tickets — and the fact that

they had won the NBA title more than a decade earlier in 1973 — in The New York Times’ sports pages.

I asked my dad if we could go. A few quick train rides later, there we were, sitting at Madison Square Garden, watching a young Patrick Ewing racing up and down the court on fast breaks. And hearing that corny song.

The Knicks lost to the Milwaukee Bucks 104-88, before 16,547 fans, 3,000 or so short of a sellout, on that Saturday night.

Ewing missed more than 50 games over his first two seasons, as the team stumbled to records of 23-59 and 24-58.

I temporarily lost interest during his second season, as my family was about to move to Washington. I had bigger problems of fitting into a new school and group of peers.

Then, during Christmas break of my first year away from New York, I returned to the Garden, and I heard that song.

This is New York … we’re here to play some ball, and we are standing tall, we

are the New York Knicks!

Ewing strode out with his teammates

STEPHEN BORELLI HAS BEEN a n ed itor a nd w r iter at USA TODAY since 1999. He grew up in suburban New York City and moved to the Washington area for h ig h school a nd col lege.

He has worked on USA TODAY Sports Weekly since 2005 and has been the magazine’s editor, as well as editor of USA TODAY’s sports specia l editions, since 2016. He wrote the def initive bio g r aphy of l ate New York Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen (“How about That! The Life of Mel Allen”) and recently published “Coach Steve’s Yout h Spor ts Survival Guide,” which is based on the weekly sports parenting column he writes for USA TODAY.

OPPOSITE: A who’s who from Game 4 of the NBA Finals: Jalen Brunson, an NBA and two-time NCAA champion; Ben Stiller, comedic actor

and director whose films had grossed billions; Alana and Este Haim, two of the three-sister rock band HAIM; Taylor Swift, reigning queen of pop music; and Mariska Hargitay, star of “Law & Order: SVU,” TV’s longest-running prime-time drama. G EOFF BURKE / IMAGN IMAGES

6 • GARDEN GLORY

INTRODUCTION • 7

off Roman candles in the middle of the street. Another rolled up in his neon green Harley Davidson and blasted Busta Rhymes’ “New York S***” for everyone to hear, a song whose lyrics included “I rep the Giants, the Jets, New York Knicks.”

At Wollman Rink in Central Park, where New Yorkers go to play pickleball in the summer and ice skate in the winter, a pair of massive screens beamed the game to thousands, backlit by the towering corridor of opulent skyscrapers along Billionaires’ Row. You can swap the names of the places because they were all interchangeable.

This was the vibe across the Bronx and Brooklyn, too, from Highbridge in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, to Williamsburg on the banks of the East River. This spanned all five boroughs.

There were men and women, young and old. They were Black and white and Asian and everything in between. There were recent arrivals to the bandwagon and lifers. It didn’t matter. They all spilled out into this hot night on June 13 to celebrate together because that was how this city honored its very best.

Though it was under wholly different circumstances, that night reminded me of another celebration, one far more somber in nature. In April 2020, as COVID-19 cases ripped through the city and we were confined to our apartments, someone found a way to honor first responders and medical staff who were keeping the city safe: Every evening at 7 o’clock, residents opened their windows and banged pots and pans to recognize the efforts of those putting themselves at risk.

As the season’s final seconds ticked off the clock at San Antonio’s Frost Bank 18 • GARDEN GLORY

Center, there was no need to stay inside.

The city chose to celebrate together all the same.

That ebullience bubbled through the city in the days and weeks following the title-clinching victory. No moment was more lasting than the ticker-tape parade June 18, in which the entire Knicks procession rolled up the Canyon of Heroes route in lower Manhattan, culminating with a ceremony at City Hall.

More than 2 million fans packed the mile-and-a-half route. They scaled scaffolding for the chance to glimpse their

champions. They climbed onto the rails of subway stations and hoisted their children onto their shoulders. They called off from work and braved a warm and muggy day. Along the route, people crowded by windows and flung bankers boxes filled with shredded paper in a glorious rain for champions.

Once the procession arrived at City Hall Plaza, Mayor Zohran Mamdani honored players and coaches with keys to the city, celebrating how these Knicks embodied the grit and spirit of the place they called home. During those remarks, Mamdani

echoed the sheer improbability of New York’s stunning Game 4 comeback, one in which the Knicks trailed by 29 points. At the time, live analytics put San Antonio’s chances of winning at 99.6%.

“The Knicks did not just win for New York City — they won like New York City,” Mamdani said. “What is New York if not your back up against the wall, a dream that feels just out of reach, a rent payment you don’t know how you will ever make? What is New York if not 99.6% of the world stacked against you? And who are New Yorkers if not people who hear

OPPOSITE: After they were showered

with shreds of paper during a ticker-tape parade up the Canyon of Heroes, the Knicks were blasted by orange-and-blue confetti after a ceremony at City Hall Plaza. Each team member received a key to the city from Mayor Zohran Mamdani. His well-received remarks included: “Over these past weeks, as the Knicks kept winning, our city has come together as one. … So often, when this city comes together, it is because we are forced to by a moment of tragedy or adversity.

What a gift it is to be brought together by pure, unfiltered joy.”

B RAD PENNER / IMAGN IMAGES

those odds and smile? Who look at a 0.4% chance of success and ask, ‘Why are you giving me a head start?’

“This is our city. This is our team. For 53 years, we watched. For 53 years, we waited. Now, we’ve won.”

And now that they’ve won, it’s all about building continuity to see whether this championship window could be sustained.

Brunson, MVP of the Finals, is only 29 and signed to an extremely team-friendly deal, one he agreed to on condition that the team use the salary cap space to

attract other key players. Karl-Anthony Towns is 30, Mikal Bridges is 29 and OG Anunoby is 28.

The team did lose Mitchell Robinson in free agency — and to the rival Boston Celtics no less — but Jose Alvarado and Landry Shamet were retained. The roster, more or less, figured to return for the 2026-27 season.

More than anything, these Knicks proved in convincing fashion that winning in the contemporary NBA was not necessarily about accruing star players.

It was about finding talented ones who

perfectly fit a system and a vision.

In the era of parity —New York made it eight different champions in as many seasons — it’s not about a Big Three or blockbuster signings, but about holistic roster construction.

Brunson, obviously, was the key addition. After the Dallas Mavericks allowed him to walk during the 2022 offseason, the Knicks swooped in to lock him up.

Then, gradually, New York added complementary players to build around Brunson.

Team president Leon Rose went about that in an unconventional way.

LEFT: For five rough-and-tumble games, Karl-Anthony Towns never backed down from an Alien force, San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama.

Their stats from the Finals: Towns — 31.0 minutes, 13.0 points, .490 field-goal shooting, 1.000 freethrow shooting, 10.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks.

Wembanyama — 39.8 minutes, 26.0 points, .423 field-goal shooting, .786 free-throw shooting, 11.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.0 steals and 3.6 blocks.

ERIC GAY / IMAGN IMAGES

INTRODUCTION • 19

NEW YORK KNICKS

2025-26 Season Summary REGULAR SEASON OCT. 22, 2025 W 119 - 111

OCT. 24, 2025 W 105 - 95

OCT. 26, 2025 L 115 - 107

OCT. 28, 2025 L 121 - 111

VS. CAVALIERS

VS. CELTICS

AT HEAT

AT BUCKS

NOV. 2, 2025 W 128 - 116

NOV. 3, 2025 W 119 - 102

NOV. 5, 2025 W 137 - 114

VS. BULLS

VS. WIZARDS

VS. TIMBERWOLVES

NOV. 9, 2025 W 134 - 98

NOV. 11, 2025 W 133 - 120

NOV. 12, 2025 L 124 - 107

VS. NETS

VS. GRIZZLIES

VS. MAGIC

NOV. 17, 2025 L 115 - 113

NOV. 19, 2025 W 113 - 111

NOV. 22, 2025 L 133 - 121

NOV. 24, 2025 W 113 - 100

AT HEAT

AT MAVERICKS

AT MAGIC

AT NETS

NOV. 26, 2025 W 129 - 101

NOV. 28, 2025 W 118 - 109

AT HORNETS

VS. BUCKS

NOV. 30, 2025 W 116 - 94

DEC. 2, 2025 L 123 - 117

NBA CUP

NBA CUP

VS. RAPTORS

AT CELTICS

DEC. 3, 2025 W 119 - 104

DEC. 5, 2025 W 146 - 112

DEC. 7, 2025 W 106 - 100

VS. HORNETS

VS. JAZZ

VS. MAGIC

DEC. 13, 2025 W 132 - 120

DEC. 16, 2025 W 124 - 113

VS. MAGIC*

VS. SPURS*

NBA CUP SEMIFINALS

NBA CUP FINAL

OCT. 31, 2025 L 135 - 125

AT BULLS NBA CUP

32 • GARDEN GLORY

DEC. 18, 2025 W 114 - 113

AT PACERS

NOV. 14, 2025 W 140 - 132

VS. HEAT NBA CUP

DEC. 9, 2025 W 117 - 101

AT RAPTORS NBA CUP *At Las Vegas

RECORD

PCT

HOME

53-29 .646

ROAD

NEUTRAL

30-10 22-19 1-0

DEC. 19, 2025 L 116 - 107

DEC. 21, 2025 W 132 - 125

DEC. 23, 2025 L 115 - 104

DEC. 25, 2025 W 126 - 124

VS. 76ERS

VS. HEAT

AT TIMBERWOLVES

VS. CAVALIERS

DEC. 27, 2025 W 128 - 125

DEC. 29, 2025 W 130 - 125

DEC. 31, 2025 L 134 - 132

JAN. 2, 2026 L 111 - 99

AT HAWKS

AT PELICANS

AT SPURS

VS. HAWKS

JAN. 3, 2026 L 130 - 119

JAN. 5, 2026 L 121 - 90

JAN. 7, 2026 W 123 - 111

JAN. 9, 2026 L 112 - 107

VS. 76ERS

AT PISTONS

VS. CLIPPERS

AT SUNS

JAN. 11, 2026 W 123 - 114

JAN. 14, 2026 L 112 - 101

JAN. 15, 2026 L 126 - 113

JAN. 17, 2026 L 106 - 99

AT TRAIL BLAZERS

AT KINGS

AT WARRIORS

VS. SUNS

JAN. 19, 2026 L 114 - 97

JAN. 21, 2026 W 120 - 66

JAN. 24, 2026 W 112 - 109

JAN. 27, 2026 W 103 - 87

VS. MAVERICKS

VS. NETS

AT 76ERS

VS. KINGS

JAN. 28, 2026 W 119 - 92

JAN. 30, 2026 W 127 - 97

FEB. 1, 2026 W 112 - 100

FEB. 3, 2026 W 132 - 101

AT RAPTORS

VS. TRAIL BLAZERS

VS. LAKERS

AT WIZARDS

FEB. 4, 2026 W 134 - 127 (2OT)

FEB. 6, 2026 L 118 - 80

FEB. 8, 2026 W 111 - 89

FEB. 10, 2026 L 137 - 134 (OT)

VS. NUGGETS

AT PISTONS

AT CELTICS

VS. PACERS

THE SEASON • 33

68 • GARDEN GLORY

NBA FINALS

JUNE 5, 2026 W 2-0

KNICKS 105, SPURS 104 GAME 2 AT SAN ANTONIO

Knicks take command of the series following Wemby’s bad pass, costly foul and final miss LORENZO REYES AND VICTORIA HERNANDEZ

IT’S A BAD NIGHT TO BE A BROOM in New York City.

The Knicks, once again, outplayed San Antonio and took a commanding 2-0 lead with the NBA Finals headed to New York.

They squandered a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, but when Victor Wembanyama committed another turnover in the closing moments, Jalen Brunson hit the game-winning free throw for a 105-104 victory.

With 13.6 seconds left and the score tied at 104, Brunson missed a 16foot jumper. Wembanyama nabbed the rebound, took a few dribbles and tossed the ball toward Stephon Castle along the sideline near midcourt. Only Castle, the point guard, was no longer looking at Wembanyama, and when the ball softly hit his back, Brunson swooped in and grabbed it.

Wembanyama compounded his mistake by running into Brunson and knocking him out of bounds on his bottom with 9.5 seconds left.

Wembanyama scrunched his face in a mix of frustration and disbelief.

Although struggling through another tough shooting night at 7-for-25, Brunson stepped to the line 3-for-3.

He swished his first free throw but his second swirled out and hit the court. OG Anunoby battled through Wembanyama across the lane to get his hands on the ball until Luke Kornet snatched it away.

After a time-out, the Spurs had 7.5 seconds to pull out the victory.

Stephon Castle inbounded the ball to De’Aaron Fox. Mikal Bridges stepped out to guard him. At the top of the key, Wembanyama set a screen with Mitchell Robinson trailing. When Fox turned the corner with Bridges and Robinson in pursuit, Fox passed to

Wembanyama beyond the arc. Wide open, he took a long stride forward, which gave Robinson a chance to step over and leap at him.

As his 20-foot jumper bounced off the side of the rim, Wembanyama fell back and landed on his bottom. Castle collected a long rebound as the clock expired.

“I t h rew t hat one away,” sa id Wembanyama, who had 29 points on 11-for-21 shooting with nine rebounds.

“I messed up. We didn’t play great as a team. We needed to win that game.

This game was ours. But at this point, it’s done.

“Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course. Am I going to use that to fuel me and fuel us into the next game?

Absolutely.”

With their 13th straight victory and eight straight on the road, the Knicks were suddenly heavy favorites to win the series. Only five teams had rallied

from a 2-0 deficit in the Finals. Only two other teams had won Games 1 and 2 on the road, the 1993 Chicago Bulls and the 1995 Houston Rockets. Michael Jordan’s Bulls won their series with Phoenix in six games while Hakeem Olajuwon’s Rockets swept Orlando.

As the Knicks celebrated and Spurs fans exited, Karl-Anthony Towns told ESPN’s Lisa Salters that he prayed to his deceased mother before the last possession.

“I needed a stop,” said Towns, who had been replaced Josh Hart for Brunson’s free throws. “I prayed to her strong. … A great player got a great shot. It just didn’t go in. … I take it as a sign my mom was here with me. I appreciate her so much.”

The Knicks shouldn’t have been so desperate. With 6:04 left, an Anunoby dunk after a pass from Towns put New York up by 14 points at 97-83. But the Spurs scored the next 14 points as the

OPPOSITE: After San Antonio’s De’Aaron Fox fouled Jalen Brunson, Fox got in his face and a classic stare-down ensued with 9½ minutes left in the game and Knicks up by seven

points. No words were exchanged. Neither touched the other. Eventually, Mikal Bridges and a few Spurs did a little pushing and shoving. SCOTT WACHTER / IMAGN IMAGES

THE GLORY • 69

82 • GARDEN GLORY

NBA FINALS

JUNE 10, 2026 W 3-1

KNICKS 107, SPURS 106 GAME 4 AT NEW YORK

With Anunoby’s last-second tip-in, Knicks complete record rally from 29-point deficit SCOOBY AXSON AND GENE MYERS

“It’s unbelievable. … That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball.”

— Mike Brown, Knicks coach OG A N U NOBY ’S H IGH-F LY I NG tip-in off Jalen Brunson’s missed 3-point shot with 1.2 seconds completed the largest comeback in NBA Finals history and put the Knicks on the brink of their first championship in 53 years.

New York overcame a 29-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Spurs 107-106 in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. The Knicks trailed by 27 points at halftime (76-49), by 29 points after a De’Aaron Fox basket with 9:40 left in the third quarter (81-52) and by 20 points after a Victor Wembanyama layup with 9:33 left in the fourth

quarter (95-75).

The Knicks outscored the Spurs 32-11 the rest of the game. The previous biggest comeback belonged to the Boston Celtics, who rallied from a 24-point hole against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals.

Brunson led all scorers with 36 points, including a 3-pointer with 2:21 left that brought Knicks within one point and a six-foot floater 59 seconds later that gave the Knicks a 105-104 lead.

It was their first lead of the game.

And it came right after Wembanyama, an 82% shooter from the line in his career, missed two free throws. In the second half, the Spurs missed 31 of 39 shots, and Wembanyama missed 11 of 14 shots and 3 of 4 free throws.

After Brunson’s go-ahead basket, the teams traded turnovers — Stephon Castle stepped out of bounds with 1:02 left and the shot clock expired after

a Brunson miss with 38 seconds left.

After a San Antonio time-out, Fox missed a jumper, Castle snared the rebound, Josh Hart fouled him in the act of shooting and Castle made his free throws for a 106-105 Spurs lead.

After a New York time-out with 30 seconds left, Brunson beat Devin Vassell with a drive on the right side, but with Wembanyama in his path, his floater hit so high on the backboard that it never hit the rim on the way down. When neither Hart nor Dylan Harper could corral the ball, it bounced on the free-throw line with Fox, Castle and Karl-Anthony Towns in hot pursuit. As they converged, the ball was batted into the backcourt. On its third bounce, Fox snared it in stride near the edge of the lane. Only 12.8 seconds remained.

Fox headed right to the basket, but Anunoby caught him and blocked his layup. The rebound fell to Jose

Alvarado, who headed back the other way. At midcourt, Fox fouled him with 5.7 seconds left, but the Spurs had a foul to give.

After a Knicks time-out, Mikal Bridges replaced Alvarado and Landry Shamet replaced Hart. Standing at midcourt, Anunoby inbounded the ball to Brunson, who broke free from Wembanyama at the top of the key to catch the pass near the Knicks logo.

As Fox and Wembanyama hunted him, Brunson turned to face his basket, took a stride and one dribble and launched from 31 feet.

His shot hit the front rim, bouncing high and backward. As he shot, Anunoby started a mad dash from beyond the 3-point arc. He made it down the lane untouched and then outjumped and outreached three Spurs for a light tip a few feet from the basket.

“Just do whatever it takes to win,” Anunoby said. “I had to make a play.”

OPPOSITE: All eyes from four Knicks and five Spurs were trained on the hoop as OG Anunoby’s tip-in of Jalen Brunson’s 3-point shot nestled into the basket with 1.2 seconds

left. Spurs on the court were Stephon Castle (5), Dylan Harper (2), Devin Vassell (24), Victor Wembanyama (1) and De’Aaron Fox (4). V INCENT CARCHIETTA / IMAGN IMAGES

THE GLORY • 83

ABOVE: After the Knicks swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2026 Eastern Conference finals, two Knicks legends handed out trophies named for two Celtics legends. Walt Frazier

(middle) and Patrick Ewing gave the Larry Bird Trophy to Jalen Brunson as MVP of the series and the Bob Cousy Trophy to the team as East champions. K EN BLAZE / IMAGN IMAGES

158 • GARDEN GLORY

I blocked out the noise a little bit more and just stuck it out.

USAT: Does winning this year kind of give you a little bit more peace and closure with your time with the Knicks?

Ewing: Give me more peace? Yeah. We definitely wish when we got there, we could have been able to win it. But it just wasn’t in the cards for us. But I think that me being back and me being a part of it, and management and ownership making me feel like I’m part of it, yes, it’s fulfilling.

It’s like a dream come true.

USAT: What is your biggest advice for young athletes and their parents about their kids who are coming up in sports?

Ewing: Believe in yourself. There’s gonna be people who doubt you. It could be a coach, could be a family member. Whatever is your dream to achieve, make sure you put forth the energy and the effort to try to get it done. Don’t let others define you.

LEFT: On March 31, 2021, at Madison Square Garden, Patrick Ewing became the first person to win the Big East Tournament as a player and as a coach. He won the event three times as Georgetown’s center (1982, 1984, 1985) and as Georgetown’s coach by leading the eighth-seeded Hoyas to victories over No. 9 Marquette, No. 1 Villanova, No. 4 Seton Hall and No. 2 Creighton. Despite 14 seasons as an NBA assistant, he never was hired as a head coach. “Vindication? Not yet,” Ewing told the New York Times in 2021. “We still have a lot of work to do. But I have shut a lot of people up.” BRAD PENNER / IMAGN IMAGES

THE FRANCHISE • 159