Jalen Brunson scored 45 points Saturday night to carry the New York Knicks to a 94-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, ending the franchise’s 53-year wait for a championship and earning Brunson the Finals Most Valuable Player award. The win at Madison Square Garden delivered New York its first title since 1973, closing one of the longest droughts in American professional sport.
The Knicks entered the night with Karl-Anthony Towns limited to two points on the evening and their offence struggling to find rhythm. Brunson absorbed the pressure entirely. He hit mid-range jumpers over the Spurs switching coverages, attacked the paint in the fourth quarter with the game in the balance, and refused to allow the series to extend to a sixth game. No single performance in this postseason run defined him more than this one.
Where Brunson Now Stands in NBA History
With the Finals MVP award confirmed, Brunson became only the third player listed at 6 feet 3 inches or shorter to both lead a championship team in scoring and win the Finals MVP, joining Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors. The distinction matters because the conventional assumption in the modern NBA has long held that a smaller guard requires a dominant big man or wing star beside him to carry a team to a title. Brunson spent five games dismantling that assumption. He averaged 32.6 points, 4.6 assists, and 4.2 rebounds across the series against San Antonio.
Indiana Pacers head coach Mike Brown, speaking about Brunson in the lead-up to the Finals, framed the achievement in terms that went beyond statistics. Brown noted that Brunson had taken what amounted to a $113 million pay cut to remain with New York on team-friendly terms, prioritising a competitive roster over maximum individual earnings. Brown said Brunson understands what winning is about and that he set the bar before he even stepped on the floor every time it came to renegotiate a deal. Brown added that he drew a direct comparison to Knicks legend Patrick Ewing in terms of Brunson’s significance to New York basketball.
The Knicks 53-Year Championship Wait Explained
New York’s previous championship came in 1973 under coach Red Holzman, with a team built around Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. The decades that followed were marked by near misses, coaching turnover, ownership controversy under James Dolan, and a succession of roster experiments that never produced another title. The Knicks reached the Finals in 1994 and 1999 but lost both times. Patrick Ewing, the franchise’s defining player of the intervening era, never won a ring with New York despite making the Finals in 1994. Brunson arrived in 2022 and, in four seasons, achieved what Ewing’s teams across 15 years could not.
His teammates were direct about what his performance meant. Centre Mitchell Robinson described the 45-point night as literally unreal, noting the added weight of delivering it in a closeout game. Guard Landry Shamet was equally unambiguous, saying the team owed him and that while they were not great offensively, Brunson is generationally great offensively.
What Comes Next for New York
The New York Knicks championship parade is expected to take place on a date to be confirmed by the city. A ticker tape parade through Lower Manhattan along the Canyon of Heroes is the traditional format for New York City championship celebrations. Brunson’s contract situation, his age at 30, and the Knicks core roster construction under president Leon Rose mean the franchise enters the offseason with genuine title defence credibility for the first time in over half a century.
The Spurs, who reached the Finals behind Victor Wembanyama in his second season, face a different kind of reckoning. San Antonio’s run to Game 5 of the NBA Finals as a team still building around their young franchise centre exceeded expectations significantly. Whether Wembanyama develops into a perennial Finals contender and how quickly is the most significant forward looking question the 2026 Finals leaves open.