The quote from a well-known ESPN commentator, Steven A. Smith, after the Knicks won the NBA Championship on 6/13/26, “I have to be honest, I never thought this would happen in my lifetime”, says it all – because the last time this miracle happened was in 1973 – 53 long years ago. As a fan of the New York Knicks, or the New York Jets (last championship was in 1969), you get so used to losing. Losing becomes like death and taxes, and after so many years, losing is what you expect to happen every year. Over such a long period of time, winning a championship becomes impossible to imagine could ever happen.

One of the great mysteries in the entire history of organized sports in the United States is how New York City, the richest and most important city in the entire world, a city with two teams for each sport, can so rarely win a championship, with the obvious exception of the New York Yankees, who last won in 2009.

We have had our miracles, mainly with the New York Giants, who won the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots in 2008 and 2011, but since those two miracle wins, the Giants have been one of the worst teams in the NFL. The Giants’ season last year was another disaster: in a road game against the Denver Broncos, their odds of winning were 96% after leading by 18 with only six minutes left, yet they still lost, leading to the firing of their head coach, Brian Daboll, who had a record of 20–40–1 with only one win in the playoffs. The New York Jets have not won a Super Bowl since 1969, with a record of 403 wins and 536 losses (.429) since then, and have made the playoffs only 13 times in 57 years. These are insanely bad records for two professional NFL Football teams in the most important and richest city in the world. Why this happens year after year should be the subject of a documentary, because none of this makes any sense.

For this season, the New York Knicks, we all expected the same. Making the playoffs, and once again not making the finals. Last year, the Knicks lost to Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals, after a fluke last-minute shot from Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers that flew up high from the rim and fell in, to end game one. Many were very angry that the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau after last season, after five years of turning the Knicks from a bad team to a team that was actually good, after decades of losing. The new coach, Mike Brown, had been fired 4 times by three NBA franchises, the last time in 2024, by the Sacramento Kings. Why would Knicks management think that Mike Brown would be the coach to finally get them to the Finals?

When the NBA playoffs began, the Knicks started out well, with a win against the Atlanta Hawks, 113-102. Then disaster once again hit the Knicks, and they lost two games in a row, by one point, two games they should have won. All Knicks fans thought, “Here we go again, we are going to be out in the first round!”

Then, by some miracle, Steven A. Smith went on an insane, angry rant on his show First Take (see video below) after the Knicks lost the second game to Atlanta by one point. From that point on, the Knicks not only won 13 games in a row, but they were blowing out and sweeping teams by 4-0 out of the playoffs. Their winning point differential was the greatest in the history of the NBA for 13 games – playoffs or regular season. The Knicks were down by 22 points in Game 1 against the Cavaliers and down by 29 points against the Spurs in Game 4, before staging huge comebacks and winning these games. Steven A. Smith has taken credit for this giant Knicks surge after losing game 3 to Atlanta, and I believe Smith’s angry screaming rant did, in fact, turn the Knicks from losing in the first round into an NBA juggernaut, on a surge that has never been seen before.

When the playoffs began, all Knicks fans knew that they would probably not be able to get past the Detroit Pistons, who had their number in the regular season, winning 3-0. If by some miracle, the Knicks got by Detroit, they would never be able to beat last year’s champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder. Then by some miracle, an inferior Cleveland team beat Detroit in Game 7 after being down 3-2. Then, by another miracle, San Antonio beat an undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder team in Game 7 after also trailing by 3-2. To win a championship in any professional sport, you need skill, hard work, and no major injuries, but you also need some luck. One of the main reasons for the Knicks huge surge was the turnaround of Mikal Bridges, who was nowhere to be found when the playoffs started, and then, after the Steven A Smith rant, Bridges turned things around and had several much-needed outstanding games. Landry Shamet also had several outstanding games for the Knicks during this unprecedented surge.

Watching the NBA playoffs this year has been very difficult, mainly because of the way too many commercials that seem to drag on forever, and the non-stop overuse of three-point shooting with so many missed shots, adding to the frustrations of watching any NBA game. Nobody who is a real long-term Knicks fan expects the miracle that happened this year to happen again, any time soon. There are just too many great teams in the Knicks way, and right now, the Knicks rely way too much on Jalen Brunson, who is by far the most responsible for the Knicks NBA championship this year. Jalen averaged 26 points per game in the regular season, 26.9 points in the playoffs, and 32.6 points per game in the finals against San Antonio. Incredibly, in Game 5, Brunson scored 45 points, while the rest of the team combined for only 49, adding to speculation that the Knicks are relying too heavily on him to score. If the Knicks are going to succeed next year, this major issue will need to be addressed. More amazing is that Jalen Brunson is a guard, and only 6’1 driving into the basket and making shots against a 7’5 center, Victor Wembanyama, who this year, was the first-ever unanimous defensive player of the year.

Jalen Brunson also gave up on an extra 113 million dollars when signing with the Knicks, so they could trade for his Villanova teammates, Josh Hart and Miakal Bridges, one of the most unselfish team decisions any player has ever made in NBA history.

Many Knicks fans have said, while interviewed about this year’s Knicks miracle win after 53 years, that even though the Knicks did win the championship, most do not believe they really did win. It all seems impossible. I am definitely one of those Knicks fans. After three days, it still does not seem real.

Below is a matrix of the Knicks records for all the decades since 1970, showing how long the Knick fans have suffered since 1973, including the years during the mid 1990s, when the Knicks always lost to Chicago and Micheal Jordan and in 1994 when they should have won but lost to San Antonio 4-3 because of a poor coaching decision that allowed John Starks to shoot 2-18, 11 of those shots were three pointers and he missed all 11.

For Knicks fans, the most important thing is to enjoy this incredible miracle that nobody expected and not worry about next year until September. Congratulations to Spike Lee, who is the greatest sports fan of all time, who has spent millions of dollars on Knicks tickets and followed them to many of their road games for decades. I believe that the NY Knicks should give Spike Lee a Championship ring. This 2026 NBA championship will never be forgotten.

* 2020s record and playoff appearances include seasons through 2025–26.