Sports

The Knicks Won Their First Championship in 53 Years and 63 People Were Arrested Celebrating It

By Curtis Jones · June 15, 2026

Jalen Brunson scored 45 points Saturday night in San Antonio. The Knicks won 94-90. He became the fourth player in NBA history — after Michael Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Bob Pettit — to score 45 or more in a closeout Finals game. He was the unanimous Finals MVP. The championship drought that began in 1973 and lasted 19,392 days is over.

“It’s everything we ever dreamed of. It’s why I came to New York.”

The Knicks trailed by 16 points in Game 5 before Brunson took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 of his 45 in the final period to pull New York ahead for good. The team that came back from 29 down in Game 4 came back from 16 down in Game 5. They won 15 of 16 playoff games. Their only loss was Game 3 at Madison Square Garden — the night Trump attended and got booed.

Then the streets happened.

Tens of thousands of fans flooded Midtown Manhattan after the final buzzer. What began as euphoria became something else by 2 AM. Fans smashed windshields. They scaled scaffolding and light poles. They climbed onto school buses in Times Square — and then one of those buses was set on fire. Around 2 AM, gunshots were fired near 42nd Street and Broadway. A 17-year-old was shot in the foot. Bystander video captured at least seven shots and showed people crouching and running.

NYPD reported 63 arrests, 41 additional summonses, four stabbings, and 10 officers injured — including one struck in the face with a glass bottle. Mayor Zohran Mamdani had posted before the game: “Be responsible, look out for one another, stay safe, be smart, and make this a night that reflects the very best of our city.” The night reflected both versions of the city — the one that waited 53 years and the one that couldn’t hold it together once the wait was over.

Victor Wembanyama, the 22-year-old Spurs superstar who had 31 points and 15 rebounds in the Game 4 loss, was philosophical after the series ended.

“This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment.”

He is 22. He lost in five games. He will be back. The Knicks will hang a banner at Madison Square Garden next October, and Brunson — the point guard from the Bronx who was working at a grocery store four years before signing with New York — will be the name at the center of it.

The championship is real. The 17-year-old in Times Square is also real. New York got both on the same night.