{"id":1991347,"date":"2026-06-15T14:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1991347"},"modified":"2026-06-15T14:15:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T11:15:52","slug":"the-bounce-the-knicks-enjoy-the-biggest-nba-celebration-ever-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1991347","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: The Knicks enjoy the biggest NBA celebration ever. What\u2019s next?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Bounce Newslette<\/b>r<\/strong>\u00a0\":basketball:\"<\/span>\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Yes, the NBA regular season is over. Yes, the playoffs are done. We have crowned a new champion. But now things are just getting started. The draft starts in eight days. We have a potential Giannis trade happening soon. We have a wild free agency coming. Let\u2019s prepare for a fun summer.<\/p>\n

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Knicks euphoria<\/h3>\n

Big party in the Big Apple<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bing Bong<\/a>? More like Ring Bong. OK, that wasn\u2019t as good as I\u2019d hoped, and definitely don\u2019t play that video at full volume at work. Not suitable.<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks did the impossible on Saturday night when they won their first championship since 1973<\/a>. The Knicks had some good teams in the 1990s, and it felt like they were knocking on the door the last couple of seasons, but something always got in the way. And they kept tinkering with coaches or rosters. It felt like owner James Dolan was never going to deliver a championship to arguably the biggest franchise in the sport. Not the most successful, but the biggest.<\/p>\n

That was proved during the later stages of the Knicks\u2019 NBA Finals win over the San Antonio Spurs. New York fans dominated the postseason the same way their team did.<\/strong> Appeared in Atlanta. Overran Philadelphia. Showed up in Cleveland. I witnessed it firsthand in San Antonio. There was a solid smattering of Knicks fans in Game 1. After New York came back to win that game, downtown San Antonio was overrun with Jalen Brunson jerseys. Knicks fans were about as loud as the Spurs fans in the Frost Bank Center for Game 2. They had flooded the road game.<\/p>\n

After OG Anunoby\u2019s miracle putback in Game 4 to complete the biggest comeback ever in a finals game (29 points), the writing was on the wall for the Knicks coming through for the first time since \u201cThe Exorcist\u201d was the biggest movie in the country. Their fan base infiltrated an opposing arena like I\u2019ve never seen. I\u2019m not sure anybody has seen something like this.<\/p>\n

Before Game 5 in San Antonio, I was standing near one of the tunnels, watching Pacome Dadiet warm up. I overheard a security guard say to some of his coworkers, \u201c10,000-11,000 Knicks fans? The plaza is going to be nuts.\u201d I thought there was no way this could be true, and the pregame hyperbole must have been flowing.<\/p>\n

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As I walked the concourse, I started feeling like this might be true. Knicks fans were everywhere. <\/strong>As I overlooked the arena from the media section, New York fans were omnipresent. Frost Bank was as loud for the Knicks when they did something as it was for the Spurs. And by the time the Knicks had completed their fourth comeback victory in five finals games, it felt like we were in a junior version of the madness at Madison Square Garden following the Game 4 win.<\/p>\n

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Social media was as present for the off-court stuff in this series as the on-court stuff. People wanted to see how New York would celebrate. And aside from a small number of people being inappropriate and concerning<\/a> in drawing attention for fighting or throwing eggs at the Spurs, the Knicks fans delivered in every way. It reminded me of the Cleveland Cavaliers parade in 2016 that was truly special. Except \u2026 we haven\u2019t even gotten to the Knicks parade yet. That\u2019s happening on Thursday<\/a> and will be must-see TV\/social media.<\/p>\n

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Knicks fans displayed one of the purest forms of sports community we\u2019ve ever seen. Dolan, who has long been seen as the reason the franchise couldn\u2019t win a title, apologized for how long it took. And it felt like the fans genuinely forgave him for all the embarrassment over the decades. Because it was all worth it<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson had one of the greatest closeout games we\u2019ve ever seen, easily securing finals MVP with a 45-point blitzing of the Spurs\u2019 defense. He tied Michael Jordan for the highest-scoring closeout game on the road. The Knicks made Victor Wembanyama remember how inexperienced he is<\/a> and how the little things you learn through trials and tribulations give you the armor to withstand an onslaught. Remember the veteran presence of De\u2019Aaron Fox on the Spurs? He was a complete disaster for pretty much the entire series.<\/p>\n

Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, Landry Shamet and Mitchell Robinson all had big impacts on the series at various times. They\u2019ve been through it, and now Mike Brown is finally a champion<\/a> as a head coach.<\/p>\n

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For 53 years, Knicks fans have been waiting for this<\/a>. It goes well beyond the celebrity sightings throughout the championship run. I\u2019m not sure anybody could possibly enjoy it on the scale we\u2019re seeing and will see during the parade.<\/p>\n

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The last 24<\/h3>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Draft bible.<\/strong> The first round of the NBA Draft is next Tuesday. Everything you could possibly need to get ready is here in Sam Vecenie\u2019s annual, massive draft guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc51 Return of the King? <\/strong>It\u2019s not quite The Decision 2.0. But LeBron James\u2019 free agency is full of questions, Dan Woike writes<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc8 Power hour. <\/strong>The Knicks obviously top Law Murray\u2019s final power rankings. But what\u2019s next for each team?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf6a Last laugh. <\/strong>Elmo was under fire for not picking the Knicks to support. Cookie Monster put him in his place<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude4c Is he the one? <\/strong>Brunson just completed the championship run for New York. He\u2019s the greatest Knick ever now<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong>Marcus Thompson has a great piece on the father-son Brunson combo<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ud83d\uddfd NYC\u2019s finest? <\/strong>Ian O\u2019Connor truly believes in this Knicks success. He calls them the greatest championship team in New York history<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stream the NBA on Fubo (<\/em>try it for free!<\/a>)<\/em>\u00a0and catch out-of-market games on\u00a0<\/em>League Pass<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Back-to-back?<\/h3>\n

Can Knicks end the NBA\u2019s parity era?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Knicks became the NBA\u2019s eighth different champion in the last eight years. Since the Denver Nuggets won in 2023, we\u2019ve wondered if the new champion would break this streak of parity and run things for a while. But the Nuggets, the Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder all failed to establish themselves as a new dynasty. The Knicks will be the next one to test that.<\/p>\n

Leon Rose, William Wesley and the Knicks\u2019 front office have done an impressive job building the roster. This is how they acquired their rotation of players:<\/p>\n

Draft<\/strong><\/p>\n