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NEW YORK — The Knicks are one win away from their first NBA title in 53 years.
On Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks overcame a 29-point deficit in the third quarter to defeat the Spurs 107–106 and take a commanding 3–1 series lead. OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left capped the largest comeback in NBA Finals history.
“I don’t know if there is a play bigger in the history of Knicks basketball,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said in his postgame press conference. “That has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball.”
Game 5 is Saturday night in San Antonio. Tipoff is slated for 8:30 pm ET.
The Knicks boast the NBA’s second-highest payroll at $207 million and have been a major money-maker for owner Jim Dolan during the team’s historic run. Analysts estimated to Front Office Sports that the team will generate at least $145 million in revenue from this postseason run, all while Madison Square Garden’s stock price surges amid a possible spinoff of the Knicks and Rangers.
And that figure could end up much higher. Team merchandise sold in Madison Square Garden has drawn long lines around the concourse and prompted limitations on how many Finals shirts fans can purchase.
Dolan hired superagent Leon Rose in 2020 to run the team’s basketball operations after years of mediocrity. Rose signed Jalen Brunson as a free agent two years later, which vaulted the Knicks into contention. Rose over the next few years traded for the team’s four other current starters in Anunoby (2023), Josh Hart (2023), Mikal Bridges (2024), and Karl-Anthony Towns (2024), building a winning roster neither through free agency nor the draft.
The series has had other historic firsts. President Donald Trump, a longtime friend of Dolan, attended Game 3 at MSG, the first time a sitting president has attended an NBA Finals game.
New York’s last title came in 1973 when MSG analyst Walt Frazier and then future-Senator Bill Bradley were among the team’s star players. Both men were in the house Monday and Wednesday to support the current Knicks.
It’s been a decade since a team overcame a 3–1 deficit to win a championship, when LeBron James led the Cavaliers over the Warriors in seven games in 2016 for that city’s first title since 1964.
History isn’t on the Spurs’ side as another half-century long title drought is on the brink of ending.
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