Knicks Are 2026 NBA Champions

The Finals, Game by Game — How It Happened

Every game in this series was decided late — until Game 5. With a championship on the line on the road in San Antonio, Brunson delivered the signature performance of the entire Finals: 45 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists, by far the highest-scoring game of the series for either team. Four of the first five games had been within four points in the final two minutes — the kind of series that should, by any reasonable basketball logic, have gone to the team with the 12-foot-8-inch peak reach and the Defensive Player of the Year at center. Instead, the Knicks closed it out behind the same player who carried them through the entire postseason: a 6-foot-1 point guard whose combine profile sits in the bottom 10 percent of nearly 1,800 players ever tested.

The Player Ranked 1,679th All Time Just Won a Championship

Brunson finishes the 2026 Finals averaging approximately 33 points per game across five games, anchoring an offense that needed to play through the Defensive Player of the Year on every single possession. His Game 4 performance — 36 points and the largest comeback in Finals history — looked like it might be the signature moment of the series. Then, with a championship on the line in Game 5, he topped it: 45 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists on the road to close it out. The Finals MVP award reflects the totality of the run — clutch shot-making in Games 1 and 2, finding his shot at Madison Square Garden in Game 3, the historic comeback in Game 4, and a 45-point closeout for the championship in Game 5. The same wingspan that ranked 1,679th out of 1,812 players ever tested is now attached to a championship ring and a Finals MVP trophy.

Brunson vs Wembanyama — Final Tale of the Tape

The final tale of the tape between the Finals' two central figures remains as lopsided as it was on day one — and the scoreboard tells the opposite story.

Wembanyama's peak fingertip height of approximately 12'8" is roughly 31 inches above Brunson's. He was the best defensive player in basketball all season. None of it was enough. The Knicks won the series by making Wembanyama's interior dominance a liability — pulling him to the perimeter with Karl-Anthony Towns's shooting, then attacking downhill with Brunson whenever he committed to the closeout. The most physically dominant player in NBA history spent the Finals solving a problem that had no clean answer, against a point guard built like, by the numbers, he shouldn't be able to guard anyone his own size, let alone carry a championship offense through him.

Brunson Joins the Shortest Finals MVPs in NBA History

At 6 feet 1 inch barefoot, Brunson is now among the shortest players to ever win Finals MVP, joining a list that includes Isiah Thomas (6'1", two championships with Detroit) and the broader company of undersized guards — Allen Iverson, Tony Parker, Steph Curry — who reached the same stage at similar height but with dramatically different wingspans.

What separates Brunson from nearly everyone on that list is the wingspan gap. Curry's wingspan is only an inch longer than his height — close to Brunson's 3-inch differential, but Curry's game is built around a release so quick and a range so deep that length matters less. Brunson's game is built on contact, change of speed, and an almost supernatural ability to get to a spot a half-step before the defense recovers. Different tools, same conclusion: the combine measured the wrong things.

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