Champagne, a soaked movie star and an accidental livestream defined the Knicks’ big night
For the first time since 1973, the New York Knicks are NBA champions. New York closed out the San Antonio Spurs 94 to 90 in Game 5 on Saturday night at Frost Bank Center, finishing off a series in which the Knicks trailed by double digits in every game yet still won four of five. Jalen Brunson, who scored 45 points in the deciding game and 15 in the fourth quarter alone, was named Finals MVP. The win also marked New York’s first trip back to the Finals since 1999, making the championship taste even sweeter for fans who had waited decades. Once the final horn sounded, the real spectacle moved from the court to the locker room, where players turned years of frustration into one unforgettable night.
The celebration turns the locker room into chaos
Inside the cramped visiting locker room, champagne bottles popped almost on contact with the floor. Jerseys came off, matching white championship hats and shirts went on, and the Larry O’Brien trophy made its way from one set of hands to the next. Each player took a turn holding it, kissing it and posing with it, as if confirming the moment was real before letting it go. Karl-Anthony Towns, his goggles already soaked, shouted to the room that they were finally living it. Brunson, by contrast, moved through the celebration with the same calm he had carried in the fourth quarter, soaking in the noise without adding much of his own.
Chalamet gets the full champagne treatment
Actor Timothée Chalamet, who has spent the better part of two seasons as one of the Knicks’ most visible courtside regulars, found himself squarely in the spray once it reached its peak. Players doused him until his eyes burned, and he later joked that an actor in his position usually has a stunt double for that kind of scene. The moment capped a postseason in which Chalamet had become something close to an honorary member of the roster, showing up at Madison Square Garden and traveling to San Antonio for the clincher. Fellow Knicks superfan Ben Stiller was in the room too, adding another familiar face to a celebration that had started to feel like a season long inside joke finally paying off.
Anunoby cannot find the off switch
Not everyone in the room was focused on the trophy. Forward OG Anunoby, fresh off a signature moment from earlier in the series, accidentally switched on an Instagram Live broadcast and gave fans an unfiltered look at the mayhem. For about 25 seconds, viewers watched champagne fly and teammates shout as Anunoby fumbled with his phone, repeatedly asking how to end the stream. The broadcast finally cut off when his finger slipped over the camera lens, and the clip spread quickly online as proof that even brand new champions can be undone by their own settings menu.
New York prepares its own celebration
While the locker room party unfolded more than 1,500 miles away, New York City was already getting ready for the team’s return. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office confirmed that a championship parade will travel up the Canyon of Heroes from Battery Park to City Hall on Thursday, June 18, giving fans their first chance to greet the team in person. For a city that last celebrated a Knicks title more than five decades ago, the parade route alone carries weight that few other sports moments in New York can match.
What comes next for the Knicks
The roster built around Brunson, Towns, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and Anunoby now heads into the offseason with a championship attached to its name for the first time in over half a century. For a fan base that has absorbed decades of near misses, the footage from that locker room and the parade still to come serve as proof that the wait is finally over, even as the bigger party is just getting started.