Life is filled with its fair share of hardships. In 2026, that feels more evident than ever. But one thing remains undefeated. One thing remains sacred in its truest form — the emotion behind sports. With the chaos of the year, we've also been fed some of the most dramatically euphoric storylines in recent memory. And the majority of those storylines have been driven by one word: redemption.
In January, Indiana football had maybe the greatest redemption story in history going 16-0 as one of the worst football programs ever.
In February, QB Sam Darnold completed one of the most unreal redemption stories in history winning the Super Bowl with his fifth team.
In March and April, the Big Ten got redemption in basketball winning its first title for the conference in 25 years with Michigan, while it was UConn who had the comeback stories leading up to the big game.
In May, Golden Tempo had redemption and comeback stories, winning the Kentucky Derby with the first female trainer, Cherie DeVaux and then coming from last place to win the Derby and Belmont in the Triple Crown.
And finally, the redemption story to end it all — the Knicks winning a title for the first time in 53 years after having the biggest comeback in finals history at home in Madison Square Garden in Game 4.
Here we are. 53 years later and the Knicks are once again at the top of the basketball world — and for New York, no NBA city has had to wait longer between titles in the history of the game. 32 years after Sam Rosen uttered the words "the waiting is over!" — we can now finally say the same thing about the other team in the same building.
New York Knicks Win NBA Finals: Stats, Trends
Route 22
Whether the Knicks or Spurs won it all this year, we would have a heck of a longshot odds storyline. On October 21st, the season opened and San Antonio was 66-1 to win the title, which was tied for the longest odds to make the NBA Finals in the last 40 years and would have broken the record for a title winner.
The Spurs arrived as series favorite in the NBA Finals after eliminating Oklahoma City as +200 series underdogs in the Conference Finals. That sequence was almost unheard of.
Since 1990, only one other team had been an underdog in the Conference Finals and then been favored in the Finals. That was the 2012 Thunder, who upset San Antonio as +175 dogs before closing -175 against Miami. Oklahoma City also lost the Finals in five games.
Perhaps the most unlikely part of New York's story is where it started. The Knicks entered the playoffs at 22-1 to win the championship. Those odds ranked fourth in the East and seventh overall. Entering this year, only six teams in the last 50 years had reached the Finals after entering the playoffs at 20-1 or longer. Every one of those teams lost in the Finals. The closest anyone had came was last year's Pacers team, which pushed the series to seven games before losing to the Thunder.
An Underdog Story
The Knicks played a total of 19 playoff games enroute to a championship going 16-3 SU and 14-5 ATS (73.7%) along the way.
Since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77, that is the 6th-best ATS mark for any team and the 3rd-best since 2000, behind the 2001 Lakers and 2011 Mavericks. Of NBA champs to play at least 19 total games, Knicks rank T-2nd since the merger, behind the 2011 Mavericks, who went 15-4-2 ATS and tied with the 2007 Spurs, who went 14-5-1 ATS.
In the Knicks 19 total playoff games, they were listed as underdogs a total of five times, going a perfect 5-0 SU/ATS in those games. That 5-0 SU mark as underdogs is the best mark for any team in any playoff campaign since the merger. The two closest were the 1999 Spurs, who went 4-0 SU as dogs and the 2001 Lakers, who went 3-0 SU.
In NBA history, only three teams finished a title with one playoff loss: 2017 Warriors, 2001 Lakers, 1983 Sixers. Six other teams lost just two games en route to a title. With the Knicks 16-3 SU finish this falls in the best-of-7 first round addition era.
Highest team playoff winning percentage in a single year since expansion:
.941 – Warriors (16-1 in 2017)
.842 – Knicks (16-3 in 2026)
.842 – Celtics (16-3 in 2024)
.800 – Nuggets (16-4 in 2023)
.800 – Spurs (16-4 in 2007)
The Core Four
The Spurs opened as -210 series favorites to beat the Knicks before the price was bet down to -190, where it closed before Game 1. San Antonio became the 32nd team since 1985 to close -190 or longer to win the NBA Finals. Those 32 teams have officially now went 28-4 in the Finals.
The only underdogs to pull off the upset were:
2004 Pistons over Lakers
2016 Cavaliers over Warriors
2019 Raptors over Warriors
2026 Knicks over Spurs
New Apple
Reset the ticker. New York sports had gone 143 total seasons since their last championship in the four major sports. This includes, the Yankees/Mets, Jets/Giants/Bills, Knicks/Nets (since 2012-13) and Rangers/Islanders/Sabres. I did not include the Devils and the seasons for the Nets prior to Brooklyn.
Also want to be very clear, as a WNBA guy myself — in a basketball article. Congrats to the Liberty, they did win it all in 2024 and now them and the Knicks have two titles in three years. The Big Apple's last title in the four major sports before this? The 2011-12 New York Giants over Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Rest To A Title
Rest was a big topic entering the NBA Finals with the Knicks on 9 days rest and the Spurs on just 4 days rest.
New York ended up taking Game 1 in San Antonio and eventually took the title in five games. Funny enough, 2026 Knicks and 2004 Pistons are only teams since 2000 to win Game 1 as an underdog and go on to win the series: 2025 Pacers, 2022 Celtics, 2013 Spurs and 2001 Sixers all lost the series.
Since the merger, nine teams have entered Game 1 of the Finals with this specific advantage. Six have now ultimately won the title: the 2026 Knicks, 2023 Nuggets, 2001 Lakers, 1996 Bulls, 1982 Lakers and 1978 Bullets. The three losses? The 2013 Spurs, 1998 Jazz and 1989 Lakers.
French Flop
Similar to the Spurs, Victor Wembanyama opened -190 to win Finals MVP and closed at -170. Going back over the last 25 seasons since 2003, we've seen 17 players enter an NBA Finals as an odds-on favorite to win Finals MVP — nine have won, eight have lost in terms of winning the award. Only two of those previous 17 won the series but failed to win Finals MVP:
2023-24 Jayson Tatum (-120) w/ Celtics. Jaylen Brown won at 7-1.
2014-15 Steph Curry (-160) w/ Warriors. Andre Iguodala won at 125-1.
At -170 odds, Wemby also joined a short list of biggest favorites to win the award entering a Finals. Only Victor and Kobe in 2008 lost the series.
• 2024-25 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, -625 (Won)
• 2022-23 Nikola Jokic, -350 (Won)
• 2008-09 Kobe Bryant, -300 (Won)
• 2012-13 LeBron James, -250 (Won)
• 2007-08 Kobe Bryant, -200 (Lost)
• 2009-10 Kobe Bryant, -182 (Won)
• 2025-26 Victor Wembanyama, -170 (Lost)
"The Price Is Wrong"
A changing of roles. Signal and noise most likely. The Knicks closed as series favorites against the Hawks, Sixers and Cavaliers and then entered the finals as an underdog against the Spurs.
That made the Knicks just the fourth team since 1990 to be favored in each of the first three rounds before becoming an underdog in the NBA Finals. The previous three teams were the 2016 Cavaliers, 2012 Heat and 2008 Celtics. With the Knicks win, all four of those teams have now won the championship.
• 2026 Knicks, +155 in Finals vs. SAS (W, 4-1)
• 2016 Cavaliers, +180 in Finals vs. GSW (W, 4-3)
• 2012 Heat, +155 in Finals vs. OKC (W, 4-1)
• 2008 Celtics, +160 in Finals vs. LAL (W, 4-2)
Broadway Hit
Entering the regular season, the Knicks were +900 to win the NBA title — a real contender from the start when you look at it from a preseason expectations point of view. Only the Thunder, Nuggets and Cavaliers had shorter odds to win the title than the Knicks.
The eventual NBA champion has now been listed below 20-1 in eleven straight years, 14 of the past 15 years and 40 of the past 42 years. The 2015 Warriors at 28-1 and 2011 Mavericks at 20-1 are the outliers.
As of now, here are the only four teams under 20-1 to win it all next season: Spurs, Thunder, Celtics and Knicks.
Here are also two different ways to look at the odds:
A bit of parity.
For the first time in NBA history, we have had eight different NBA champions in eight straight seasons — 2026 Knicks, 2025 Thunder, 2024 Celtics, 2023 Nuggets, 2022 Warriors, 2021 Bucks, 2020 Lakers, 2019 Raptors — and we have had eight different teams reach the NBA Finals over the last four years, also a record.
But not too much parity.
In nine of the past eleven years, a single-digit odds team entering the season has won it all (8-1, 9-1 etc). Since 1985, we've crowned 42 different NBA champions, nine of those 42 were listed at 10-1 or higher entering the season, or 21%.
