{"id":737514,"date":"2026-06-15T06:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737514\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T06:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:11:11","slug":"former-nbl-guns-help-knicks-create-nba-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737514\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NBL guns help Knicks create NBA history"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks\u2019 run to the 2026 NBA championship was one for the history books, ending a 53-year title drought.<\/p>\n

That run had a distinct NBL flavour, with three former stars playing a role in the Knicks\u2019 4-1 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

Former Melbourne United Next Star Ariel Hukporti provided key minutes off the bench for the Knicks, including a huge block on Luke Kornet in Game 5.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While two of New York\u2019s assistant coaches, Rick Brunson and Chris Jent, have ties to the Hungry Jack\u2019s NBL.<\/p>\n

Brunson, the father of Finals MVP Jalen, played with the Adelaide 36ers during the 1996 season<\/a>, averaging 21.6 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game across his 31 appearances.<\/p>\n

While Chris Jent starred for the North Melbourne Giants in the 1995 season<\/a>, putting up 25.7 points, 6.9 boards and 2.9 dimes per match.<\/p>\n

These three follow in the footsteps of former New Zealand Next Star Ousmane Dieng and Brisbane Bullets forward Alex Ducas, helping the Oklahoma City Thunder win the 2025 title.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks\u2019 run to the 2026 NBA championship was one for the history books, ending a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-737514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}