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<\/p>\nJalen Brunson gambled on the New York Knicks and the New York Knicks gambled on Jalen Brunson.<\/p>\n
Just under four years later, both franchise and franchise player are celebrating an NBA title triumph that has seen audiences captivated by basketball in a way that hasn’t been the case since Michael Jordan was hooping.<\/p>\n
Brunson was named Finals MVP as the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in Game 5 to seal a 4-1 series triumph and the Bill Russell Trophy-winner signed off his championship run in signature fashion.<\/p>\n
He scored 45 points, a Knicks single-game Finals scoring record, shooting over 50 per cent from the field and on 3-pointers, and became one of four players \u2013 alongside Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bob Pettit \u2013 to score at least 45 points in a closeout game on the biggest stage of all.<\/p>\n
\n Audiences captivated as NBA Finals viewing figures skyrocket in 2026\n <\/p>\n
Through the first four games the series averaged 19.6 million viewers on ABC and ESPN \u2013 the most-watched NBA Finals since 1998
\n 26.3m people watched Game 3 at its peak, the top viewing figures so far with Game 5’s yet to be released
\n Audience growth is up 116% compared to the 2025 NBA Finals as well as nearly double that of the 2024 NBA Finals
\n Game 4 the most-viral NBA game ever with a social reach of more than eight billion views across the series<\/p>\n
Brunson’s sacrifice which allowed New York to win it all<\/p>\n
Resilience was the watchword for the Knicks throughout the series, with New York rallying from double-digit deficits in all four of their victories, and the team’s star point guard has show plenty of that throughout his career – ever since he fell into the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft and at subsequent every stage of his career.<\/p>\n
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Image:
\n New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson drives as San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet defends <\/p>\n
After proving himself as an impactful NBA player for the Dallas Mavericks, as a useful foil for a young Luka Doncic, the team majorly lowballed him with their contract offer, prompting him to switch to New York.<\/p>\n
When Brunson signed for the Knicks in July 2022 he signed a four-year contract worth $104m, pundits wrote off the deal and thought New York was grossly overpaying for a player who, at that time, had yet to make an All-Star appearance. Plenty of pundits were of the opinion he might not ever manage to.<\/p>\n
Brunson shut those doubters up by becoming an All-Star in 2024 and being voted All-NBA Second Team – and that’s when he made the altruistic decision that allowed New York to put the talent around him to allow him to lead the team to a championship.<\/p>\n
That summer, he agreed to a $156.6m four-year contract extension, signing a deal for far less money than if he waited to negotiate during free agency a year later. By waiting one year, he’d have been eligible for a five-year extension projected at roughly $269m.<\/p>\n
![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/skysports-knicks-nba_7272921.jpg\")
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Image:
\n Fans mount a school bus near Times Square<\/p>\n
A nine figure sum left on the table \u2013 $113m to be precise \u2013 is an incredible sacrifice for anyone to make. It was all with a plan in mind though, and that plan came to fruition on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
“He probably takes a pay cut that I wouldn’t have taken,” admitted head coach Mike Brown. “Every time they would’ve thrown that number in front of me, I would have said no, and I feel like I’m a good guy.<\/p>\n
“He set the bar before he even stepped on the floor. That set the standard.”<\/p>\n
How the Knicks used that money to assemble a championship team <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/skysports-new-york-knicks-nba_7272901.jpg\")
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Image:
\n The New York Knicks celebrate with the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy<\/p>\n
In a league where salary cap flexibility is pivotal, Brunson’s decision allowed New York to put the talent around him which gave him and the franchise the platform to end a championship wait stretching over half a century.<\/p>\n
It allowed the Knicks to stay under he second apron of the NBA salary cap and that in turn allowed OG Anunoby to re-sign; Brunson’s former Villanova team-mate Mikal Bridges (making it three in total, with Josh Hart also in the mix) to be traded in from Brooklyn in a way that kept the cap sheet workable; Karl-Anthony Towns, a former No 1 pick in the draft, to be acquired from Minnesota in a training-camp trade, which the Knicks could not have completed otherwise; and Bridges to sign a $150m extension that the team could only absorb while staying under the aprons.<\/p>\n
\n What is the second apron?\n <\/p>\n
Under the 2023 CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement), crossing the second apron triggers severe penalties: you can’t aggregate salaries in trades; can’t send out cash; lose access to the mid-level exception; and your future first-round picks get frozen or can be pushed to the end of the round. Staying under it is what lets a team keep trading and signing.<\/p>\n
The blockbuster trade for Towns \u2013 an elegant center boasting a full offensive repertoire who was one of the first of his archetype in the league \u2013 was the clearest direct dividend of the pay cut.<\/p>\n
“For him to welcome both of us here into this organisation and trust that we were here for him, it means a lot,” said Towns.<\/p>\n
“A person like that who has been handed the keys to the city and was willing to have the door open for both of us to join.”<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/skysports-new-york-knicks-nba-finals_7272886.jpg\")
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Image:
\n The New York Knicks celebrate after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals <\/p>\n
And for the player himself, there are no doubts he did the right thing.<\/p>\n
“100 per cent worth it,” said Brunson. “Even if we didn’t achieve this, I feel like being able to do that and grind and go on a journey to try to achieve it would have been worth it as well.<\/p>\n
“But this is definitely the cherry on top.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson gambled on the New York Knicks and the New York Knicks gambled on Jalen Brunson. Just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-738021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738021","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=738021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}