{"id":252682,"date":"2026-06-02T20:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/252682\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:45:08","slug":"new-york-knicks-nba-finals-history-when-did-the-knicks-last-win-a-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/252682\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Knicks NBA Finals history: When did the Knicks last win a championship?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a 27-year drought, the New York Knicks<\/a> are back in the NBA Finals and against a familiar opponent \u2014 the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In their last trip to the championship series, the Knicks lost in five games to the Spurs, who began their run of five titles in 15 years.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Postseason success has been a more agonizing story for the Knicks, who made the playoffs only seven times in the 22 seasons following their 1999 Finals defeat.<\/p>\n

They have since made the postseason in four consecutive years. They made the Eastern Conference Finals the past two seasons, breaking through to the title round this year with a sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Knicks v San Antonio Spurs<\/p>\n

New York Knicks vs. San Antonio Spurs NBA Finals predictions: Spurs or Knicks, expect a long series<\/a><\/p>\n

All of our experts see a series going at least six games.<\/p>\n

With the NBA Finals beginning Wednesday, June 3, here’s a look at the Spurs’ championship history:<\/p>\n

When was the last time the Knicks won a championship?<\/p>\n

In 1973, the Knicks defeated the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> 4-1 in a series that featured Hall of Famers Jerry Lucas, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Phil Jackson, Dick Barnett, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Gail Goodrich.<\/p>\n

After the Lakers won 115-112 in Game 1, the Knicks captured the championship with four consecutive victories, closing out the series with a 102-93 road victory in Inglewood, California (the last NBA game played by legendary Wilt Chamberlain).<\/p>\n

How many championships do the Knicks have?<\/p>\n

Two titles for a franchise that began playing with the 1946-47 season (in the Basketball Association of America; joining the NBA when it was formed in 1949).<\/p>\n

1970: 4-3 over the Los Angeles Lakers; MVP: Willis Reed<\/p>\n

1973: 4-1 over the Los Angeles Lakers; MVP: Willis Reed<\/p>\n

When was the last time the Knicks were in the NBA Finals?<\/p>\n

The most recent appearance was in 1999, a 4-1 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

New York Knicks NBA Finals history<\/p>\n

This will mark the Knicks’ ninth trip to the NBA Finals. The Knicks’ six championship round appearances that ended without a title:<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

1999: Lost 4-1 to the San Antonio Spurs; MVP: Tim Duncan<\/a><\/p>\n

1972: Lost 4-1 to the Los Angeles Lakers; MVP: Wilt Chamberlain<\/p>\n

1953: Lost 4-1 to the Minneapolis Lakers<\/p>\n

1952: Lost 4-3 to the Minneapolis Lakers<\/p>\n

1999 NBA Finals: Knicks vs Spurs<\/p>\n

In their first NBA Finals meeting 27 years ago, the Spurs won the championship in five games over the Knicks.<\/p>\n

San Antonio<\/a>, which had an NBA-best 37-13 record in a 50-game regular season shortened by a lockout, entered as the favorite over New York, which barely made the playoffs as the East’s eighth seed with a 27-23 record.<\/p>\n

San Antonio marched to the NBA Finals with an 11-1 record, defeating Minnesota<\/a> 3-1, the Los Angeles Lakers 4-0 and the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> 4-0.<\/p>\n

New York had a tougher road, escaping with a 3-2 first-round win over Miami<\/a> on a clutch jumper by Allan Houston, and then advancing past Atlanta<\/a> 4-0 and Indiana<\/a> 4-2.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The Spurs opened the NBA Finals with consecutive double-digit victories at the Alamodome. The Knicks won 89-91 in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

The Spurs closed it out with two wins in a row. Duncan scored 31 points in a 78-77 clinching victory in Game 5.<\/p>\n

Knicks vs Spurs head-to-head history, record<\/p>\n

The Knicks are 2-1 against the Spurs this season, including a 124-113 victory to win the NBA Cup on Dec. 16 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

San Antonio won 134-132 at home on Dec. 31 behind 36 points by Julian Champagnie<\/a>. In Madison Square Garden on March 1, New York won 114-89 with 25 points from Mikal Bridges<\/a> and 24 from Jalen Brunson<\/a> (snapping an 11-game winning streak for the Spurs).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

In regular-season meetings, there have been 107 games between the Knicks and Spurs, who lead the series 60-47.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a 27-year drought, the New York Knicks are back in the NBA Finals and against a familiar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8598,1266,9136,9424,4777,34500,9141,5546,14063,5800,37011,9,11,1104,10,9133,98644,9416,9138,36718,20323,95114,98643],"class_list":["post-252682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-atlanta","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-houston-rockets","tag-indiana","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-julian-champagnie","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-minnesota","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-rochester-royals","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-the-spurs","tag-tim-duncan","tag-willis-reed","tag-wilt-chamberlain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}