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The Knicks are NBA champions for the first time since 1973. (AP Photo\/Darren Abate)<\/p>\nSAN ANTONIO \u2014 The unmistakable smell of cigar smoke is wafting about the corridor leading directly to the visitor\u2019s locker room at Frost Bank Center. Beneath the smoke scent are the citrus and mineral notes of champagne. The locker room itself resembles a crime scene: Here lie the Spurs, laid to rest by the New York Knicks. Plastic drapes cover the locker stalls. Empty bottles \u2014 Ace of Spades, Moet & Chandon and Michelob Ultra \u2014 are scattered across the table in the center of a room far too small for such a life-sized occasion.<\/p>\n
Champagne drips from the ceiling. It has splattered all over the visitor\u2019s locker room. Ultimately, it pools beneath the feet of those assessing the crime scene in the aftermath of New York City\u2019s greatest sporting accomplishment in 53 years.<\/p>\n
Before the cigars lit and the champagne bottles popped, before the celebration ever took place, assistant coach Rick Brunson and his son, Knicks captain, champion and Finals MVP Jalen Brunson embraced and shared a moment on the championship court. The father to the King of New York City then fielded questions from a group of reporters, one of whom asked him to share the details of his conversation with his son.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they gonna say now?\u201d Rick Brunson said before walking off.<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing left to say about the best team in Knicks history, and perhaps the greatest player to ever wear orange and blue.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Ariel Hukporti is crying his eyes out. He just played the most impactful two minutes of his two-year NBA career, moonlighting for Karl-Anthony Towns in foul trouble and Mitchell Robinson in free throw purgatory. But the war is over. The final buzzer has sounded. The New York Knicks are champions.<\/p>\n
And as a result, Hukporti is a champion. He walks off the Frost Bank floors onto the carpet littered with NBA Finals design.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this was a seven-game series?\u201d He wondered out loud. \u201cI thought they said Spurs in seven?\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments later, Hukporti emerged from the corridors leading to the locker room. He clanked two champagne bottles together a la prime Stone Cold Steve Austin.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get this party f\u2013king started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Several minutes later, he\u2019s trailing Landry Shamet, the reliable Knicks sharpshooter still trying to stay level-headed. Hukporti is trying to turn Shamet up several notches.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just keep going,\u201d Shamet said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, f\u2013k that,\u201d Hukporti responded. \u201cWe\u2019re champions now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, he looks at the Daily News writer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou, too,\u201d said Hukporti. \u201cYou\u2019re a champion now, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knicks are NBA champions for the first time since 1973. (AP Photo\/Darren Abate)<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 2:04 a.m. Jalen Brunson has already left the remnants of Frost Bank\u2019s visitor\u2019s locker room: \u201cI\u2019ve gotta get the f\u2013k outta there,\u201d he said calmly making his great escape as NBA Finals MVP.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, the words \u201cOh my God,\u201d echo throughout the corridors. It can only be one person: Karl-Anthony Towns, who has forgotten how to stuff his Louis Vuitton duffel bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow am I gonna do this?\u201d He said aloud. \u201cThat s\u2013t heavy. That\u2019s why I workout! That\u2019s why I workout!\u201d<\/p>\n
Towns is struggling because he is in possession of the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy. The Larry O.B. The NBA Finals trophy each Knicks figure will spend time with before retiring it at a team facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m putting this s\u2013t next to the bed for when I\u2019m getting it in,\u201d Towns said. His ensuing words were unfit for inclusion in this story.<\/p>\n
Only minutes earlier, as Towns left the locker room, head coach Mike Brown and OG Anunoby shared a long hug and several words. Years ago, Brown attempted to recruit Anunoby to the Nigerian National Basketball team. Fast forward a couple years and the two have united in orange and blue. Anunoby was the savior of Game 4, tipping in a\u00a0 Brunson miss for a go-ahead two with 1.2 seconds left on the clock. In Game 5, his numbers were limited by early foul trouble. But the impact was undeniable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what makes you special,\u201d Brown told Anunoby. \u201cYou guard [De\u2019Aaron] Fox. You guard Wemby [Victor Wembanyama]. You guard everybody in-between.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, pops! Come on, pops! Pops, let\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n
Jose Alvarado\u2019s father has waited an entire lifetime for a moment like this. And now his son\u2019s success is his own. Alvarado wears the Puerto Rican flag cascaded around his shoulders as he leaves the court and heads towards the locker room.<\/p>\n
Moments later, the Knicks backup point guard has forgotten how to walk: \u201cOh my God, I am f\u2013ked up right now,\u201d he said, regaining his composure after briefly losing balance.<\/p>\n
Kevin McCullar Jr. was one of few Knicks remaining in the locker room after the celebration. A sea of reporters await him, an accessory to the crime revisiting the crime scene.<\/p>\n
McCullar only answered one question: What was the best part of the celebration?<\/p>\n
\u201cPopping bottles,\u201d he deadpanned, shortly before making his great escape with a box the unmistakable green hue of Patron tequila.<\/p>\n
The alcoholic beverages are flowing en-masse. The Knicks, after all, are champions \u2014 and champions celebrate accordingly: Trey Jemison III is carting off an entire box of D\u2019usse cognac.<\/p>\n
Dillon Jones can\u2019t believe it: He\u2019s a back-to-back NBA champion \u2014 first with the Oklahoma City Thunder last year, now on a two-way contract with the Knicks.<\/p>\n
:\u201cThis s\u2013t is so unreal. It don\u2019t even make sense,\u201d Jones said outside the locker room. \u201cThe NBA champions. F\u2013king insane. I don\u2019t even know what to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then comes Mohamed Diawara, the rookie the Knicks selected in the second round last season. Diawara is cool and collected with shades covering his eyes \u2014 until he knocks his luggage over into the middle of the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t drink guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI definitely don\u2019t drink. Never that.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Of course Josh Hart has to get his jokes off. He\u2019s drinking his own Kool Aid \u2014 literally: an iced-out all-blue bottle of Patron with a depiction of Hart shooting a jump shot and the words \u201cHart of the city\u201d etched along the side. He\u2019s watching a video of\u00a0 Anunoby celebrate becoming an NBA champion at the final buzzer. Anunoby vaults the basketball into the air, but it is more of a line drive than a toss into the sky.<\/p>\n
\u201cOG throwing the ball was so trash,\u201d Hart joked.<\/p>\n
Hart then spent at least a half hour if not longer in an area adjacent to the locker room, alongside Hukporti and McBride, taking calls ostensibly from loved ones.<\/p>\n
Then Worldwide Wes barges into the room. He tells Hukporti: \u201cYou chased that big motherf\u2013ker out of the paint!\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments earlier, Tyler Kolek coined a new name for the new team to beat in basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cChamp Cheese!\u201d He shouted three times. A Knicks public relations staffer stopped Kolek, who was wearing a fur coat, and asked him if he\u2019s an NBA champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you an NBA champ?\u201d Kolek responded. \u201cChamp cheese!\u201d<\/p>\n
All the while, Jordan Clarkson is attempting to recruit one of the Spurs\u2019 security guards and ushers. Clarkson\u2019s leather pants are sagging well below the safe range, but he is an NBA champion. Clarkson can do as he pleases. And on this day, he wants to poach one of San Antonio\u2019s elder staffers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOG, you gon be here next year,\u201d he said. \u201cBut next year, you gonna be here with us. And we\u2019re gonna come right back to this locker room and do it all again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The unmistakable smell of cigar smoke is wafting about the corridor leading directly to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[68054,4777,4778,1555,10663,57356,9,11,10,6474,61699,10221],"class_list":["post-266573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-champions","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-nba-title","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-og-anunoby","tag-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266573","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=266573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}