{"id":354351,"date":"2025-12-17T16:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/354351\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T16:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T16:00:08","slug":"mike-brown-celebrates-great-team-win-as-knicks-lift-2025-nba-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/354351\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Brown celebrates “great team win” as Knicks lift 2025 NBA Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks are the 2025 NBA Cup champions, and their men’s basketball<\/a> victory on Tuesday night (16 December) looked every bit backed by the belief that head coach Mike Brown has been preaching all season.<\/p>\n

A 124 to 113 comeback win over the San Antonio Spurs in Las Vegas sealed the 2025\u00a0NBA Cup and ended a 52-year trophy drought in New York.<\/p>\n

Trailing by double figures late in the third quarter, New York wrestled control back through the collective execution of NBA Cup MVP Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby, who together accounted for 53 points.<\/p>\n

Brown, who coached Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021<\/a>, framed the night as collective effort in the post-game press conference<\/a>, calling it a \u201cgreat team win” adding that “obviously the MVP is Jalen and I hope now on this stage when you start talking about MVP candidates, his name is one of the first to come out your mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown explained that the turning point came from trusting the players who changed the tone on the floor. \u201cThey brought a level of physicality,\u201d he said, pointing to Tyler Kolek, Mitchell Robinson and Jordan Clarkson. \u201cEven something small like that, bringing the physicality to the game, putting your body out there and getting ran over, helped change the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown also highlighted the impact of Ariel Hukporti in a brief but meaningful stretch, noting that \u201call those guys brought something to the table. I\u2019m proud of everybody in that locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

That impact, Brown said, comes from the identity the Knicks are building. \u201cOur standards are about sacrificing, connectivity, competitive spirit, a belief in the process and a belief in each other, which is huge. No matter who\u2019s out there, belief in each other while holding everybody accountable. That\u2019s what we did throughout the course of this ball game.”<\/p>\n

Brown was equally struck by Brunson\u2019s modesty upon receiving the MVP trophy, calling the MVP an \u201cunbelievable competitor\u201d and \u201cunbelievable teammate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know this is a team sport at the end of the day. And that\u2019s why he\u2019s not just the MVP when it comes to hooping, but he\u2019s the MVP in a lot of different ways,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Beyond the trophy itself, Brown sees the NBA Cup as a formative experience for a franchise aiming higher. \u201cWhen you\u2019re able to have success doing it, it breeds confidence in everybody within the organisation,\u201d he said, calling the opportunity to hang a banner at Madison Square Garden \u201cthe most positive\u201d outcome of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks are the 2025 NBA Cup champions, and their men’s basketball victory on Tuesday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-354351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}