{"id":702961,"date":"2026-06-14T04:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702961\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T04:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:56:10","slug":"knicks-brunson-seals-finals-mvp-honors-with-45-points-in-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702961\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Brunson seals Finals MVP honors with 45 points in Game 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO — Thanks to a performance for the ages, Jalen Brunson<\/a>not only led the New York Knicks<\/a> to their first NBA championship in more than a half-century, he also earned himself Finals MVP honors.<\/p>\n

Brunson was the unanimous choice among 11 voters after he capped his brilliant series by scoring 45 of the Knicks’ 94 points in their title-clinching victory over the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> in Game 5 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to find a way,” Brunson told ESPN’s Lisa Salters shortly after the buzzer sounded. “Whatever you put in front of us, we’re going to find a way. … Every time we step on this court. Every time.”<\/p>\n

Brunson carried the Knicks on his back and across the finish line with a game that will go down in history. He became one of four players — along with Michael Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> and Bob Pettit — to score at least 45 points in a closeout game to win an NBA Finals in the 80-year history of the sport.<\/p>\n

That was more than enough for Brunson to erase any doubts about who would be winning the top individual honor from this series.<\/p>\n

“It’s everything we ever dreamed of,” Brunson said, while standing next to his father after accepting the Bill Russell Trophy. “It’s why I came to New York.”<\/p>\n

Brunson, who struggled with his shooting efficiency earlier in the series, shot 14-for-27 in Game 5, including going 4-for-7 from 3-point range and 13-for-15 from the foul line.<\/p>\n

Fifteen of his points came in the fourth quarter, helping the Knicks overcome a seven-point deficit to pull away and end the franchise’s 53-year championship drought.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s title victory caps a remarkable four years since Brunson signed with the Knicks as a free agent in 2022. At the time, when he signed a four-year, $104 million contract after leaving the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> as a free agent, many felt the Knicks overpaid.<\/p>\n

Instead, it has turned into one of the best free agent signings in NBA history. Brunson has helped transform a franchise that had won a single playoff series in 21 seasons before his arrival to one that has won at least one series in each of the past four seasons, including a run to the Eastern Conference finals last season and, now, New York’s first championship since 1973.br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO — Thanks to a performance for the ages, Jalen Brunsonnot only led the New York Knicks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[303882,151807,352,355,361,3,99],"class_list":["post-702961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-303882","tag-brunson-jalen","tag-espn","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702961","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=702961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}