By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: NBA.com
The New York Knicks have won their first trophy since 1973. The Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs 124-113 to win the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup Championship.
Jalen Brunson named 2025 Emirates Cup MVP. He joins LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo to win the honor. Brunson finished with 25 points, four rebounds, and eight assists. OG Anunoby scored 28 points. Karl-Anthony Towns had 16 points and 11 rebounds. Mitchell Robinson collected 15 boards.
“Just figuring out a way to win,” Brunson said. “Things aren’t always going to be the way you plan. It was an ugly game. They went on runs. We went down 10, we went up 10. You never know what’s going to happen, but staying connected and focused throughout the entire game and tournament is important. It’s a credit to being important, being focused even when things were going rough.”
Josh Hart is the heartbeat of this team. He praised Jalen Brunson for crediting other players who stepped up in the final game.
“What some of the guys do, don’t show up on the box score,” Hart said. “For him to acknowledge them on that kind of stage is huge for us. That’s why he’s our captain.”
Mike Brown is already off to a good start in his first season as the Knicks’ head coach. One thing Josh said is that Brown is open to communication. When he got the job, he reached out to everyone individually and didn’t discuss basketball with them. Brown wanted to get to know each other as a person. When you have a coach like that by your side, you get great results, and players want to play extra hard for a coach like that.
The Knicks are satisfied to win this trophy, but they want the bigger one, which is the Larry O’Brien Trophy. It’s going to be a difficult road, but they have the pieces to make a deep run, and with this championship, it should add extra fuel to their fire to win a second trophy this season.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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