Biggest Winners and Losers From the 2026 NBA Finals

The Knicks are NBA champions.

Thanks to a tremendous 45-point showing from Jalen Brunson in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, New York is celebrating its third championship in franchise history and the first in 53 years. It’s a well-earned victory for legions of Knicks fans who watched quite a bit of terrible basketball in the years leading up to this point, as well as the hardy group of players who actually won the games. From Jalen Brunson to Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges to OG Anunoby, these guys will be remembered forever as NYC legends. More than that, they’ll be remembered as the key cogs of one of the best playoff teams we’ve ever seen.

The Knicks’ run through the East was outstanding and historic in equal measure, and their Finals showing was nothing short of epic. San Antonio held the lead for nearly three-quarters of the Finals but New York pulled off double-digit comebacks in every game to win the championship in five games. It’s one of the most entertaining Finals series we’ve ever seen and a wonderful capper to a fun NBA season.

As Sports Illustrated has done throughout the postseason, let’s break down the biggest winners and losers from the last round of this year’s playoffs—the 2026 NBA Finals.

Winner: Jalen Brunson and all small guards

That Becky Hammon quote will, officially, live on in infamy forevermore.

“If your best player is small, you're not winning,” Hammon said back in 2023 while working for ESPN as part of a discussion about if Brunson could lead the Knicks to a title.

It was something of an understandable point. In NBA history, there are plenty of examples of contending teams that fell short due to the structural issues inherent in building a roster around a player who gives up height and athleticism every minute on the floor. But Brunson and the Knicks just made a mockery of the whole concept.

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Championships can be won by the little guy. Brunson was the Knicks’ best offensive player throughout the series and worked ridiculously hard to make sure the Spurs couldn’t take advantage of his height defensively. He scored 45 freaking points in Game 5 to win New York its first championship in a half-century. There will never be another player exactly like Brunson—but any guard who gives up some height on the court can look to him and believe with all their heart they can be the best player on a title team. Because he was this year.

It’s always inspiring to see someone like Brunson dominate amongst the giants who have largely defined NBA basketball. This series was the pinnacle of David vs. Goliath. It also may have cemented Brunson’s Hall of Fame spot in light of his prodigious collegiate achievements too. What a couple of weeks for the 6’2” guard and all the shorter players who will try to follow in his footsteps.

Loser: Victor Wembanyama’s clutch gene

In the big picture, Wemby’s first trip to the NBA Finals was as successful as it can get without actually winning a title. He battled through three hard-fought playoff rounds, taking down the defending champions in the process, and didn’t shy from the spotlight against the Knicks. He certainly came up short but his numbers were good and there were plenty of big-time moments to choose from.

But he’s going to want to wipe the fourth quarter of every game from his memory. Wembanyama ran out of gas down the stretch of every Finals game against New York. He consistently failed to step up in the clutch. Every single game of this series was winnable for the Spurs. As their best player, the blame simply must fall on Wemby for his inability to seize the moment when it was there for the taking. And no one play quite sums it all up like when he threw the ball off the back of Stephon Castle before fouling Brunson to gift the Knicks the lead and the win in Game 2.

These are mistakes every superstar must suffer before reaching the mountaintop. It’s all a learning experience for the 22-year-old. But with great talent comes great expectations and Wembanyama didn’t rise to the occasion in crunchtime. That’s what people will remember from this series, even if it was his first Finals. It’ll take a while for Wemby to shake off the pain of this loss; it’ll take even longer for him to shed the reputation of not possessing a clutch gene after multiple collapses on the biggest stage.

Winner: Long-suffering Knicks fans

NYC has been in hysterics since the Knicks won the title. This whole Finals has exposed the conflict that exists between the city and its perception when it comes to the basketball team, specifically. New York sports fans are, generally speaking, rather spoiled in other sports (except the Mets/Jets fans. You are excluded from these thoughts, but not our prayers). NYC has seen multiple championships this century in two different sports. It’s undeniable they’ve seen more success than most other cities.

And yet, it’s equally as undeniable that the Knicks have been bad for a long time. The last few years have been great but the pre- and post-Ewing years were not just subpar but truly horrific at times in terms of the on-court product. As spoiled as NYC fans might be, Knicks fans are the complete opposite. They’ve trudged through bad basketball and heartbreak on par with most other NBA franchises; certainly more than the reputation of a New York City sports fan would suggest. Have they had it better than, say, Kings fans? Of course. But this isn’t the Yankees winning their 28th championship. It’s the Knicks, the same Knicks who worked very hard to earn a reputation for constantly hamstringing themselves at every opportunity for decades. And the fans have stuck with them anyway.

Regardless of the regional context, it takes a particular type of perseverance to love a team that doesn’t love you back. Knicks fans have learned that the hard way. But on Saturday night, they finally felt the love. And it was well-earned.

Loser: De’Aaron Fox

There’s no question about it, Fox had a rough go at it in the Finals. It’s important to remember, though, that he was dealing with a high ankle sprain throughout the postseason that kept him out of Games 1 and 2 against the Thunder in the Western Conference finals. He came back for Game 3 and played the rest of the way, although he acknowledged he was still dealing with the injury.

It didn’t appear that the ankle was bothering him, at least outwardly, against the Knicks. He played in all five games and averaged a rough 12.8 points per game over the series. In the Spurs’ season-ending Game 5 loss, he scored just seven points on a lackluster 3-for-15 night from the field. The worst moment, though, came at the end of Game 4 when Fox got the ball and could have ran around to dribble out the clock and help the Spurs seal a win, but he drove toward the basket and got blocked by Anunoby. It was a blunder that he explained with a thought that he could outrun Anunoby, who turned into the hero with an instantly iconic game-winning tip-in. Otherwise, Fox actually had a solid Game 4 with 18 points, seven assists, five rebounds and four three-pointers.

In the big picture, the Spurs’ front office has to ask itself some tough questions about Fox as his four-year, $221.8 million contract extension kicks in next season. The continued emergence of Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper could make Fox expendable, but another team would have to be willing to take on his massive contract should the Spurs become inclined to move him elsewhere. What’s working in Fox’s favor is that the offense, and specifically Castle, struggled with turnovers as he missed time against the Thunder. He steadied the ship once he returned, but there were times in the Finals where the Spurs were hindered because Fox was in the game instead of Castle.

As the Spurs continue to contend for titles for years to come, you can’t have those questions and poorly-timed rough stretches from your handsomely-paid point guard.

Winner: OG Anunoby, the player and the character

Anunoby shined on the court throughout the postseason, but his even-keeled personality became front and center, too. He immediately went down in NBA lore for his incredible game-winning tip-in to complete a historic comeback on the Spurs in Game 4. That instantly became the best moment in Knicks history and Anunoby was his usual self after he completed such a legendary play.

“It feels cool,” Anunoby said flatly after Game 4. “I mean, everyone’s pretty excited. I’m excited, too.”

The media contingent in the press room burst out into laughter at Anunoby continuing his normal non-expressiveness. That finally made Anunoby let out a chuckle, even if it was initiated by the laughter around him. On the championship podium after the Knicks clinched in Game 5, he finally showcased a wide smile from ear to ear.

That’s who Anunoby is. His hilariously relaxed personality where he needs to have a smile beaten out of him was no secret. But seeing him stay within his shell after he completed one of the greatest moments ever, the signature from this Knicks Finals run, was perfect and downright hilarious. His reaction brought back some classic clips and memes from his career and even back to his college days. He averaged 20.1 points per game over the playoffs, the most on the Knicks aside from Brunson. Watching him shine on the floor and the hilarity he created off his stoicism was an absolute pleasure.

Loser: NBA officiating

NBA referee John Gobl — Nobody was happy with NBA officials over the Finals | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

In today’s society, social media means every single person has a megaphone they can use to complain about anything they want. Which can make it hard to parse the wheat from the chaff and identify what’s an actual problem versus what merely seems like a problem because so many people are complaining about it. This is a particularly hard truth in sports where the bias of fandom means a team’s passionate followers will criticize anything and everything that doesn’t go their way—fair or not.

All that is to say: it may be tempting to chalk up all the criticism of the officiating during this year’s NBA Finals to just noise between two hardcore fan bases (and a particularly loud, large contingent out of New York at that). But it’s not. This Finals was a horrid showing by the NBA’s referees.

Every game was very physical, which is what the fans want. But how much physicality was allowed varied dramatically from game to game. It led to frustrating calls against both sides and left everybody, from fans to players to coaches, generally upset about how the game unfolded from that standpoint. The free-throw numbers over the first three games skewed heavily enough towards San Antonio (84 for the Spurs vs. 61 for the Knicks) that Mike Brown ripped into the officiating for a full five minutes after New York’s only loss of the series. Nobody with a brain should believe the referees favored the Spurs intentionally but that kind of imbalance suggests the officials were not on the same page in terms of where the line was.

And, of course, there were the two missed calls on Wembanyama that could, and perhaps should, have been flagrants on the floor but went uncalled entirely. He shoved Brunson’s head with both hands in Game 3 and stuck his foot under the star guard’s legs on a three-point shot in Game 5 to such an obvious degree it should be in the officiating rulebook as the textbook example of a landing space foul. Again, these missed calls do not indicate bias, but mistakes. There were far too many such mistakes for the Finals. Not an exemplary performance from the zebras.

Winner: The NBA listening to its fans

NBA Finals cour — The NBA brought the Larry O’Brien trophy logo back to the court this year | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

This year’s Finals marked the long awaited return of the Larry O’Brien trophy to the hardwood. The league took serious flak last season for the lack of scene setting for the biggest games of the year. That criticism was heard loud and clear as it was reported earlier in the season that the league would make the Finals court and surrounding spectacle, you know, actually feel like the Finals. The computer-generated logos from last year weren’t the answer—who would have thought?

Even though this year’s Finals only lasted five games, each night felt like it met the moment. The added level of production will make a memorable series and title run for the Knicks stand the test of time whenever a highlight comes across the screen. That’s already paid dividends for the league as it announced that this year’s Finals were the most watched through four games since 1998. The classic games drove that, but the superior viewing experience certainly helped. It wasn’t just the return of the trophy to the court—it was the huge Larry O’Brien trophy on the floor for intros, the brilliance of Mike Breen on the microphone who finally called a Knicks title and the poignant story lines highlighted throughout.

You can say plenty about the NBA, but you can’t say the league doesn’t listen to its fans.

Loser: The Sacramento Kings

We mentioned the Kings in the same category after the conference finals with Sacramento’s former star guard in Fox and former coach in Mike Brown pitted against one another in the NBA Finals. You could even go back a year with Tyrese Haliburton taking the Pacers to Game 7 of last year’s Finals.

With the Knicks emerging as NBA champions, we’d be remiss not to mention the Kings’ firing of Brown in the middle of last season after a 13–18 start. He led the Kings for two-plus seasons and was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 2023 after he led the franchise to the playoffs for the first time in 16 seasons. Just over a season later, Sacramento decided to move on from Brown, which turned into the Knicks’ fortune once New York decided to part ways with Tom Thibodeau after a run to the Eastern Conference finals.

Brown’s experience and the culture he created helped pave the way for this Knicks title run. The biggest question was whether this group could get over the hump and take the next step and Brown put them in the position to do that. Meanwhile, the Kings had a 22–60 season and will pick seventh in the upcoming NBA draft as their never-ending rebuild continues. Haliburton taking the Pacers to the Finals last year was bad enough. Now, the coach Sacramento tossed to the curb became an NBA champion one year later.

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