NBA Finally Gets It Right With Knicks-Spurs Finals Court Design After Last Year’s Backlash

At long last, it’s here. On Sunday, the NBA released images of the Finals court design for both the Spurs and the Knicks, and the renderings included a long-lost sight.

Earlier this season, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the league planned to bring back the Larry O’Brien trophy court design for the Finals, starting this year. With San Antonio’s Game 7 victory over the Thunder in the Western Conference finals on Saturday, the NBA finally graced fans with the highly anticipated renderings, which positioned the trophy behind the Spurs' and the Knicks' logos, plus an added NBA Finals logo at both baselines.

Check out both courts below, in all their wonderfully nostalgic glory:

The biggest stage in basketball 🏆 pic.twitter.com/VMaAEHR3LW
— NBA (@NBA) June 1, 2026

In last season’s Finals series between the Thunder and the Pacers, fans were outraged that the courts looked akin to those of a random NBA Tuesday in January. The great majority of viewers—both in the arena and watching at home—were astounded that the league could pull off wildly colorful courts for NBA Cup play, but didn't put in such effort for the biggest moment of the season.

The criticism got even worse when virtual logos came into play. A good old college try that didn’t come close to hitting the mark.

One year later, however, the NBA has finally gotten it right with the classic design that makes for a supreme viewing experience—whether you’re watching from inside the arena or from your couch.

Why the NBA moved away from the Larry O’Brien court design

The center court Larry O’Brien trophy logo hasn’t been used since 2009. The removal and subsequent downgrading of the NBA Finals viewing experience was allegedly due to safety concerns that the league chose to avoid altogether for the biggest moment of each season, whether those concerns were valid or not.

"One of the reasons we moved away from the logos on the courts is—whether it was perception or reality—there was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court,” commissioner Adam Silver said last June regarding the highly criticized absence of Finals decals. “It was a change sort of on the court that was coming just at the time of the Finals. … Maybe it’s for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams that we shouldn’t be changing things around such important competition. That’s largely why we stopped putting the logos on the court."

Silver alluded to the possible return of the trophy logo last summer, and Charania reported the return in October at the start of this season. This time, the trophy will be painted on the hardwood court rather than applied via decal, as was done in the past. Players complained about slipping on the decals on the floor, as Silver said numerous times previously, which is the reason why the NBA stopped putting the trophy on the Finals court in the first place.

After nearly two decades, though, we’re officially back. So if Victor Wembanyama’s first Finals appearance—in which he and the Spurs will go up against the Knicks, who are cruising at a historic pace—wasn’t enough reason to tune in to this year's championship, the return of the signature floor is another.

More NBA Finals From Sports Illustrated

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