“We played for each other”: Knicks open up on Brotherhood

The New York Knicks did not end a 53-year championship drought by accident.

They did it together.

Throughout the NBA Finals, the Knicks found themselves trailing by double digits in every game against the San Antonio Spurs. They faced adversity night after night, yet somehow kept finding a way back.

According to the players, it all came down to one thing: brotherhood.

Speaking on TODAY after winning the NBA Championship, Finals MVP Jalen Brunson reflected on what made this Knicks team special.

“I think what we found is that we built these past two years of us being together, we built a chemistry, we built a rapport where no matter what was going on in the game, we were going to find a way to turn it around and just kind of pick it up.”

Brunson explained that whenever one player was struggling, someone else stepped in to lift him up.

“Somebody may be feeling down about something that happened in the game, but it’s on at least one of us to pick that person up. We always had each other’s back.”

Karl-Anthony Towns echoed the same message when asked what drove the team throughout the season.

“When we step on that court, we look to the left and we look to the right, and we see our brothers, and we want to play for each other. We don’t want to disappoint each other.”

The Knicks became the first team in NBA history to win both the Emirates NBA Cup and the NBA Championship in the same season.

“It’s cool to live this moment with my brothers next to me,” Josh Hart said.

After 53 years of waiting, New York finally has another championship.

And the players who delivered it will forever be remembered as the group that brought basketball’s biggest prize back to the city.