🏀 The Knicks Are 2026 Champions — And Now the Whole League Hates Them
It finally happened. The New York Knicks are NBA champions for the first time since 1973, closing out the San Antonio Spurs 4–1 behind a Jalen Brunson run for the ages. Brunson took home a unanimous Finals MVP — all eleven voters, no debate — and dropped a franchise Finals-record 45 points in the Game 5 clincher. Towns, Hart, and OG Anunoby did the dirty work around him. Madison Square Garden hasn’t shaken like that in half a century.
So, genuinely: congratulations, New York. Fifty-three years of suffering, paid off in full.
Now Here’s the Bad News
Winning a title doesn’t earn you love. It earns you a target. The moment Brunson lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy, the Knicks stopped being the lovable, snakebitten underdogs of the league and became the thing every other fanbase wakes up wanting to beat. That’s how this works. Champions don’t get cheered around the country — they get resented. Just ask the dynasties before them.
And the Knicks are uniquely built to be hated. The biggest market in basketball. The loudest, most insufferable-when-they-win fanbase in the sport. A captain in Brunson who plays with a chip the size of the Garden and celebrates like he means it. A roster of guys — Hart, OG, KAT — that opposing fans have spent years rolling their eyes at. Put a ring on all of that and you’ve manufactured the most punchable team in the league overnight.
The Villain Crown Is Heavier Than the Championship One
This is a site about the players and teams we love to hate — and make no mistake, the defending champ is always Public Enemy No. 1. Every road arena is now a playoff game. Every Knicks loss next season gets celebrated three states over like a holiday. Every “maybe they got lucky” take is already being typed. New York wanted relevance. They got something better and worse: they got hate, the real kind, the kind you only earn by winning.
So we’re not going to pretend to be neutral about it. We want to know where you stand.
Settle It
Are the 2026 champion Knicks now the most hated team in the NBA — or does the title actually buy them some respect? Don’t just yell it into the void. Make it count.
Create your free account & cast your vote →
Sign up in ten seconds, lock in your votes across the whole Hall of Villains, drop your hottest takes in the comments, and climb the contributor leaderboard. Knicks fan defending the throne or a hater counting down to their downfall — either way, this is where the argument lives.
