Knicks Legends Hand Jalen Brunson Larry Bird Trophy After Sweeping Cavaliers

· Yahoo Sports

Walt “Clyde” Frazier won two NBA championships with the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973, and the Knicks haven’t won the NBA Finals since then.

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The Knicks reached the 1999 NBA Finals, but they had to play the San Antonio Spurs without Patrick Ewing, who suffered an Achilles injury in the Eastern Conference Finals, and lost to the Spurs in five games.

After beating the Cleveland Cavaliers by 37 points to complete an Eastern Conference Finals sweep on Monday night, the Knicks are back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.

Ewing and Frazier, now Hall of Famers, were on hand in Cleveland to live vicariously. They also presented Knicks All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson the Larry Bird Trophy, given to the Eastern Conference MVP. ESPN’s Lisa Salters relayed that Brunson won the award unanimously.

The Knicks won 11 straight games and hit several historic checkpoints in the process, including the largest playoff comeback (22 points) in franchise history in Game 1 of this series and owning a +19.4 average point differential this postseason — an all-time best by a team that reached the NBA Finals, per Keerthika Uthayakumar.

Salters asked Brunson how his teammates have helped him reach his MVP form, to which he said, “They give me the confidence. They let me be me. I think, most importantly, we all believe in each other, from top to bottom. It’s an honor to play with them, honestly.”

CLEVELAND, OHIO – MAY 25: Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks is defended by James Harden #1 of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the third quarter in Game Four of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at Rocket Arena on May 25, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Salters then called for All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, who cited his New Jersey childhood as making this moment all the more special.

“It’s an honor to be able to do this back on the team that I grew up cheering for my whole entire life,” Towns said. “To have Patrick Ewing, Clyde, everybody here, to have the greatest fans in the NBA show up here on the road, and for them to give us this kind of love everywhere we go in the world, you couldn’t have asked for a better feeling.”

The only thing better would be hoisting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy about three weeks from now. The Knicks await the winner of a cutthroat Western Conference Finals between the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs.

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