The New York Knicks opened the NBA Finals on Wednesday night in San Antonio with a 105-95 win over the San Antonio Spurs, marking the franchise's first trip to the Finals since 1999.
The score mattered; so did the shape of the run that produced it. This Knicks team arrives in the title series riding an 11-game winning streak and having swept their last two playoff series. Those streaks are the clearest evidence that this is not merely a nostalgic return — it is a peak run that has carried them to the sport’s biggest stage.
For context, the Knicks’ previous Finals appearance came in 1999, a season altered by a lockout and by roster upheaval. The 1998–99 campaign was shortened by labor strife, and in June of 1998 the club traded Charles Oakley for Marcus Camby. A day after the lockout ended, the team moved John Starks to Golden State for Latrell Sprewell. That scramble left Patrick Ewing as the only holdover from the early‑1990s nucleus that had captured the city’s imagination.
The 1999 run itself was turbulent. New York beat the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, but lost its centerpiece when Ewing tore his Achilles during Game 2 of that series. Sprewell stepped up in the Finals, averaging 26 points, and the Knicks met the San Antonio Spurs for the championship.
There is a tension worth noting: fans and commentators now call this current squad both better and more beloved than the 1999 team — even though the earlier group won new supporters in dramatic fashion, upsetting the No. 1 seed Miami en route to the Finals. The contrast is sharp because the 1999 team’s storyline was built partly on chaos and controversial trades; the present team’s momentum looks, by the numbers, steadier and more consensual with its fan base.
Small details from that earlier run linger in the memory of the city and the newsroom. One reporter recalls covering the 1999 trip while six months pregnant and later boarding a plane using her phone, a human note that underlines how public and personal a Finals run can feel in New York.
What this opening result changes is immediate: the Knicks now have a lead to defend in the Finals and confirmation that their late‑season surge carried over to the championship stage. What it does not resolve is the larger question fans came to the arena with — whether this team can close the gap that has stretched since that 1999 appearance. The 105-95 win answers one night’s worth of doubt; the series ahead will decide whether this is a title tilt or the latest near miss.
