Karl-Anthony Towns Sends Message After Knicks’ NBA Cup Win

The New York Knicks won’t hang a banner after winning the NBA Cup on Tuesday, and that’s amid one of the biggest championship droughts in sports.

New York hasn’t won the NBA Finals since 1973, and this year’s Knicks squad is on a mission to change that. Beating the San Antonio Spurs 124-113 on Tuesday for the NBA Cup title in Las Vegas is only a step, and star center Karl-Antony Towns made that quite clear.

“We’re going to celebrate this one tonight,” Towns told reporters on Tuesday. “We’re going to hold this Cup championship dear to our heart, but now it’s time to work on the second one.”

The Knicks have been back to the finals only twice since the 1973 title. New York came up short in the 1994 and 1999 NBA Finals behind legendary center Patrick Ewing.

Towns joined the Knicks via a trade last season and helped the team reach the Eastern Conference finals. New York has an 18-7 record on pace for the No. 2 seed, and Towns and company will look to make a title run come spring next year.

New York Looking to Leave Behind Years of Disappointment

After the Ewing years’ success, the Carmelo Anthony era in the 2010s never produced as much success, and New York has gone through lengthy playoff droughts over the past two decades. However, this year’s squad has loads of talent and experience in addition to a recent Eastern Conference finals appearance last season and now an NBA Cup title.

“I’m very excited,” Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson told ESPN after Tuesday’s win. “It was a goal of ours that we get to check off. It’s an important stepping stone for us. We can still learn from this game and get better as well. I’m very thankful for the opportunity that we presented ourselves … we found a way to win.”

Brunson scored 25 points for the Knicks against the Spurs, and he won the tournament MVP in the process. OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 28 points, and the defense shut down Spurs star Victor Wembanyama in the fourth quarter.

San Antonio came into the game fresh off a semifinal upset of the Oklahoma City Thunder (24-2). New York previously beat the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors in the cup elimination rounds.

“A game like this, an environment like this, you don’t really see around the NBA too often,” Brunson explained. “We’ve got to take advantage of the experience that we got here.”

Knicks’ Playoff Outlook After NBA Cup

While the NBA Cup is a regular season tournament and no cup champion has ever won the finals, every team participates, so the Knicks have a barometer going forward for the rest of the season.

New York has the benefit of the Boston Celtics missing Jayson Tatum and the Indiana Pacers lacking Tyrese Haliburton. In addition, the Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t fared as well this season, but the Detroit Pistons have emerged as the East’s top team.

However, the Knicks’ biggest task may not come until the finals if the team makes it that far. Oklahoma City has only taken off since winning the NBA title, and a deep Western Conference could mean a battle-tested champion facing the Knicks if another team can unseat the Thunder.

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