Knicks Win the NBA Title, Then New York Burns School Buses. Here Is the Full Reckoning.

Since the Knicks took a 3-1 series lead with OG Anunoby's tip-in winner in Game 4, the championship was theirs to lose. They did not lose it.

Jalen Brunson scored 45 points Saturday night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, leading New York to a 94-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs and the franchise's third NBA title and first since 1973, according to BBC Sport. The Knicks won the series 4-1. Brunson's 45 points set a Knicks Finals franchise record, surpassing Willis Reed's 38 in 1970, and made him only the fourth player in NBA history to score at least 45 in a title-clinching game, per BBC Sport. Walt Frazier told the New York Post that Brunson is now "one of the greatest Knicks ever," noting his point total is the most to close out the Finals on the road since Michael Jordan scored 45 against the Jazz in 1998.

The win did not come easy. The Knicks trailed by 16 in the second quarter and by 10 early in the fourth before Brunson scored 10 unanswered points to tie it at 83-83, according to BBC Sport. He put New York ahead 90-88 with just over a minute left. Josh Hart (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Mikal Bridges (14 points, four assists) hit the free throws that sealed it. The Spurs' Victor Wembanyama missed a three-pointer, Stephon Castle's dunk cut the lead to 92-90 with 16 seconds left, and two missed free throws by Dylan Harper ended San Antonio's season.

The Spurs were not simply outclassed. According to the New York Post, San Antonio led for 177 minutes across the five games while the Knicks were ahead for only 56. The Spurs led by at least 10 points in the first quarter of all five Finals games, a first in NBA Finals history, per BBC Sport. The series' five games were decided by an average of four points. Youth cost them: De'Aaron Fox committed a bad foul, Wembanyama and Dylan Harper missed free throws in critical moments, and the Spurs unraveled in crunch time each time the Knicks pressed.

Wembanyama, 22, finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and five blocks. He told reporters afterward: "We weren't ready. I wasn't ready to win a ring. That's clear." He also closed his press conference with an odd sign-off, telling reporters, "See you… never," according to the New York Post. Whether that was exhaustion, humor, or frustration is genuinely unclear.

Mitchell Robinson, the longest-tenured Knick, grabbed 10 rebounds in 20 minutes and hauled in a critical offensive board with 22 seconds left that effectively ended the game, per the New York Post. Karl-Anthony Towns scored just two points fighting foul trouble all night, then immediately found his father in the crowd after the buzzer. "Thank you Mama, I appreciate you getting me one," Towns said, crediting his late mother, who died from COVID in 2020.

Patrick Ewing, who twice reached the Finals as a player and never won, was courtside. Karl-Anthony Towns spotted him in the celebration and yelled, "This is for you, Pat." Ewing told the New York Post: "It means everything to the city. It was a magical run."

Brunson, Hart, and Bridges became the first trio of teammates to win both an NCAA title and an NBA title together, according to the New York Post. Hart said: "Those are my brothers for life."

Coach Mike Brown, 56, was far from the Knicks' first choice after Tom Thibodeau was fired. He had been fired four times as a head coach and had not won a playoff series in that role since 2012, per the New York Post. Saturday night he won his first championship as a head coach in the same building where he won his first ring as an assistant with the Spurs 23 years ago. "I'm pinching myself," he said.

The celebration back in New York became something uglier. According to the New York Post, fans in Times Square ripped apart multiple school buses parked near the 42nd Street subway station. At least one bus was fully engulfed in fire after fans threw burning clothing through the windows. Fans danced on the roofs of the buses, tore off hoods, and smashed glass bottles into the street. Graffiti on one destroyed bus read "Let's Go Knicks" alongside "F--- ICE." A bus driver reportedly used his body to shield his vehicle, telling the crowd: "This is f---ing up my check. This is coming out of my check."

NYPD intervened around 2:30 a.m., more than an hour after the destruction began, according to the New York Post. Police said early Sunday that no arrests had been made.

Fans who just watched their city win its first championship in 53 years were going to celebrate loudly and chaotically regardless of what any official said. Mayor Zohran Mamdani had urged fans before the game to "be responsible," per Fox News. The plea had no measurable effect. The argument that this was organic, years-of-frustration euphoria is legitimate. But burning public school buses and destroying public property is not a gray area, and the NYPD's failure to make a single arrest during over an hour of documented destruction on camera raises a straightforward accountability question.

For San Antonio, the loss stings in a specific way. Wembanyama led the Spurs past the reigning champion Thunder in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, a genuine breakout moment. The New York Post noted he had 41 points, 24 rebounds, and three blocks in Game 1 of that series. He is the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year, an All-NBA First Team selection, and finished third in MVP voting this season. He is also 22 years old.

The Knicks' championship parade is scheduled for Thursday, June 18, according to the New York Post. Whether the city that just watched fans burn school buses can manage a daytime parade without further destruction is the open question city officials will spend the next four days trying to answer.