The Knicks' title run has one extra layer that is only now getting more attention.
A Knicks fan thread pointed out that New York became the first team to win the NBA Cup and the NBA championship in the same season. The symmetry is clean: the Knicks beat San Antonio for the Cup in December, then beat the Spurs again in the 2026 NBA Finals.
Jalen Brunson sits at the center of both pieces of history. He was named NBA Cup MVP after New York's 124-113 win over San Antonio in Las Vegas, then won Finals MVP after the Knicks closed the Spurs in Game 5 for the franchise's first NBA title in 53 years.
The Reddit reaction was half bragging rights, half league-marketing argument. Some fans said the NBA should lean harder into the first Cup-title double because it gives the tournament a stronger historical hook. Others pushed back that the Cup has only existed for three seasons, so the achievement needs time before it carries real weight.
Both views can be true. The NBA Cup is not the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and no one in New York would trade June for December. But the Knicks did something the Lakers and Bucks, the first two Cup winners, could not do: turn the tournament win into a championship season.
That makes the double more than a trivia note. It gives the 2025-26 Knicks another marker in a season already loaded with them, and it gives future Cup winners a new benchmark to chase.
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