Knicks Win NBA Finals 2026: How Jalen Brunson Outdueled Wembanyama and the Spurs

Jose: ​[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, athletic director, and also the host of "Celtic Chalk Talk." "Celtic Chalk Talk" is a pod dedicated to the latest news and opinions surrounding the Boston Celtics from a lifelong fan, Steve. That pod drops new episodes every Monday, but this is the "Shot Clock" pod, the best 24 minutes of NBA random thoughts online anywhere. This podcast was born out of the content in Steve's "13 Rules: Random NBA Thoughts" articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the NBA. Today, we'll discuss his latest "13 Rules: Random NBA Thoughts" article, where he shares his random thoughts as the 2025-26 NBA season is over. Congratulations to the world champion New York Knicks. Now, before we get into it, if you're listening to this, we're grateful. Thank you. We are one of many of an [00:01:00] independent fan-driven shows on the Peach Basket Podcast Network. We're not owned by a big media company, which means what you hear comes straight from real fans who live the game every day, like Steve and I. If you believe voices like these should be heard, the best way to support us is simple. Keep listening, tell a friend comment, subscribe. When this episode ends, head over to the PeachBasketPodcastNetwork.com. Head over to thePeachBasket.net. Find more fan-run podcasts, read some great articles, and help this independent network grow the way it started organically, one hoops fan at a time. All right. With that out of the way, Steve, are you ready to talk about the NBA Finals? Steve: I'm ready Jose: Let's go. Okay. Clock is ticking, and we're gonna do this the same way we did it last week. We're gonna break this down game by game. R- at the end of last week's show, I asked you if this week we would be talking about the NBA champions or if we would be talking about a great series going into game seven. You said the series is over. You are [00:02:00] absolutely right. Let's take a look at the games that led us there. First off, just a couple of tidbits. This is the New York Knicks' third championship, first since 1973. A lot been made of that. The Knicks in the playoff run were 16 and three. That would put them in the top 16 ever. Really great run. They were dominant. Only the Hawks beat them twice in any series. So what's that say about the Hawks? I'm curious. Let's talk about that a little bit. But let's break this down game by game before we get into any any rabbit holes. We'll start with game three. Now, this is the one game that the Spurs won, and I think in looking back, it's the game where the Spurs, y- did themselves a favor by not getting into this crunch time where they really did not fare well. But you called out one key thing in that game that the Spurs won, and that's that Wemby started by playing down low, playing down, at the post, and it was, it made a difference, didn't it, for the [00:03:00] Spurs? Steve: If we're gonna find blame for this series, there's a lot of blame to go around, but I think Mitch Johnson shares in it a lot Jose: Yeah. Steve: Offensively, there really wasn't a thought to how to play. It was more take the ball and do something and that's not a good thing. And I- I'll talk about the end at the beginning. San Antonio had never developed a go-to person, and that's the whole series. Brunson's great, they have nobody when the game is on the line that they can go to. And there's a couple reasons for that but that's the bottom line. Yeah, it looked bad for San Antonio 'cause they fell apart at the end, but that's be- again, because nobody can go to the basket or can score. So it- it's fairly simple. And the other piece to it is, Wembanyama is great. He's gonna be the best. However, he needs to spend some time and become a shooter. He's not a [00:04:00] great shooter. saw him personally, I was at a game where he made eight threes against Boston a couple Jose: Right Steve: Incredible, but that's not a consistent thing. He's very inconsistent as a shooter, and he's gotta develop a go-to move. When you're 7'5", I think being close to the basket goes with that. So those are things that, that I saw in the series, and in game three, you're right, they didn't have a situation where they needed something at the end and had to come up with something big. So they were able to survive that one Jose: Yeah. Lots to dissect there before we m- you know, move to game four. First off, just to, to show I tweeted throughout, the series the last couple of games just how close these two teams were. And check this out. Totally across the five games, the Knicks scored 522 total points, the Spurs q- scored 510. It was on average two points separating the teams. It was amazing. The av- the Knicks averaged [00:05:00] 104, the Spurs averaged 102. This was probably one of the most intense five-game series a- and fun, fun games to watch between two evenly matched teams. The difference, and you said it and I tweeted this, the Spurs were close, but they didn't have a closer and that was everything, right? So I was o- on a walk last night and thought and had this thought. I'm gonna ask you, hypothetical. Switch Jalen Brunson and De'Aaron Fox, okay? Jalen Brunson is now the point guard for the Spurs on this team, and De'Aaron Fox is the point guard for the Knicks on this team. How many games does it take before the Spurs win the championship? Steve: First of all I switch Jalen Brunson and Dylan Harper and it'd be a seven-game series. If I switch with Fox, F- Fox, there's not a lot to say. $60 million worth of... and he thinks he's much better than he is. He has no problem coming down and throwing up the ball. [00:06:00] And if it went in, it'd be nice. 60 million you'd expect that. But it doesn't. And, and he messed up game four going to the basket with that Jose: We'll talk about it. Yep Steve: yeah so the Aaron Fox he's not even their best two guards, one of the best two guards. That's the best way to put it. And I think San Antonio's gotta do some soul searching on do you keep him? 'Cause Dylan Harper's gotta play 35, 40 minutes a night. He's young and he's good. And if Dylan Harper becomes a better shooter, I see, and this is crazy, but I was thinking about this, I see Shai Gilgeous, because he's unstoppable going to the basket, and that's what Shai was g- a couple years ago. he develops into the shooter, look out NBA, 'cause he'll be just unstoppable Jose: Yeah. Yeah, no, no argument from me. We're gonna talk a little bit more about Wemby and what he needs to do to be better. A- and I wanna call out a shot chart when we get there, but let's leave [00:07:00] that aside right for now. Game 3, Spurs win, and all of a sudden, there was a little momentum, right? Because they played a good game, and you thought maybe they figured this out, right? We all talked about the deer in the headlight moment, deer in the headlight moment for the Spurs. Maybe it's over, right? Game 3, they figured it out, and then they ga- they went to Game 4. Now, before Game 4, you and I talked about how what needed to happen at least what I thought needed to happen for the Spurs, is they needed to punch this team in the mouth. They needed not to win a game, but to dominate a game, just to show, "Listen, we're here. We get this." And in Game 4, they did that. I actually texted you, right? I think I texted you a picture of Rocky. I said they just drew blood. This is over. It's tied." Any anybody who thought differently just, just wasn't watching the game. The Spurs absolutely dominated in what now we know was a tale of two halves. In the first half, the Spurs won 76-49. In the second half, inexplicably, unbelievably, in an NBA historic comeback, the Knicks won [00:08:00] 58 to 30. The Spurs scored 30 in the half. Unbelievable. E- encapsulate Game 4 for me, and then we're gonna talk about, some details. Two big details, but encapsulate Game 4 for us Steve: I thought in the first half, Knicks' bubble was bursting because they have played way over their head before that. In, against Philly and after game three against A- Atlanta, they had just gone on a streak, and they were due to play... Unless these guys were better than everybody thought, they were due to play some, mediocre basketball, and that's what happened. In fact, during that game, if you remember I never saw Mike Brown was just running two and three guys in at a time in the first half. he was using guys like Jeremy Sochan, who never play. He was using him. So there, there was a little bit of a panic there, then in the second half, it all changed. Brunson got going, don't forget, and I pointed it out. [00:09:00] Steven K- Stefan Jankovic had five fouls. So one of the guys that can defend him was limited in what he can do, and Brunson went off and bought 'em back and they just kept coming and coming at S- San Antonio. San Antonio offensively got, w- in the second half I guess with about six minutes left in the third quarter to the end, they really never got the ball any deeper than the three-point line. They very rarely went to the basket. They threw the ball around the perimeter and had nothing going. we can criticize Mitch Johnson because there's gotta be some sort of call or something you can run that might get you something that might be w- instead of letting them play at that point because they were calling for discipline. But they never really did anything and naturally when you shoot real well in the first half, the law of averages say you're not gonna shoot well. And they were still hoisting the threes. I think they went something like 3 for 20 in the second half. So it, it kinda Jose: Yeah Steve: And that was important. Now [00:10:00] you get to the end of the game, and if you wanna take it from there, go ahead Jose: All right. Let's talk about that unbelievable end of the game. Again, deer in the headlights moment. We talked about it, right? Is this inexperience gonna impact the Spurs? And I don't think it was ever any more evident than at the end of game four. You could point to lots of different games, but in that moment it was evident. And before we set it or as I set up, the De'Aaron Fox thing and I definitely want your thoughts on it. I follow a few Spurs content creators on TikTok and they had a really great split screen about the Spurs of Manu Ginóbili and Tim Duncan and Mario Elie and those greats, Tony Parker and then De'Aaron Fox. Virtually the same information. Spurs were up in an NBA finals. Manu Ginóbili's got a kick out. He's wide open. He goes up. He could easily have laid it up, but instead, what does Manu Ginóbili do? He dribbles around the basket. He dribbles all the way down the sideline. He [00:11:00] makes... I forget the team they were playing. But he makes them chase him and foul him. Killed five, six seconds, and then shot the two free throws and made them. High intelligent IQ play. And then we see what De'Aaron Fox did. All right. So the Spurs are up one. De'Aaron Fox has got a layup. It was a layup. It looked like a layup. We're all thinking it. De'Aaron Fox was thinking it. He makes it. They're up three with, I think, 19 seconds. I might have it wrong. Steve: it's Jose: I was hoping it was Steve: 14 Jose: 14 seconds. So I, I get the thought process, but you got someone chasing you. You've got to have heard the footsteps. You gotta know. And then again, going back to Manu Ginóbili, what's the right basketball play here? Is it to take the two points or is it to dribble out the clock? Go ahead. Steve: it's funny you're talking about that. In another life, I was a basketball coach of a high school team, and what we would do at the end of a practice would [00:12:00] the ball. We'd spread out in the five areas we broke down on the court, and each player took an area and move the ball. If anybody shot the ball, I was all over them. "Don't shoot the ball. Move the ball and let's get out of here." Now, on that particular play, De'Aaron Fox went and Anunoby chased him down and made the block. But if you Jose: Yeah Steve: there was four Knicks in that part of the court while no Spurs were with Fox. should have dribbled it towards the corner, gotten fouled, and then put the, put, i-it's up to you. he decided to do that, and I think that kind of capped off the whole series for De'Aaron Fox. He just wasn't good and it it just it gave the Knicks life. You don't wanna lose the ball. You want your possession. And I don't know what he was thinking. I'm sure in his career from high school to pro, somebody said, "Don't shoot in that [00:13:00] situation. Don't do it." And Jose: Yeah Steve: I just-- When I saw it, I just like, "Oh my goodness, is crazy." And then Anunoby made a nice block. I thought for a second, because if you watch Fox come down, he, his body curves. It looked like he might've gotten hit, but then in the two-minute report it said no. But I thought he might've. But the point wasn't about being fouled as much as why are you doing that? So that Jose: Yeah Steve: The key play. But now you get to the next one, which was even a bigger mistake when you think about it. Go ahead. With Mitch Johnson Jose: Are we talking OG at the end? Steve: Yes. Yes Jose: Let's ta- all right, let's talk about about that. Unbelievable. The Spurs had the game, I think. Certainly the their percentages go up if De'Aaron makes the right choice. He didn't. But they're still in the game, right? Brunson took what... when I was watching the game, I thought I wouldn't, didn't understand why he was [00:14:00] taking that shot. Not that he couldn't make it. It was a Steph Curry three. It was a four-point shot, but with so much time left on the clock. But there's, there's a method there. If you miss, there's an opportunity for the offensive rebound, and that's the thought process. I get it now, and obviously that's what happened for the Knicks. But everything's gotta go right on that opport- on that shot. First off, if you make it, great, but you've got, you left plenty of time for the Spurs, a- and I think at that point it would've been a one-point game. No, a two-point game if they would've made it. But regardless you give the Spurs an opportunity to tie. But if you miss it, you've gotta get that offensive rebound, right? That's a 50/50 shot. It's probably a 75/30. 75/30. 75/25 whatever the math is, shot. I was... I'm on a roll now and I'm not thinking math. But everything went right for the Knicks. The ball bounced off the rim. It was a perfect pass for OG, who just jumped higher than everybody else a- and tipped it in. So you wrote about it. I gotta ask you, and I'm gonna ask this pointed question: Does [00:15:00] OG get more credit for that tip-in? And incidentally, Anunoby was phenomenal in that game. I think he had, he had 30-plus. Or do the Spurs deserve more blame for not blocking him out? Steve: OJ, OG gets credit because the ball went in. How many times you see somebody tip it, it goes off back rim, comes Jose: Sure Steve: deserves all that credit. The problem I have, there's more than 10 seconds left. When took the ball out, nobody was guarding him. Common sense, my mind said nobody's guarding him. I would take OG, step into the corner or somewhere quickly and get the ball back to him for a shot. Because by the time they recover and defend him, there's a problem. Nobody ever recovered and defended him. So here it is, Brunson's hoisting a 25-foot, whatever it was, Jose: Yeah Steve: but here's who's unimpeded going to the basket. Now again, I go [00:16:00] back. There's more than 10 seconds left. You can't do that. You have to guard because there's enough time for him to get the ball back offensively and score. what he did, tip it in because nobody's boxing him out. There's one more piece to that was really interesting. Did you notice where Wembanyama was on the tip-in? He was to the Jose: Oh, he was guarding J- Jaren... Brunson. Steve: he was on Jose: Wasn't he guarding him? Steve: He was on the right side, now, of the basket. A big man in a situation like that, where should he be? Should be in the middle, so he can command both sides. we've watched in this series how many times, 'cause Victor's the biggest guy on the court, he was able to tap a ball to himself. If he were in the middle, wouldn't have d- wouldn't have been able to do that. So those were little things that went on that [00:17:00] really... and you know what? We can, I can talk about De'Aaron Fox and Mitch Johnson, but the chances if somebody said before all this started, when De'Aaron Fox first picked up the ball with about 17 sec- whatever left, you would've said the chances of the Knicks winning this game are 5%, 10%. Jose: Yeah. Steve: So everything had to go right, and Mitch Johnson made a few mistakes, but everything had to go right for the Knicks to pull that off, and they did. And they did. So That was the other piece. So i- in a way, and I am taking down Mitch Johnson and De'Aaron Fox but boy, they didn't get much... They weren't lucky, let's put it that way, in that Jose: Yeah. Yeah, and it's important to note e- every NBA champion has had a little bit of luck. It certainly seemed like the Knicks had a lot of it, from the ball bouncing correctly for OG to, to a few other things. Again, this was a close game. Not a close game, a close series. And a- a lot had to go right for that team [00:18:00] and every- everything, everything did. But again, credit to them for pulling it off. All right, so Steve: I Jose: OG Steve: I just wanna add one thing that's really interesting Mitch Johnson went, in this series, from somebody, another good young coach, Jose: Right. Steve: to now San Antonio doesn't play well next year, he's in trouble. Really, the opinion of him has I would think, in the NBA, in a different direction Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Fair or not, that's absolutely true. Y- you've got a guy who took his team a young team, to the NBA finals ahead of schedule, I don't think anybody denies that. Beat the defending champions, right? These are all incredible accolades. But boy, man, when the pressure was on and the light was brightest he made some bad decisions. And I think the one he's getting the most heat from, and we've kinda skated around it, was the fact that he just stuck to [00:19:00] De'Aaron Fox when he had somebody like Ron Harper's kid, right? Who was just the second leading scorer, Dillon Harper. Steve: he's great. Jose: He was phenomenal. Now he missed a couple shots at the end of game five, we gotta talk about game five here in a minute. But why? Why did... Y- and it's old school coaching, right? You go with the vet. You always go with the vet, as opposed to the young buck, right? But it, by the time you get to the NBA finals, there's no rookies. These are all season veterans. You gotta play the best player. Somebody tweeted, and I wanna get your thoughts on this, if the San Antonio Spurs had played the best player, regardless of age, regardless of experience, if they just would've played the best players, they would've won the series. What do you think? Steve: No. I think over the course of a season, you're developing guys you probably five times, 10 times in a year, you come down to a last shot five times. You're developing something that you're gonna do. [00:20:00] I don't think San Antonio ever did that. And I think the whole series is wrapped around the fact that when the game was on the line at the end, San Antonio didn't know how to play it. The Knicks Jose: Yeah. Steve: Give it to Jose: Yeah. Steve: he'll make a play. Jose: Yeah Steve: San Antonio, one game they threw it to Wembanyama, and unfortunately he missed that shot from about 17 feet, which he makes a lot, but that might've been the best play you can use. But the point being, San Antonio never developed that. If we're watching a game and there's 10 seconds left and the Knicks have the ball, you know where it's going. Jose: Yeah. Steve: and you know what's going on. With San Antonio, you sit there and you wonder, "What are they going to do?" So go back to my initial point was about Wembanyama needs to become a better shooter, because he can take a shot on anybody in the league and nobody's gonna block him, unless he stays on the ground. So he's gotta become a better shooter, [00:21:00] and in a situation like that, you just get him the ball and let him go. And that might be the smartest thing. Dylan Harper will get better as a shooter, and he'll be a great 1B player with him, as well as Castle will be. I don't-- You didn't hear me mention De'Aaron Fox, did you? And the point being, that's what they have to do to take the next step. And you hope that a little bit of experience goes a long way Jose: Yep. Yeah I tweeted a- again LeBron lost at 22 sh- his first finals. Shaq lost at 23, his first finals, and Wemby's lost his first finals at 22. Sh- obviously, LeBron and Shaq went on to win multiple. I do not expect any different for Wemby. I think this is a guy who's gonna lead his team to multiple NBA champions assuming he's healthy. But they've gotta learn from this. Now let's ta- take a look at game five real quick 'cause the clock is ticking. Game five was more of the same, right? The Spurs, and you [00:22:00] wrote this, the Spurs played well. They had a lead. I think they led by multiple by double digits in every game of the series. They led in the last two minutes, four out of five games. They just didn't have a closer. But at the end of the day, and you said it, experience won. Experience won. The Knicks were better when the game was on the line. The Knicks leaned on Brunson, and the Spurs just seemed disjointed. Now, I wanna key it on one play i- in game five. Brunson takes, And the Knicks were fighting back. I think they had the lead. The Spurs took it back. I might be a little off, but I remember Brunson took a really tough fadeaway shot, well-defended, high archer, and it missed. It clanked. And the ball's bouncing, and I think it was Stephon Castle, maybe it was De- Devin Vassell. He and Wemby were both there. Nobody else was there. It... I could've gotten that rebound, right? I, it literally was just falling to them. Inexplicably, they bumped into each other. I [00:23:00] don't know what happened, but somebody touched the ball, and who- whether it was Vassell or Castle stepped on the sidelines. The ball goes back to the Knicks. They score. H- that's just inexcusable at that moment. This is the NBA Finals. That that to me was a key play. Do you know what? You know what I'm talking about, right? Steve: Yeah, I do. And you're right. It was... I didn't quite understand it when I saw it. Just get the ball and give it to somebody and we start an offense. And it made no sense. I, I don't even know what to it on or whatever, but it just was, wa- it was silly. yeah, and that, that probably cost them the game. But once the Knicks got the lead, you knew it was over Jose: Yeah Steve: San Antonio can't answer. If it stays tied and s- San Antonio scores, of course. But once the Knicks get a lead, San Antonio can't answer it. And they didn't. They didn't. Harper missed a tough layup and it kinda was the end Jose: That would've been so poetic, but we got more to talk about. I don't know if you heard the buzzer just went off [00:24:00] there. Steve: Yeah. Jose: All yeah, agreed. I-- A-and again, Dylan Harper was phenomenal. He's gonna learn from this. But yeah, he missed a tough layup. I think he missed a free throw. That could've really obviously made all the difference in the world for the Spurs. But what a great young talent. This is a guy who's going to have a great future in San Antonio. But let's go back to what you said at the very start, and that was-- 'cause when you talked about what the Spurs need now, you said two things. Three things. You said they need to find their offense, right? And you called that out great here. Mitch Johnson needs to learn from his mistakes, and I think the first half of next year is really gonna tell, what this guy's future looks like. But then you said Wemby has to be better. Now, Wemby led the team in scoring. He averaged 20 shots, and you and I talked throughout the season, he needs to be getting at least 20 shots a game. He averaged 20 shots in this series. But you said he has to be better. Now, I was a little surprised by that, 'cause I thought he was good. I get your point, but then I looked at his shot chart. This is amazing t-to me. First off, from the [00:25:00] corners, he shot 0% from one corner. He shot 33% from the other, right? So not good. He took a total of four shots. From the high from the furthest distance from three, he shot 27%, eight for 29. Really bad. And then this is the part that just baffles me. At the low post the league average down there, 66, 67%. Wemby shot 26 of 44. At the rim, 42%. How? How? It just bo- it just boggles the mind. What was it? Was it Wemby suffered from deer in the headlights? Do we give credit to the Knicks' defense? What do you think? I, y-you said, Wemby's gotta get better. But do we give a little bit of credit to the Knicks figuring him out? Steve: No. You give they can't affect his shot. so he can do, unless he makes the mistake, brings the ball down, which he did, bringing it down, they slapped it away. [00:26:00] But if he stays high with the ball, they ain't, they're not touching him. And the point being, he can't. The other thing that he's gotta learn is it's just the rules of basketball in li- in, in the game. And by that this: if I'm playing against somebody who's more talented, the only shot I have is beat the hell out of him. So he's more talented. He's gonna get beat up, he's gotta handle it. He's gotta stay calm and play the game. I don't know if he can do that yet, and he's gotta learn that, because when you're getting and that's gonna happen every time, go- you know, you need to just play through it and just shut him, what Shaq did, just shut him up by just playing, and he didn't do that. Now, the other thing to think about, when you have a 7'4" guy or five, whatever it might be, Jose: Yeah Steve: his... If he took 25 shots and you took the distance of all the shots, if it was [00:27:00] more than 150 feet total. In other words, the distance of a shot from the layup is a one-footer and so on. If it's more than 100, that's not good. He's 7'5". gotta get the ball down near the basket and say, "Come on, try to guard me." And he didn't do it. I understand coming out and shooting a three 'cause it'll keep the defense honest. But you're at the end of a game, get on the block, get the ball Jose: Yeah Steve: something. And he, he-- Two things he has to do. He has to get stronger. He needs to b-be bigger. And the other thing he needs to do is just become such a good shooter like most NBA players. and if he can't do that, and I believe he's gonna be great, the greatest thing ever. But if he Jose: Yeah Steve: that, we're-- we got a problem. Last thing I wanna say, San Antonio themselves, obviously the future is bright. But they all have to look at themselves [00:28:00] and say, after this series, "Who's the clutch player here?" 'Cause Jose: Yeah. Steve: succeed in the clutch. And either you get that through experience or you don't have a bunch of guys that are good clutch players. And if Jose: Yep Steve: the case, got a problem Jose: Yeah. It's weird to think that a team that just played so well regular season and in the playoffs has some tweaking to do, but they clearly have some tweaking to do. Steve: Yes Jose: I trust that, that franchise to do it right. All right. Let's obviously the shot clock went off. But this is the NBA Finals, man. We're gonna talk a little bit more 'cause I got two more questions I wanna ask you. And we talked a little bit about this before we started, recording. When this, when the Thunder won, going back to when the Nuggets won, a lot of us thought, "Oh, this is the beginning of a dynasty." I'll be honest, I thought this was the start of a dynasty for the Spurs. I picked them to win it. And but sometimes when you have a champion like that's what you talk about, especially if they're young. Obviously, the [00:29:00] Spurs, I think, might still be that dynasty. The Nuggets were not. Nobody's talking about a dynasty with the Knicks, and I don't mean to take anything away from your championship, New York. You deserved it. Enjoy it. But nobody's talking about a Knicks dynasty. This was and I hate to use the term, it was a bit of a one-off. Am I right? Steve: If you go through it, first thing, probably the biggest factor here is Jalen Williams being hurt in the-- before Oklahoma against Jose: Sure Steve: because that was a key thing. He-- Don't forget, this guy is a, an All-NBA player, and he didn't play. Or he, when he did, he was ineffective 'cause of his hamstring. y- before you get started, you gotta take that into consideration. So San Antonio beat 'em. It took 'em seven tough games, but they did beat 'em. M- do you think it might've been the other way if Jalen was... Yeah, I kinda do, but that's the Jose: Yeah Steve: thing before you get started. Now, are the Knicks generational? I don't kinda see that. I think they're a [00:30:00] good team. This is not... and I don't wanna, I don't wanna knock the Knicks. They won the title, but this is not one of the teams you walk away and say, "This is like the '85, '86 Celtics," you're not gonna say that. You're gonna say they Jose: or the Lakers from the '80s, just to throw out another example Steve: I don't think they were as good. I thought the '86 Celtics were, in modern basketball, the best team that we saw. But, y- naturally you wanna get the Lakers in. But they're good. They're real good, and you gotta beat 'em. And what the Knicks did, they played the best basketball of the season Game 3 against Atlanta. Any team that can do that is going to overachieve. Guys were shooting... OG Anunoby, who was great in the playoffs, he shot over 50% from three. Eh, that's not, that common, and if he does it next year, I'll be the first to say I was wrong. But, it just, they did so many things. Their defense was great. Landry Shamet, until the last couple [00:31:00] games, he couldn't miss. There Jose: Yeah Steve: many things going on that were just working in their favor. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Naturally Brunson's great, and he carried them. But I don't consider them, one of the great teams of all time. But you know what? They give 'em their due. They won the title i- in a year where, it was possible Jose: Yep. No doubt tipping our hat to the Knicks. They deserve it, but there's some truth to that, no doubt. Now, I wanna finish with this. I wanna send a little love to Atlanta. Is it warranted? The Atlanta Hawks were up two to one against the world champion New York Knicks. Is the future bright for Atlanta, or was that just the Knicks figuring it out? Steve: I think the Knicks in the first three games were playing like the Knicks of the regular season, and then all of a sudden the Knicks figured some things out and they got hot. I think for Atlanta to become a good team, they need a big man badly because the 6'9" Okongwu just can't compete against Karl-Anthony Towns, probably [00:32:00] have a tough time against Embiid and all of the seven-footers in the NBA who can score. So that's one of the things they need to do. They do have the eighth pick in the draft, and they might take the kid Mara was he from Michigan, I believe. But i- if they do, he's still gonna be a year or two away, and he's not that strong. But they need to do something about that problem to become a better team. And I don't... O- one last piece I'll say on the Hawks, generally a team wins a title when they have a guy in the top 10 in the league as your leader. I don't know if anybody on the Hawks is a top 10 player Jose: Yeah. Yep. Fair enough. All right, so a little love, at least for Atlanta. I think if I'm a Hawks fan I, I'm loving the fact that, my team beat this team twice. Steve: Yeah Jose: gotta take the victories where you can get them. But you s- you heard the shot clock go off, right? That is it. 2025-26 NBA season is over. It was a great one. Our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank you for [00:33:00] watching. Make sure to read Steve enti- Steve's entire "13 Rules" random A- NBA Thoughts article, which we will link below wherever you're watching or listening to this today. And yeah, join us next week. In years past we've done an overtime show where we, we've interviewed referees, we've in- em- we've interviewed NBA world champions. Steve and I actually have not connected on what it is we're gonna do this off-season. We might take a week off, we might come back. I don't know, but follow us on the PeachBasket_ on Twitter, follow us at thePeachBasket.net. And whatever it is that we do you'll know. And whatever it is that we do, we hope to see you there. But that is it. That is the end of the season. That's the end of our show. Steve, another great year. Excited to do it again in 2026-27. We'll talk again maybe next week, maybe the week after, but we'll do something. All right. Thank y'all. Thanks, Steve. Steve: Take care