The San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks have reached the 2025/26 NBA Finals, and that matchup will produce eight different champions in eight consecutive seasons for the first time in league history. One of the league’s oldest franchises and a rebuilt Spurs team around Victor Wembanyama are now one series from the Troféu Larry O'Brien.
People are searching now because this is not just another Finals pairing. It is the deciding stage of the current season, and it carries a rare answer to a simple question: who stops the streak? The Knicks, led by Jalen Brunson, arrive as one of the most traditional organizations in American sports, back on basketball’s biggest stage after decades of waiting.
The historical marker is as sharp as the matchup itself. The Golden State Warriors were the last franchise to win consecutive titles, in 2016/17 and 2017/18. Before that, the Los Angeles Lakers ran off three straight championships from 1999/00 to 2001/02. Since then, the league has moved through a stretch in which every season has ended with a different champion, and this Finals will extend that run one step further.
That balance has become part of the NBA’s appeal. The league is more decentralized in power than in previous decades, with no dominant team able to hold the throne for long. At the same time, it is also more lucrative and more global than ever, boosted by billion-dollar media contracts, international sponsorships, brand expansion and new digital platforms. The result is a league that looks less predictable on the floor even as it grows more powerful off it.
For the Spurs, the Finals are a sign that the rebuild has reached the sport’s biggest stage faster than many expected. For the Knicks, it is a chance to turn decades of waiting into a title. By the end of this series, the NBA will either add another name to its recent list of champions or hand Brunson and New York the trophy that has eluded them for generations.
