[Begley] James Dolan took a few minutes to address his team in the locker room. He talked to the players about the opportunity ahead of them, the importance of sacrificing for the next 10 weeks. (He jokingly asked the players to avoid fornication during the postseason.)
SAN ANTONIO — Shortly before this whole thing started — before the Knicks snapped a 53-year title drought, before they won 13 straight playoff games, before OG Anunoby’s miraculous tip-in — owner James Dolan took a few minutes to address his team in the locker room.
He talked to the players about the opportunity ahead of them, the importance of sacrificing for the next 10 weeks. (He jokingly asked the players to avoid fornication during the postseason.)
Dolan also told the players to work through any issues with direct conversations, rather than passive-aggressive comments to the media.
Mostly, he talked about how much he believed in this group of players, how confident he felt about their chances to snap the franchise’s championship drought, how important it was to put the team first over the next 10 weeks.
Dolan’s pre-playoff speech seemed to land, per people familiar with the matter.
“They were a little surprised, but the words hit,” one of the people said.
Roughly 10 weeks later, the players in that locker room spilled onto the Frost Bank Center court to celebrate a title that had eluded the franchise again and again over the last 50 years.
“I have no words. It’s everything I ever dreamed of,” Jalen Brunson said in an interview on the court after the game.
The 2025-26 Knicks were a team in the truest sense. At different points in the season, they leaned on role players like Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson, and Tyler Kolek to help them win games.
They followed a similar script all the way through the Finals.
Source: https://sny.tv/articles/knicks-win-2026-nba-finals-spurs-trust-sacrifice