Kendrick Perkins went on ESPN and made a call about who wins the next NBA title, and whatever he actually said has the studio buzzing more than the pick itself has leaked. What's not in dispute, and what matters more right now, is the backdrop he was working from: the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in five games to win the 2026 title, closing a championship drought that had been open since before most of this current roster's parents were watching basketball.
That's the real story here. Not Perkins' pick. The fact that a five-decade wait finally ended, and that the team on the other side of it, Victor Wembanyama's Spurs, now carries the weight of a Finals loss into a brand new year.
did the Knicks actually win the 2026 NBA title
Yes. Per the reporting circulating this week, the Knicks closed it out in five games over San Antonio. For a franchise whose last championship came in 1973, back when Willis Reed and Walt Frazier were walking off that Garden floor as champions, five games against a loaded Spurs team is as clean an ending as that kind of wait usually gets. Most droughts that long don't end tidy. This one did.
The specifics of Perkins' actual pick for this season haven't fully made it into what's public yet, and I'm not going to guess at a name he didn't clearly say on air. What I can tell you is the framing: a prediction built to surprise the room generally means he's not just running it back with the champs. That's the nature of a bold take. It's supposed to zig.
what's next for the Knicks and the Spurs
For New York, the follow-up starts fast. They're hosting the Toronto Raptors Thursday night, which, for a defending champion, usually comes with a ceremony before it comes with a tip-off. Banners don't raise themselves, and neither does the target that gets put on a team's back the moment they're the ones everybody's gunning for.
For San Antonio, the posture out of camp has reportedly been one of clarity rather than panic. Wembanyama and the Spurs are said to have taken real stock of what the Finals loss exposed, while being careful not to assume anything about this season carries over automatically. That's the correct instinct. Nothing in this league is guaranteed, not a repeat for the champs and not a bounce-back for the runner-up. San Antonio opens its season Wednesday night at home against Phoenix, its first real test of whether that offseason clarity shows up on the floor.
History tends to be unkind to teams trying to go back-to-back off a historic breakthrough. The emotional tank that got you over the first hump isn't always full for the second one. Whether the Knicks have more in it, or whether a team like San Antonio, or whoever Perkins actually named, is better positioned to take the next step, is exactly the conversation that makes opening week fun.
What I'm watching next: whether Perkins' full pick surfaces with a name attached, and how the Knicks look in that Thursday opener against Toronto with a banner, and a target, freshly on them.