The annual ESPN award show, the ESPY Awards, was live Wednesday night from the David H. Koch Theater in New York City, and the New York Knicks stole the show.
Nominated for five awards when, in past years, they wouldn’t have normally been nominated for a single one, the NBA Champions won all of them.
First, before the ESPYS began, ESPN’s NBA Today announced that Jalen Brunson won the award for Best NBA Player, becoming the first Knick to win such an award since its creation in 1993.
Despite coming off a typical Jalen Brunson regular season and an all-time playoff run, many didn’t expect Brunson to win this award.
With the other nominees being Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Victor Wembanyama, each of whom brought home regular-season hardware, Brunson achieved the most important of all: a championship and the Finals MVP.
Then, for the first award of the night, Brunson would once again take home an ESPY.
This time for Best Championship Performance, beating out two Olympic athletes in Aerin Frankel of USA Women’s Hockey and Connor Hellebuyck of USA Men’s Hockey, as well as Teagan Kavan with Texas Longhorns Softball.
In the NBA Finals, Brunson led a 14-point comeback with 19 points on 7-13 shooting in the final 18.5 minutes of Game 1.
He also hit a game-tying fadeaway with the game-winning free throw in Game 2, had a 36-point, seven-assist performance in a Game 4 to complete the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, and put up a 45-point closeout win in Game 5, where he scored 47.9% of the Knicks points.
The next award a Knick was nominated for was Best Play, specifically OG Anunoby’s game-winning tip-in in Game 4.
Anunoby won the award over the US Women’s Hockey and Men’s Hockey teams’ gold-winning goals, UConn’s buzzer beater to defeat Duke in March Madness, and Caleb Williams’ fadeaway touchdown against the Rams in the Divisional Round.
After winning the award, he delivered a textbook OG Anunoby moment on the mic.
The next award was Best Athlete, Men’s Sports, where Jalen Brunson was nominated alongside legends from other sports, including Matthew Stafford, Shohei Ohtani, and Lionel Messi.
This is easily the biggest award won last night.
Knowing Brunson’s story and his come-up with how much he was overlooked from high school to the NBA, to winning this award over sure Hall of Famers in other sports is an all-time moment.
“To be awarded this award with a group like that means the world,” Brunson said in his acceptance speech. “Thank you to the fans; I really do appreciate y’all, my family, my teammates, just everyone who’s always believed in me. I’m lost for words, it’s been a hell of a run.”
The final award for which the Knicks were nominated was for Best Team.
The other nominees consisted of the Super Bowl Champions Seattle Seahawks, the World Series Champions Los Angeles Dodgers, the Stanley Cup Champions Carolina Hurricanes, the WNBA Champions Las Vegas Aces, the College Football National Champions Indiana Hoosiers, the Women’s College World Series winner Texas Longhorns, Olympic gold medalist Team USA Men’s Hockey, and Olympic gold medalist Team USA Women’s Hockey.
Many, but not all, members of the Championship team were present on stage.
