The New York Knicks weren't fully counted out by any means heading into the 2026 playoffs, but that doesn't mean they were favorites to win it all either, especially not the way that they did, taking off on a historic 13-game winning streak and taking home the Larry O-Brien Trophy for the first time in 53 years. 

The roster certainly had the skills to become champions, as they proved time and time again throughout the tournament, but they had the energy and the intangible spirt that enabled them to overcome their opponents, from sweeps of the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers to overcoming deficits against the San Antonio Spurs in every one of the four games that they won to reach the top of the NBA world. 

To become champions, it takes more than just skill, but something deep inside that an entire team can harness. The fighting spirit that the Knicks had and their faith in each other is exactly what made them such a special team and in a recent interview with SLAM, scrappy Knicks guard Jose Alvarado summed up exactly what intangible quality he knew the Knicks had that could take them to the mountaintop. 

"That's one thing you got to do is believe," Alvarado said. "The way we did it, 53 years, a lot of people say we were supposed to be there but still doubted us. A lot of people thought the first round was a way out because of how we started... We just believed in each other, we believed in what we could do and that's what made us champions.

The first round that Alavarado spoke about was against the Atlanta Hawks, and for a while things did look dicey. The Knicks dropped two of the first three games in that series and looked truly rattled by the way that the Hawks were handling them, especially with the way that Atlanta star CJ McCollum was playing against them. 

But a switch flipped inside of them after that second loss and as Alvarado described it, they started to believe. 

That belief took them to four-straight wins against the Hawks and kick-started their now iconic run, where that belief never wavered, not even when the Knicks trailed by as much as 29 points against the Spurs in Game 4 of the Finals and that belief carried them to the largest comeback in NBA Finals history and set the stage for their championship-clinching Game 5 win. 

There's an old saying that you can't measure heart and the Knicks showed that over and over again. Championship winning skills were all over that roster and their ability to perform in the biggest of moments were what made them champions. But that process and that history made would have never happened if they didn't first believe in themselves and in each other.