The New York Knicks' 2026 championship run was one that was remarkable for a variety reasons, not only because of the history that was involved in the championship between the Knicks' record-breaking 13-game win streak and the fact that their championship was the first that one of the NBA's longest-standing franchises had one in in 53 years, but there's also a lot of personal history involved as well. 

For Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jose Alvarado, who all grew up as Knicks fans in either the New York or New Jersey areas, the accomplishment of ending a decades-long drought is deeply personal, but it doesn't take growing up a Knicks fan to have a personal attachment to the team or the championship. 

Miles McBride is attached to the Knicks because New York is where he became a NBA player, having been drafted by the Knicks in the second round of the 2021 NBA Draft and playing all five seasons of his career with the Knicks, becoming a beloved figure in New York in the process. 

With the departure of Mitchell Robinson in free agency, McBride is the longest tenured player on the Knicks, making his debut one season before Brunson joined the team, and over the years he has grown into a dependable role player that has seen both the good and the bad of the Knicks over the years. 

That's part of why the fact that the Knicks have finally won a championship is somewhat hard to believe, as he revealed in a recent interview with PEOPLE magazine. 

"Hasn't sunken in," McBride said (via HoopsHype). "Every time I hear 'champ,' it's like, it feels right but it's still such a blessing, such a surprise. I feel so grateful." 

McBride went on to say that it was the Knicks' "resilience" that helped them win Game 5 of the Finals and thus, the championship, and resilience is certainly the most apt word to describe what the Knicks accomplished. 

They had to come from behind in every single game that they won in the Finals, including a historic 29-point comeback in Game 4, and they wouldn't have been able to accomplish any if that without the resilience that McBride described. 

McBride has been raised up in the Knicks organization and knows more than most just what it means for the city of New York and the franchise itself to be able to win this championship. 

Now, McBride and the Knicks are gearing up to try and become the first repeat champions in the NBA since the Golden State Warriors from 2017-18, and maybe by the time that the season gets underway, the fact that McBride is a champion will have finally sunk in.