Not only do the Knicks have a shot at their first NBA championship since 1973 in the NBA Finals against the Spurs, but three Knicks players—Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart—have a shot at entering rarified air with a potential NBA championship to their names.
The rare company that Brunson, Bridges and Hart could enter with NBA Finals win
Should Brunson, Bridges and Hart lead the Knicks to an NBA championship, they’d join four pairs of teammates in basketball history who have won both an NCAA and NBA championship.
Bill Russell and K.C. Jones
Before they were champions on the Celtics, Bill Russell (6) and K.C. Jones (25) were champions at the University of San Francisco. | Darryl Norenberg-Imagn Images
Russell and Jones won a pair of titles with the University of San Francisco in the 1950s, then were teammates for eight NBA championships as part of the dynastic ’50s and ’60s Celtics.
John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried
Larry Siegfried (furthest on the left) and John Havlicek (furthest on the right) led Ohio State basketball to its lone national title in 1959-60. | Columbus Dispatch-USA TODAY NETWORK
Eventually joining Russell and Jones on those Red Auerbach-led championship squads were the likes of Havlicek and Siegfried, who won five NBA titles together in Boston, but not before the two helped lead Fred Taylor’s Ohio State Buckeyes to an NCAA title in 1959–60.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lucius Allen
Lucius Allen (#42) won both an NCAA and NBA title alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (#33). | Manny Rubio-Imagn Images
Back when he was known as Lew Alcindor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar built a winning pedigree alongside UCLA teammate Lucius Allen for the legendary, John Wooden-led Bruins in the 1960s, winning two titles before the two captured an NBA championship with the Bucks.
Antoine Walker and Derek Anderson
Antoine Walker, along with Derek Anderson (not pictured), won an NCAA title with the legendary 1995-96 Kentucky Wildcats. | RVR Photos-Imagn Images
Walker and Derek Anderson were part of a hallowed, Rick Pitino-coached Kentucky squad that won a national championship on the strength of nine future NBA players. Walker and Anderson found themselves as teammates again when the latter was dealt to the Miami Heat midway through the 2005-06 season, a campaign that ultimately resulted in a championship in South Beach.
How the ’Nova Knicks came together
Brunson, Bridges and Hart built a winning DNA long before they stepped foot in Madison Square Garden for the Knicks. The trio arrived on campus at Villanova under legendary former basketball coach Jay Wright in successive seasons, with Hart arriving first in 2013, Bridges in ’14 and finally Brunson, as one of the top recruits in the ’15 class. The trio were joined by another former Knick, Donte DiVincenzo, who was a freshman during the ’15–16 season. That year, the quartet helped lead the Wildcats to their first national title since 1984–85. Hart went on to graduate on a high note, but Brunson, Bridges and DiVincenzo remained on campus and two seasons later helped the Wildcats to another national championship.
Mikal Bridges (25), Jalen Brunson (1) and Josh Hart (3) built a winning pedigree and seamless chemistry at Villanova. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
The four ex-Villanova stars went their separate ways in the NBA, then, as if the Knicks were their north star, found their way back to each other over the years. This time, it was Brunson, signing on with the Knicks as a free agent in the summer of 2022, who arrived first. The ensuing season, New York acquired Hart at the trade deadline, then signed DiVincenzo in the summer of ’23.
Brunson and Hart, who were roommates at Villanova, parlayed the experience into a podcast, which also featured DiVincenzo from time to time. All the while, the trio contributed to a whole lot of winning, just as they had with the Wildcats. Brunson and Hart helped the Knicks advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2023 for the first time in a decade, then DiVincenzo helped the franchise reach the same heights in ’24, electrifying the city in the process. When New York traded five first round picks and Bojan Bogdanović to Brooklyn for Bridges in the summer of ’24, the quartet was officially reunited.
Only, it was short-lived.
DiVincenzo, just a few months later, was dealt to the Timberwolves in a three-team trade that brought Karl-Anthony Towns to the Big Apple. But the trio of Brunson, Bridges and Hart have remained and are now on the doorstep of a title—and basketball history.
Given the sheer number of former Villanova players on the Knicks’ roster, it got us thinking. What do the Knicks’ and Spurs’ rosters look like when broken down by the conferences in which they played their collegiate basketball?
We just had two criteria that we utilized. Number one, we stuck to players who have averaged at least eight minutes per game for the Spurs and Knicks this postseason. And number two, the Knicks’ Jordan Clarkson transferred during his collegiate career, so we counted two of his seasons in our numbers.
NBA Finals: Breaking down Knicks, Spurs’ rosters by college basketball conferences
Conference
Number of Players
Player Names
Big East
5
Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Stephon Castle, Julian Champagnie
SEC
5
Karl-Anthony Towns, Jordan Clarkson, De’Aaron Fox, Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet
ACC
3
Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, Jose Alvarado
Big 12
2
Miles McBride, Carter Bryant
Big Ten
2
OG Anunoby, Dylan Harper
AAC
2
Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson
Conference USA
1
Mitchell Robinson
Interestingly enough, the five power conferences are all represented among the key contributors on the Knicks and Spurs’ rosters, with at least two players coming from the SEC, Big East, ACC, Big 12, and Big Ten. Yet, there is also some mid-major love in the Big Apple, as Knicks center Mitchell Robinson played for Western Kentucky of the Conference USA, while guards Landry Shamet and Jordan Clarkson played at least one season in the AAC for Wichita State and Tulsa, respectively.
What perhaps stands out the most is that the SEC and the Big East, the latter of whose teams have won four of the past 10 national championships, boast the most representation among the two rosters.
More NBA Finals From Sports Illustrated
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