Some championship moments are made for television. Others belong to radio.
When the final buzzer sounded in Game 5 and the New York Knicks officially became NBA champions again, the radio call captured something that numbers and highlights never fully can. It was not just two broadcasters describing the end of a game. It was the sound of 53 years finally leaving the body.
The Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 to close the NBA Finals in five games, winning the franchise’s first championship since 1973 and third title overall. Jalen Brunson finished the night with 45 points and was named Finals MVP, but as the final seconds disappeared, the story briefly shifted from the court to the voices trying to explain what New York had just witnessed.
Knicks radio voices Tyler Murray and Monica McNutt delivered the final call with the kind of emotion that made it feel less like a professional assignment and more like a citywide exhale. In just his second season as the team’s radio play-by-play announcer, Murray got the call every broadcaster dreams about: the last seconds of a title-clinching win for a franchise that had waited more than half a century.
That is what made it so good. A normal call would not have been enough. This was not a normal ending. This was not some routine June trophy ceremony for a franchise used to champagne. This was the Knicks. This was New York. This was decades of heartbreak, jokes, false hope, bad lottery nights, painful exits and one loyal fan base that never stopped acting like the next big thing might finally be the real thing.
ICYMI: The New York Knicks are NBA Champions, as called by @LT__Murray and @McNuttMonica !
Thank you to all of the incredible fans for listening to @ESPNNewYork this season. Your home of the NBA Champions. pic.twitter.com/XPpVikdtXh
— ESPN New York (@ESPNNewYork) June 14, 2026
On radio, you could hear all of that. The disbelief. The joy. The release. The beautiful inability to stay completely composed because, honestly, why would anyone want composure in that moment?
The best sports calls do not just tell you what happened. They tell you what it felt like. And the end of Game 5 felt like a city crashing through a locked door it had been staring at since 1973.
