53 years and one last touch: the Knicks title in five Topps NOW cards

New York finally gets its ending

Fifty-three years is long enough for a championship to become something you inherit. A story told by a parent, a photograph you have seen a hundred times, a season that belongs to somebody else. In June 2026, Knicks supporters finally got an ending of their own. The last title had been in 1973. Now there was a new team to put beside it.

New York entered these Finals as the underdog against San Antonio. That matters to the memory of the series: the anticipation, the doubts, the feeling that every possession might take something away. The final score of the series was 4–1. Those five games left images that deserve more room than that tidy result gives them.

The touch above the crowd

Start with Anunoby. On June 10, the Knicks erased a 29-point deficit in Game 4. His tip-in left 1.2 seconds on the clock and New York won 107–106. This was the play that put the Knicks one win from the championship, not the basket that clinched the title.

Card #336 is my first choice for the story. The landscape photograph makes you search through the bodies before your eye finds the raised hand and the ball. That is what an action card should do: preserve the fraction of a second that you want to examine again. The wider frame gives the play room to breathe.

The base has a published run of 105,842. It can be a wonderful object to keep without being scarce. Topps also made a distinct 1/1 autograph-net-relic edition. The piece of net belongs to that special card; the ordinary base preserves the photograph.

Brunson, after the work is done

Three days later came the championship. Brunson scored 45 in the deciding game. For this collection, that makes two useful images: the player doing the work and the player finally able to stop. Topps #340 gives us the performance. Card #339 gives us the celebration.

Look closely at the base #339. Brunson is lifting the Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy, his individual award. It is easy to call every gold object in a championship photograph “the trophy,” but the distinction is part of the card’s identity. His teammates fill the background; the captain has his moment in front of them.

The SP I would linger over

The image variation of #339 is the photograph I keep returning to. Brunson sits with his head lowered and the Larry O’Brien championship trophy held against him. His hands are still. After the motion of the Anunoby card, that stillness feels earned. These two images belong next to each other.

This is a visual preference, not a price ranking. Topps confirms the SP but does not publish its exact run. The 47,397 total attached to #339 must not be copied into the SP field. Nor should this edition be confused with Brunson’s image variation in the separate Championship Team Set. Check the photograph, the back and the number.

Two more cards that earn their place

Brunson #340, with a run of 21,145, is the straightforward companion to the award card. The blue uniform and raised shooting hand keep the collection on the court for one more frame. If you prefer performances to presentations, this may be the Brunson image you choose first.

I would also include #338, Brunson and Anunoby together. Its front marks the first Knicks pair to score at least 30 each in a Finals game. Topps lists 20,807. The split image is less dramatic than the tip-in, but it lets the collection tell a partnership story instead of giving every chapter to one player.

A small collection with a beginning and an end

For two cards, I would start with Anunoby #336 and Brunson #339 base: the touch and the award. If the seated photograph is the image you really want, compare exact SP listings and decide what that photograph is worth to you. Add #340 for the decisive performance, and #338 for the partnership. Five editions are enough to tell this story well.

The official order windows have closed. We have not established a dated, repeatable completed-sale sample for these editions, so this article sets no resale targets. The searches below keep the identities separate; check the actual card and shipping total before comparing prices. A championship explains why you might want to keep a card. It cannot tell you what the next collector will pay.