OKLAHOMA CITY — The last time the New York Knicks made the NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs were the opponent and just happened to have a generational big man talent who was heading to the title round for the first time.Déjà vu.Back then for the Spurs, it was Tim Duncan. This time for the Spurs, it’s Victor Wembanyama. Here they go again: San Antonio vs. New York is the matchup for the 2026 NBA Finals, a Spurs team looking to return to basketball’s mountaintop for the sixth time and a Knicks team looking for its first championship in 53 years.Game 1 is Wednesday in San Antonio.It’s an appealing matchup for so many reasons — among them, it’s a rematch of this season’s NBA Cup championship game won by the Knicks. It has appeal of a global capital like New York, it has the international element with a French superstar like Wembanyama and it extends an era of parity the likes of which the league has never before seen.No matter who wins this series, it’ll be the eighth different franchise to win a title in the last eight seasons — extending the longest such stretch in NBA history. Toronto won in 2019, followed by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, then Milwaukee in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Denver in 2023, Boston in 2024, Oklahoma City last year, and now either New York or San Antonio will be added to that list.The Spurs’ win in Oklahoma City on Saturday night extended another part of the parity puzzle, that being no defending champion has even gotten back to the NBA Finals since Golden State won in 2018 and returned in 2019.The Knicks are trying to do something not done since the days of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, D …
