The New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals. That was 10 days ago. And apparently, Knicks fans aren’t done celebrating yet.
At the NBA Draft in Brooklyn, commissioner Adam Silver walked to the podium to announce the 20th overall pick. The pick belonged to the Spurs. The crowd at Barclays Center, heavy with Knicks fans, let him have it. Loud, sustained boos rang through the arena before Silver could even say the name.
The pick was Jayden Quaintance, a forward from Kentucky. He didn’t do anything to the Knicks. He wasn’t even born when these two teams first met in the Finals. But the boos weren’t really about him anyway.
San Antonio beat New York in the 1999 NBA Finals. That series ended in five games, and the Knicks haven’t forgotten. Fans and team members alike felt the Spurs didn’t give them proper respect during that series or after it. For 27 years, that loss sat in the back of the room.
Winning the title this year was big enough for New York. Ending a 53-year championship drought, coming back from double-digit deficits four times in the series, beating a Spurs team that looked unstoppable at times — all of that made the celebration feel massive. But doing it against the same franchise that denied them in 1999? That made it personal.
So the booing at the draft wasn’t random. It was a continuation of something older than half the players on the floor.
For Quaintance, this wasn’t how you want your draft night to go. You train your whole life to hear your name called, and instead of applause, you get a wall of hate because of a logo on a hat. But he’s not the first to walk through that. Eleven years ago, Knicks fans booed their own pick, Kristaps Porzingis, on draft night. That turned out okay. Porzingis used it as fuel and became an impact player. Maybe Quaintance does the same.
The Spurs aren’t the kind of team to panic over a little noise from the crowd. They’ve been booed before, in bigger moments, and they’ve won through it. But the draft night scene was a reminder that for Knicks fans, this isn’t over just because the trophy was handed out. The Finals win was sweet. The chance to rub it in during the draft? Even sweeter.
Quaintance gets to report to San Antonio knowing that half the league’s biggest market hates his team. That’s not nothing. That’s motivation.
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