Just two days ago the New York Knicks won the third ever NBA cup. The Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the championship game, and beat out 28 other teams to win the cup. This article explores the NBA cup in-depth, and takes a look at how it works and its effect on the season.
The NBA cup is an in-season tournament where, unlike the NBA finals, all 30 teams compete in. The 30 teams are separated into six different groups of five, three in the east, and three in the west. The groups are determined by the team’s record in their previous year to ensure good competition and a balance of strength.
After the groups are determined, teams play one game against each of the other teams in their own group, the teams play four total games, in their group two at home and two on the road. After the teams complete their group play games, the team with the best record out of each group, along with a fourth wild card team in each conference who has the highest point differential out of the remaining teams, will move on into the elimination rounds in December that take place in Las Vegas.
The elimination round games consist of two 4-team brackets, one bracket per conference. The winners of the 4-team brackets in each conference compete in the NBA cup championship game, this year those teams were the San Antonio Spurs, and the New York Knicks.
The championship game had a lot of hype around it and it did not disappoint. The game started off even but the Spurs started to break away in the second half, going up by 11 with only 14 minutes left in the game. But in the 4th quarter the Knicks took the lead and didn’t look back, pulling off an 11 point win, and taking home the 2025 Emirates NBA cup.
The NBA cup does have a pretty big influence on the season, as it brings a lot of excitement into the NBA regular season, and gives the players something to compete for other than a playoff berth, in their long 82 game season. The cup also gives fans a little bit of a sneak peek into what the 2026 NBA playoffs will look like, and it gives us a clearer idea, of who might end up coming out on top in this NBA season.
