NBA champions New York Knicks are paying their roster $211 million and Karl-Anthony Towns leads at $53 million

The last time the New York Knicks won an NBA championship, Richard Nixon was in the White House, the World Trade Center had just opened its doors and a ticket to Madison Square Garden cost less than ten dollars. That was May 10, 1973. The Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, Willis Reed and Walt Frazier led the way and New York exhaled. Then they waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Fifty-three years. Four coaching changes in the last decade alone. Countless first-round exits. A trip to the Eastern Conference Finals last year that ended with the Indiana Pacers sending them home in six games and head coach Tom Thibodeau getting fired. A front office that spent the summer of 2025 trying to hire five other coaches before settling on Mike Brown, a two-time Coach of the Year who had just been fired by Sacramento after going 13-18.

None of that matters anymore. On June 13, 2026, at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Jalen Brunson scored 45 points, Karl-Anthony Towns deflected the pass that saved Game 4 and the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 to win the 2026 NBA championship. The drought is over. New York has its title. And it cost them a lot of money to get here.

The Knicks carry a total roster payroll of $211.7 million for the 2025-26 season, the second highest in the NBA. Add Mike Brown's $10 million annual coaching salary and the organisation has committed more than $220 million to put a championship team on the floor. Here is exactly who is earning what on the team that just made 19,312 days of waiting feel like a distant memory.

Karl-Anthony Towns — $53.1 million

Towns is the highest-paid player on the roster and the man at the commercial centre of what this championship means. He arrived from Minnesota in October 2024 in a trade that sent Jalen McDaniels, Precious Achiuwa and Tyus Jones in the other direction. He arrived with a supermax deal already signed: four years, approximately $220 million, paying him $53.1 million this season, rising to $57 million next year and $61 million in 2027-28, which includes a player option.

The critics who followed him from Minnesota to New York said he was a stat padder who could not win in the big moments. He deflected the inbound pass with 1.2 seconds left in Game 4 that prevented a game-winning basket. He posted the highest plus/minus of any player in the entire 2026 postseason at plus-262, an NBA record. His total career NBA earnings have now crossed $404.9 million. He is 30 years old, he has a ring and every brand partner he has, including Nike, Beats by Dre and DoorDash, is paying for access to a different kind of athlete this morning than they were last week.

OG Anunoby — $39.6 million

Anunoby signed a five-year, $212.3 million extension before the 2024-25 season, making him the second-highest earner on the roster at $39.6 million this year. The Nigerian-British forward provided the defensive versatility that allowed the Knicks to guard every position on the floor. His contract runs through 2028-29 with a player option in the final year.

Jalen Brunson — $34.9 million

The Finals MVP earns $34.9 million this season, third on the roster. It is the most underpaid superstar contract in the NBA right now and it is about to change. Brunson signed a four-year, $156.5 million deal in 2022, deliberately taking less than his maximum to give the Knicks the cap flexibility to build a championship team around him. The strategy worked. The Knicks used the savings to acquire Towns and Anunoby. Brunson scored 45 points in the clinching game, set the franchise record for points in an NBA Finals game and is now an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Knicks know what he is worth. The question is how much they are willing to pay to keep him in the building where he just made history.

Mikal Bridges — $24.9 million

Bridges came over from the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2024 alongside a significant package of draft picks the Knicks sent the other way. The investment looked enormous at the time. It looks considerably better today. He earns $24.9 million this season and brings a defensive versatility and offensive efficiency that championship rosters require from their role players. His contract runs through 2029-30 with a player option.

Josh Hart — $19.5 million

Hart earns $19.5 million. He is the player who holds everything together when nothing else is working, the one who takes the charges, grabs the loose balls, argues with referees when his teammates cannot afford to and plays forty minutes when asked and thirty when not. Championships are built on players like Hart. They are usually paid considerably less than the stars. Hart is paid appropriately and his contract runs through 2027-28 with a team option.

Mitchell Robinson — $13 million

Robinson earns $13 million as the team's backup centre. Injury has limited his availability throughout his Knicks career but his shot-blocking and rim protection give the team a dimension off the bench that starter-level centres provide.

Head Coach Mike Brown — $10 million per year

Brown was the fifth choice. The Knicks tried to hire five other coaches before they got to him, and all five turned them down or had their interviews rejected by their existing clubs. Brown had just been fired by Sacramento after going 13-18. He sat down for his second interview with the Knicks, by all accounts, crushed it and signed a four-year, $40 million deal in July 2025. In his first season he won an NBA championship. The Knicks are also still paying Tom Thibodeau $30 million on his original contract, bringing their four-year coaching commitment to $70 million in total.

For two-time Coach of the Year money, Brown delivered a first-time championship. New York has been waiting 53 years for someone to do exactly that.