New York’s so-called “NovaKnicks” — Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges — won an NCAA championship together at Villanova in 2016, and Brunson and Bridges added a second college title in 2018 after Hart had graduated. The three became teammates in the NBA through a winding sequence of moves: Brunson signed with the Knicks in the summer of 2022, Hart was acquired in a February 2023 deal from Portland, and Bridges arrived following the 2024 season as part of a blockbuster trade.
The trio briefly included a fourth Villanova alum, Donte DiVincenzo, before he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the transaction that brought Karl-Anthony Towns to Madison Square Garden. Brunson’s reaction to Hart’s arrival in 2023 drew widespread attention.
With New York in this year’s NBA Finals and leading the San Antonio Spurs 1-0 in the series, the group has already entered the record books in another way. According to ESPN Research, New York became the second team in NBA history to start three players from the same school in an NBA Finals game, joining the 1948-49 Minneapolis Lakers’ trio of DePaul grads George Mikan, Johnny Jorgensen and Whitey Kachan.
A different, more exclusive list is noted in the same reporting. Only four sets of teammates have won both NCAA and NBA championships together — a count that requires the players to have appeared in at least one NCAA tournament game and at least one NBA playoff game. Should New York capture the NBA title, Brunson, Hart and Bridges would join that small group.
The reporting identifies several of the teammate pairs that have accomplished both feats. Derek Anderson and Antoine Walker won a national championship together at Kentucky in 1995-96 and were both members of the 2006 Miami Heat title team. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lucius Allen won multiple national championships at UCLA in the late 1960s and were teammates on the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks. John Havlicek and Larry Siegfried were members of Ohio State’s 1960 national championship team.
The Knicks’ Villanova alumni have already matched at least one historical milestone in these Finals and, as the series continues, stand in position to add another rare distinction to their shared résumé.
