It’s well-documented that these NBA Finals are a rematch of the 1999 championship series, but that’s hardly the only reason this matchup between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs felt cosmically destined to happen.

Up and down both rosters, there are players with personal storylines that make these Finals even more compelling.

Here are some of the kismet tie-ins in the 2026 NBA Finals:

Mike Brown

The Knicks’ head coach was an assistant for the Spurs from 2000-03, and he won a championship as part of Gregg Popovich’s staff in 2003.

Moreover, when Brown was the head coach of the Sacramento Kings from 2022-24, point guard De’Aaron Fox — now a Spurs starter — was his star player.

“They definitely want to beat me, and I want to kick their ass,” Brown said. “I love them, and you can always love them before and after.”

Julian Champagnie

The sharp-shooting Spurs guard is from Brooklyn, where he starred at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School with his twin brother, Justin.

There, Champagnie faced Knicks guard Jose Alvarado, who played for Queens’ Christ the King.

“I won’t lie, they definitely got the better of us quite a bit when he was at Christ the King and I was at Loughlin,” Champagnie said. “But always good memories.”

Champagnie then played three seasons at St. John’s from 2019-22 and was twice named to the All-Big East first team.

Dylan Harper

The Spurs rookie also hails from the Tri-State area, having played high-school basketball at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., before spending his lone collegiate season at Rutgers.

Harper, the son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper, was the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft.

“The lessons I took from there, you’ve got to go through some hard times,” Harper said of his experience at Rutgers, where he missed the NCAA Tournament despite being teammates with another lottery pick, Ace Bailey.

“I feel like that was necessary for me in my career to go through things like that, so I could be even more prepared for this level. I have no doubts about going to Rutgers. I loved playing there.”

Stephon Castle

Castle isn’t a local product, but the Georgia native spent his lone collegiate season at UConn and helped lead the Huskies to a national championship in 2024 as a freshman.

Castle was the No. 4 pick in the 2024 draft and the NBA Rookie of the Year last season.

Jordan Clarkson

Clarkson starred at Karen J. Wagner High School in San Antonio, where, as a senior, he was the city’s player of the year for the 2009-10 season.

“Just a lot of great memories,” Clarkson said. “Playing the state championship games, just a lot of growth, man, from here as a kid. This definitely feels great. Seeing my family members, them being able to come to a Finals game, it’s just amazing.”

Knicks guard Kevin McCullar Jr., a second-year player on a two-way contract, was born in San Antonio and also played at Wagner, albeit years later.

Luke Kornet

The Spurs’ backup center spent his first two NBA seasons with the Knicks, whom he joined on a two-way contract after going undrafted in 2017.

The 7-1 Kornet appeared in 66 games, including 19 starts, with the Knicks from 2017-19.

Jeremy Sochan

On the other side, Sochan spent parts of four seasons with the Spurs before he was waived in February and signed with the Knicks.

Sochan, whom the Spurs drafted No. 9 overall in 2022, appeared in 212 games with San Antonio, starting 149.

Jalen Brunson

Brunson’s father, Rick Brunson, was a member of the Knicks during the 1999 Finals, where he appeared in one game for nine seconds.

Rick Brunson is now an assistant on Brown’s staff, while his son is the Knicks’ captain and star.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Jalen Brunson said. “I’m not going to lie. It’s something I haven’t really thought about. I feel like once the season’s over, once the career’s over, there will be times to think about the stuff that we’ll be able to go through together. It’s definitely a cool feeling.”

Karl-Anthony Towns

Towns, a New Jersey native who grew up a Knicks fan, found a 1999 NBA Finals shirt while he was vintage shopping in Charleston, S.C., shortly after he was traded to the Knicks in October of 2024.

Towns then wore the shirt before his first Knicks preseason game — an image that went viral ahead of this year’s rematch.

“Funny enough, I wore that shirt for the first game,” Towns said, “and here we are, looking back at that shirt as an omen.”

Pacome Dadiet

The second-year Knicks forward, 20, is from France, and he overlapped there with fellow Frenchman and Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama.

“I was able to play with him a little bit when I was 15,” Dadiet told San Antonio’s KENS5 in a June 2024 interview.

The Knicks drafted Dadiet with the No. 25 pick in 2024, a year after the Spurs selected Wembanyama first overall.

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