The 2026 NBA Finals get going on Wednesday night, and three members of the New York Knicks will look to make some history beyond leading the franchise to its first NBA title since 1973.
Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges were also teammates at the college level, sharing the court for two seasons at Villanova University. All three were members of the 2016 squad that won the school’s second national title in men’s basketball, and Brunson and Bridges were teammates on the 2018 championship-winning team.
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With a series win over the Spurs, the “Nova Knicks” would become the fifth set of teammates to have won NCAA and NBA titles. Let’s look at the first four and their production in their first NBA Finals appearances together.
Stats credit: Basketball Reference
Russell accomplished a feat that has not been done since: he ended his collegiate career having won back-to-back national titles with the Dons in 1955 and 1956, then went on to win an NBA title as a rookie in 1957. Jones could have been a member of that 1956-57 Celtics squad, but he served two years in the Army before entering the NBA as a rookie during the 1958-59 campaign.
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Boston won the 1959 NBA Finals in a four-game sweep of the Minneapolis Lakers, with Russell averaging a staggering 29.5 rebounds per game. The Celtics center also averaged 9.3 points and 5.3 assists, and at the time, the NBA did not record steals or blocked shots. As for Jones, he only appeared in two of the four games.
The 1959 title would be the first of eight straight titles the Celtics would win, with Russell and Jones on each squad.
Havlicek and Siegfried were part of the Ohio State team that won the school’s first (and, to this point, only) national title in 1960. They could have won two straight, but a loss to an Oscar Robertson-led Cincinnati squad in the 1961 title game ended the Buckeyes’ quest for a repeat.
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Siegfried, the third overall pick of the Cincinnati Royals in the 1961 draft, would not make his NBA debut until 1963, as he began his pro career with the ABA’s Cleveland Pipers. He would reunite with Havlicek, who had just won a title in Boston as a rookie, and the Celtics would win it all again in 1964.
While Siegfried’s role on that team was limited, as he appeared in just four postseason games, Havlicek was a second-team All-NBA selection who averaged 15.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in 10 appearances. As teammates, they would go on to win four more NBA titles in Boston.
After winning three national titles at UCLA, Abdul-Jabbar would win his first NBA title in his second season as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. Also on that 1970-71 team was Allen, a teammate of Abdul-Jabbar’s on the 1967 and 1968 title-winning teams at UCLA.
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While Kareem took on a starring role for that Bucks squad, winning league and Finals Most Valuable Player honors, Allen was the sixth man. Abdul-Jabbar recorded averages of 27.0 points, 18.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists in the four-game sweep of the Baltimore Bullets. As for Allen, he accounted for 7.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 22.0 minutes per game.
While Anderson stuck around Lexington for another season after he and Walker were part of the “Untouchables” squad that won Kentucky’s sixth national title in men’s basketball, Walker left early to become the sixth overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. They would rejoin forces in Miami for the 2005-06 campaign and were part of the team that won the Heat franchise’s first NBA title that season.
Walker started all six games of Miami’s 4-2 win over the Dallas Mavericks, averaging 13.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.7 three-pointers in 36.5 minutes. As for Anderson, his role was limited during the postseason, with the veteran wing not appearing in any of the six NBA Finals games.
