The New York Knicks’ magical run to this long-awaited NBA championship didn’t start in April.

It didn’t even start in October.

It started in the summer of 2022, when Knicks president Leon Rose signed an undersized point guard named Jalen Brunson to a four-year, $104 million contract, entrusting a former second-round pick who had never been a full-time starter to become the engine of the offense.

It continued the following February when the Knicks traded a first-round pick and more for the unsung Josh Hart, and in December of 2023, when they parted with two young building blocks for then-underrated two-way dynamo OG Anunoby.

And it ramped even further during a 2024 offseason in which the Knicks sent five first-round picks for another two-way wing in Mikal Bridges, then traded a pair of cornerstone players to acquire a generational, sharp-shooting center in Karl-Anthony Towns.

The result is a five-man starting lineup that, together, navigated ups and downs, expectations and adversity, to become the kind of egoless, cohesive force this Knicks franchise hadn’t seen in five decades.

The result is the Knicks’ first championship in 53 years, a drought that ended with Saturday night’s 94-90 win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

“Regardless of what happens in the world or what people say,” Towns said ahead of Game 5, “we’re all we’ve got and we’re all we need.”

The Knicks’ postseason demolitions of the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Spurs will be remembered most, but make no mistake: This championship surge was about much more than a talented team getting hot at the right time.

The roster was built piece by piece, with tough decisions and calculated risks, patience and growth, until Rose’s vision came to fruition.

Brunson remains the go-to scorer and respected leader whose unflappability in crunch time, even during his down games, is the ultimate separator. He’s been a winner since college, when he — with Hart once and Bridges twice — led Villanova to national championships.

“It’s the chemistry with my teammates that allows me to do so,” Brunson said.

Brunson signed a below-market contract extension in 2024 so the Knicks could build out the roster around him.

But while the Knicks were a quality contender even when their offense was too Brunson-centric — and they still relied on his late-game shot-making this postseason, especially in the Finals — they became a true championship team when the roles of those around him increased and evolved.

The 7-foot Towns, always a standout scorer and rebounder, embraced much more responsibility as a facilitator in these playoffs, an adjustment the Knicks made after falling behind 2-1 in their first-round series against the Hawks.

That unlocked the Knicks’ offense and kicked off a 13-game winning streak, the second longest in NBA playoff history. Going into Game 5, the Knicks had outscored opponents by 279 points in the playoffs — by far the highest single-postseason point differential in NBA history.

Just as importantly, Towns, who was never known for his defense, doggedly disrupted all-world Spurs star Victor Wembanyama during the Finals.

Anunonby’s production and reliability on both ends made him perhaps the most invaluable player of this postseason run, and nothing encapsulated that better than the end of Game 4 against the Spurs.

His chase-down block of De’Aaron Fox with 11.1 seconds remaining maintained the Knicks’ one-point deficit, while his go-ahead putback with 1.2 seconds to go — a shot that will live on forever — capped a historic victory on a night the Knicks trailed by 29 points.

Bridges dominated his matchups against the Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey and the Cavaliers’ James Harden, and while his offense fluctuated throughout the playoffs, he delivered numerous games of extreme efficiency as a weapon in transition and as a 3-point shooter.

And Hart, whose last name could not be more fitting, gave the Knicks whatever they needed on a given night, always bringing a contagious edge and toughness. He led all players as a +22 in Game 1 of the Finals, despite scoring only three points, because he totaled 15 rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Over the previous three postseasons, heartbreak hardened this core. Their resilience was evident over the past two playoffs, when the Knicks won four games in which they trailed by 20 or more points in the second half.

“When you have a team that has that kind of togetherness in the most adverse situations, that breeds championship habits and a championship team,” said Hart, who pointed to the way his teammates lifted him after he missed a lay-up late in Game 4 of the Finals.

“I feel like we can go down the line of every guy in that locker room that has had moments like that during the season, and everyone has been there to pick each other up. When you have a team that can do that, no matter what happens in a game, you feel like you can get through it.”

That’s the kind of team-first ethos the Knicks managed to unlock this postseason. It’s why Walt “Clyde” Frazier compared these Knicks to his 1973 championship team, which featured a similarly selfless core that also included Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley and Earl Monroe.

It’s fitting the Knicks defeated San Antonio in the Finals, considering perhaps no team has played with such purity since title-winning 2014 Spurs led by Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.

“What Leon is one of the best in the world at is having genuine, loving relationships with people,” Towns said of Rose, who was a player agent before taking the Knicks job in 2020.

“I think because of that, you see the way our team acts, the way our team conducts itself. We conduct ourselves like family.”

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