The New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. Four of their five starters: Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns, share the same agency: Creative Artists Agency.
The only starter outside the agency is Josh Hart, who is with Excel Sports Management. That means when the Knicks take the floor in the 2025-26 NBA Finals, CAA’s fingerprints are on almost every meaningful possession.
For an agency whose entire business model depends on attracting the next generation of elite athletes, there is no better billboard than this.
What This Moment Is Worth
To understand why the Finals matter so much to CAA beyond basketball, you have to look at what the Knicks’ run has done to the numbers around them.
Shares of Madison Square Garden Sports (MSGS), the publicly traded company that owns the Knicks and the New York Rangers, are up over 100% in the past 12 months and nearly 50% year-to-date. The stock hit an all-time high the day the Knicks clinched their Finals berth. CNBC now valued the Knicks franchise alone at $10.1 billion. Guggenheim has raised its MSGS price target multiple times during the playoff run, and has modelled a scenario where the Knicks and Rangers, split into separate publicly traded companies via a proposed spin-off, could be worth north of $13 billion combined.
For context: the Boston Celtics sold for $6.1 billion last year. The Los Angeles Lakers sold for $10 billion. The Knicks are now being valued in that same conversation.
The ticket market has reflected it. Get-in prices for Finals home games at Madison Square Garden reached record levels, with some secondary market listings topping $3,800. Courtside seats have sold for close to $280,000, with some listings exceeding $1 million.
Behind all of those numbers, the stock price, the franchise valuation, the ticket market, the media attention, the sponsorship premiums, is a team that wins. And that team wins, in large part, because of four players who all share the same agent.
Why It Matters for the Next Ten Years
The NBA Finals is not just a championship. For agencies, it is a recruiting tool.
Every elite high school prospect, every college star, every international player watching this series sees who is on that floor and who represents them. CAA having four starters in the Finals is a data point that will be cited in agency pitches for years. It signals roster construction influence, contract negotiation weight, and the kind of trust that comes from building a core rather than just collecting names.
CAA has been named the most valuable sports agency in the world by Forbes for nine consecutive years. That ranking is built on client lists and deal volume. But reputation in this industry is also built on visibility, and right now, CAA is as visible as it gets.
The Knicks winning would make that argument even louder. But even if they don’t, the platform has already been built. Four starters. The NBA Finals. The first time New York has been here in 27 years.
For any agency, that is the pitch that writes itself.
The Wider Picture
Across both Finals rosters, the agency competition is its own story. CAA and The-Team are tied at six players each across the two teams. Klutch Sports Group has five: all on the Spurs side, which is its own concentration worth noting. Excel, Gersh, Priority Sports, and William Morris Endeavor each have representation across both rosters as well.
But at the starter level, in the market that matters most commercially, CAA’s position is clear. New York. Prime time. Four of five.
The best advertisement in basketball is currently running in the NBA Finals.
