The 2026 NBA Finals tip off on Wednesday between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. The matchup will be a familiar sight for longtime NBA fans as it’s a rematch of the 1999 Finals. However, the aesthetics will be reminiscent of another time, too: the mid-2000s.
Starting with the 2005 NBA Finals, the Larry O’Brien Trophy appeared in center court for each game. It heightened the importance of the final round, but the NBA stopped using the decals following the 2009 postseason.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver offered a simple explanation last year for the pivot.
“I’ve seen some of the chatter on social media around on-court decals,” Silver said on ESPN during the 2025 NBA Finals. “People don’t realize they went away a decade ago because there were claims that some of the players [were saying] they were slippery when we had the decals on the floor.”
As the years and Finals passed, photos of the decal would surface and go viral on social media. The nostalgia led to an outcry from fans to bring it back, and the league did so digitally for Game 2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers matchup last year.
Sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania in October that the trophy would indeed return for the upcoming Finals series. And on Sunday, the league made it official, sharing what the courts for the Spurs and Knicks will look like in the final round — with the Larry O’Brien front and center painted on the hardwood instead of as a decal.
San Antonio is familiar with this design. It participated in the Finals in 2005 and 2007, winning both. However, New York hasn’t been at this stage of the postseason since 1999.
As the trophy makes its return to the court, here’s a look back at each previous NBA Finals series to feature the trophy design.
