NBA championship trophy on display at American Museum of Natural History in NYC
From left, Sean Decatur, president of the American Museum of Natural History, and Vikki Tobak, guest curator of the exhibit, "For the Win: Objects of Sports Excellence," with their latest addition, the NBA's Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. Credit: Ed Quinn
The NBA's Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, a shimmering, sterling silver and gold vermeil testament to the league's last team standing, like the one hoisted last month by the Knicks, is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.
The museum unveiled the trophy Monday morning as the newest addition to its exhibit, "For the Win: Objects of Sports Excellence," which continues until Jan. 3.
The exhibit, which opened on May 15, already features more than 70 symbols of excellence across more than 15 sports, including the NFL’s Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded annually to the Super Bowl winner, one of Jesse Owens’ gold medals from the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, a 2024 WNBA championship ring from the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and NBA star Kevin Durant’s 2024 Team USA Olympic gold medal.
"To bring this trophy here at this moment where the city is still full of positive energy about the Knicks and the way this championship brought the team together is truly special," Sean M. Decatur, the museum's president, told a small group of invited guests gathered at the exhibit, with the nearly 30-pound NBA championship trophy — the 2025-26 Knicks now joining other title holders engraved on its base — in the background.
The For the Win exhibit is displayed within the museum’s new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
Vikki Tobak, guest curator of the sports exhibit, said: "With the FIFA World Cup coming to New York, we wanted to do something that focused on objects of sports excellence. The NBA has been a great partner. They have a really great archive and an in-house historian."
A basketball-shaped fob, presented to former Knicks head coach Red Holzman after the team's 1973 NBA championship, its last before this year’s title, is also part of the exhibit, Tobak said.
"Naturally, we were like ‘let’s get the Larry O’Brien trophy in here to join the NFL’s Vince Lombardi Trophy, the MLS trophy, the New York Liberty trophy,' and they graciously said yes," she added. " ... If the Spurs won, we would still be standing here doing the same thing."
The museum had been talking with the NBA for months about adding the Larry O’Brien trophy to the exhibit, Decatur said.
"All before knowing that the freshly engraved name on the trophy would be the 2026 New York Knicks," he added.
This is the first time the trophy will be on display at the American Museum of Natural History.
"The museum has a long history of telling stories about human culture and achievement, and sports has certainly been a part of human culture," Decatur said. "This is a collection of objects that show the ways in which people have used gems and precious medals to celebrate sports accomplishment."
