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The Spurs and Knicks are playing for a championship. Breakfast tacos and bagels are playing for bragging rights.
As San Antonio and New York leaders place friendly wagers on the NBA Finals, a pattern has emerged. New Yorkers keep putting their iconic bagels on the line. San Antonians are countering with breakfast tacos, salsa, barbecue sauce and other Texas favorites.
When the two teams met for the NBA championship in 1999, San Antonio Mayor Howard Peak wagered Texas chili and a cowboy hat, while New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani put up bagels and cheesecake.
The Spurs won that series in five games and claimed the franchise's first NBA title.
Twenty-seven years later, the teams are back. So are the bagels.
San Antonio City Council members Ric Galvan, Edward Mungia, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, Marina Alderete Gavito and Phyllis Viagran challenged members of the New York City Council in a social media video.
If the Spurs win the championship, they proposed, New York officials would wear Spurs gear and celebrate with breakfast tacos.
"You mean when they win," McKee-Rodriguez interjected as the challenge was being issued.
New York City council members responded with a challenge of their own, proposing Knicks gear and New York bagels if the Knicks prevail.
They also offered a little trash talk.
"Hope our New York bagels aren't stale when they make it to San Antonio," they wrote in a social media post, adding that the Knicks would "schmear your Spurs."
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said Wednesday that she has also made a friendly wager with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, though she declined to reveal the details.
The latest wager comes from an unexpected place: the Catholic Church.
San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said in a video circulating on social media that if the Spurs lose the best-of-seven series, he will send New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks a basket of Texas favorites from H-E-B, including barbecue sauce and salsa.
If the Spurs win, García-Siller said, Hicks will send a box of bagels, cream cheese and lox from H&H Bagels.
Like everyone else here, I am rooting for the Knicks! I have a friendly wager with my friend Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, and I look forward to what he's going to send my way from San Antonio. Go Knicks! pic.twitter.com/nx7f49XNI8
— Archbishop Ronald Hicks (@AbpNewYork) June 3, 2026
The archbishop made the wager after joining the Salesian Sisters of St. Bosco for Game 1 of the Finals.
The sisters have become a national sensation during the Spurs' playoff run, appearing on television, social media, and attracting attention for their enthusiastic support of the team.
The latest Spurs-Knicks wager ended with an archbishop in a Spurs shirt asking his New York counterpart to say three words:
"Go Spurs Go."
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