The American Museum of Natural History opens its "For the Win" exhibit to the Knicks' championship trophy on July 28, running through January 3 — a two-year-planned show about precious metals in sport that the city's first title in 53 years just made relevant.

The Larry O'Brien Trophy — 30 pounds of sterling silver and gold vermeil, earned by the Knicks in San Antonio on June 14 — goes on public display at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, beginning Monday, July 28, and running through January 3.

The trophy joins AMNH's "For the Win" exhibit, which traces how precious metals and gems mark athletic achievement. It shares the room with the NFL's Vince Lombardi Trophy and one of Jesse Owens' gold medals from the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The exhibit was not reverse-engineered around the Knicks win: AMNH President Sean M. Decatur told Gothamist that curators reached out to the NBA and several other professional leagues roughly two years ago when they began assembling the show. The city's first championship in 53 years simply landed in the calendar.

"It's an amazing coming together of a long-planned exhibit with this very special moment in New York history," Decatur said.

There is already a Knicks thread stitched into the display. A basketball-shaped fob — presented to former head coach Red Holzman after the 1973 title, the only other championship in franchise history — had been in the case since the exhibit opened. The O'Brien Trophy now bookends it: two objects, 53 years apart, from the only two times this city has won.

For AMNH, the addition is civic positioning as much as curation: a public institution on the Upper West Side lending its collections calendar to the biggest sports story in the borough's living memory. Admission is included with general museum entry.