When it comes to sports, as much as I am irresistibly drawn to any game with a ball, I leave coverage and commentary in these pages to AmNews Sports Editor Jaime Harris — but the historic march of the New York Knicks to the NBA championship and their bulldog tenacity, personified by Jalen Brunson, swept me up with the multitude of fans cheering them on to victory.
At the very start of the playoffs, I found it hard to set aside the notion that three of their starters were members of the Villanova Wildcats championship teams — Mikal Bridges was with Brunson for two titles in 2016 and 2018; Josh Hart played with Brunson on the 2016 championship, and at one time, the Knicks included Dante DiVinvenzo, who was on the 2018 championship squad.
It occurred to me that if a team with three players in the NCAA Division 1 can come out on top of some 350 other college rosters, certainly the three, and company, could reign over 30 or so NBA franchises. As my daughter reminded me, such an equation has a host of variables. Even so, how many NBA champions have had three members who were, at the same time, formerly on NCAA championship teams?
In my way of thinking, this was a critical part of the potion fueling this season’s Knicks mojo, more so than any other concoction. Sure, they possessed more experience on the coaching staff, more seasoning on the roster than the young upstarts, but beyond luck, another vital ingredient was resilience and a dogged determination that had been rarely exhibited by a team facing such incomparable deficits in nearly each game.
To rally and overcome an opponent’s 29-point lead is Hollywoodian — a hoodoo voodoo. That OG Anunoby could put back a missed shot with only a few ticks of the clock remaining was miraculous.
Obviously, there is so much more to be said about this run to the pinnacle. It’s the kind of legendary conquest that will be recalled by writers and sports fans for years to come. The young players of the Spurs will never forget the Garden, just as many of the resident ancestors of San Antonio remember the Alamo. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has claimed that they outplayed the Knicks, and there is some validity to that, but the game is 48 minutes long, not 46.
Perhaps in a season or two, the youngsters, and their coach, will have learned how to finish off an opponent, and how to hold onto their gifts of talent, and the lead, to the very end. Is there enough moxie and magic in the vial for another Knicks run of destiny?
