{"id":691463,"date":"2026-05-24T22:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T22:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/691463\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T22:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T22:44:10","slug":"knicks-mike-brown-freakin-og-anunoby-got-robbed-of-first-team-all-defense-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/691463\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks’ Mike Brown: ‘Freakin’ OG [Anunoby] got robbed’ of First-Team All-Defense selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014 Mike Brown answered the final question of a Zoom conference call with reporters on Sunday after a 121-108 win in Game 3<\/a> of the 2026 Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night. And then, the New York Knicks<\/a> head coach had one more thing to get off his chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, y’all, I got one more thing before I\u2019m taking off,\u201d Brown said. \u201cYou guys can all print this. Great players out there. I\u2019m not discounting anybody. But freakin\u2019 OG [Anunoby<\/a>] got robbed. He should\u2019ve been First Team All-Defense. First Team All-Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

When the NBA announced the league\u2019s 2025-26 All-Defensive Teams on Friday<\/a>, Anunoby was one of the 10 players selected for recognition. He was not, however, one of the top five vote-getters from the panel of 100 media members across the globe, relegating him to the Second Team for the second time. (He earned a Second Team nod in 2022-23, while a member of the Toronto<\/a> Raptors.)<\/p>\n

The First Team spots went to Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama<\/a> of the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, runner-up Chet Holmgren<\/a> of the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, third-place finisher Ausar Thompson<\/a> of the Detroit Pistons<\/a>, Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> center Rudy Gobert<\/a> and Boston Celtics<\/a> guard Derrick White<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anunoby is joined on the Second Team by Raptors forward Scottie Barnes<\/a>, Thunder guard Cason Wallace<\/a>, Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo<\/a> and Atlanta Hawks<\/a> guard Dyson Daniels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s Sunday exclamation followed on the heels of Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> jovially taking reporters \u2014 and the award-voting electorate \u2014 to task at the end of his shared postgame news conference with Anunoby:<\/p>\n

The typically subdued Anunoby, for his part, said Sunday that \u201cit was cool to get the recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I’ve been a great defender for years,\u201d Anunoby said. \u201cSo anytime you get recognition \u2014 recognized by coaches or the media, your peers, whatever \u2014 it’s really cool. Second Team is cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

You know what would be cooler, though?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping I got First Team,\u201d Anunoby said. \u201cI thought I should have got First Team. But Second Team, it’s good. Just as good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Players get two award points per First Team vote, and one point per Second Team vote. Anunoby received 67 total points \u2014 11 First Team nods, 45 Second Team \u2014 finishing ninth, with Barnes, Wallace and Adebayo all coming closer to a First Team berth than he did.<\/p>\n

\"OGOG Anunoby (right) defends Cavaliers All-Star forward Evan Mobley<\/a> during Game 1 of the 2026 Eastern Confernece Finals. (Pamela Smith\/Getty Images) (Pamela Smith via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old forward finished the regular season tied for sixth in the NBA in steals per game<\/a> and tied for 43rd in deflections per game<\/a>, with 48 blocked shots in 67 games. Opponents shot 2.7 percentage points worse than their expected field-goal percentage when Anunoby was their defender \u2014 tied for the 23rd-largest differential among 102 players to defend at least 750 shots, according to NBA Advanced Stats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Anunoby\u2019s impact goes beyond his individual box score statistics. A Knicks team that finished the regular season seventh in defensive efficiency<\/a> defended at a top-three level in Anunoby\u2019s minutes<\/a>, doing a significantly better job keeping opponents off the free-throw line and off the offensive glass<\/a> with the 6-foot-7, 240-pound Anunoby on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, yeah, he\u2019s well-deserving of it,\u201d Knicks captain Jalen Brunson<\/a> said Sunday. \u201cHe\u2019s been tremendous, obviously, defensively. Him being able to guard 1 through 5 on any given night has really been a big part of who we are and what we\u2019re allowed to do on defense, because of him. Any publicity is good publicity, but I think he was well deserving of that First Team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dating back to mid-January, New York has allowed fewer points per possession than any team in the NBA<\/a> \u2014 a level of success that Brown attributes, in part, to Anunoby\u2019s ability to put out whatever fire he has to on any given possession.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cThe versatility that he brings \u2014 and everybody always says, \u2018Oh, you got [Karl-Anthony Towns], you got Jalen, blah, blah, blah.\u2019\u201d Brown said Sunday. \u201cThe versatility that [Anunoby] brings to this team is off the charts, and I hope the voters get it right the next time around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next time around won\u2019t come for another 11 months, though, and Anunoby\u2019s choosing not to look that far ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of great defenders in the league, so to be recognized as one of the 10 premier ones is really cool in itself,\u201d Anunoby said. \u201cSo, just happy, and now I’ll just focus on the rest of the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Before joining his premier stopper in turning attention to a closeout Game 4 on Monday, though, Brown made a point of saying that, from where he stands, just \u201cany\u201d recognition isn\u2019t quite good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy he\u2019s Second Team. He deserves something,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut it was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 Mike Brown answered the final question of a Zoom conference call with reporters on Sunday after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[252728,6703,96089,14736,1222,49,48,42565,5715,21090,8028,18719,37217,44898,19284,17593,14101,14102,459,2901,3555,57350,2696,14731,80917,82,3302,21217],"class_list":["post-691463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-anunoby","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-ausar-thompson","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-boston-celtics","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cason-wallace","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-derrick-white","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-dyson-daniels","tag-evan-mobley","tag-first-team","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-mike-brown","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-scottie-barnes","tag-second-team","tag-sports","tag-toronto","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}