{"id":272662,"date":"2026-06-20T15:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/272662\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T15:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:38:10","slug":"how-one-new-york-knicks-star-is-helping-shelter-cats-get-adopted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/272662\/","title":{"rendered":"How one New York Knicks star is helping shelter cats get adopted"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Knicks<\/a> star OG Anunoby may have helped the franchise to its first championship in 53 years, but he\u2019s also a hero off the court.<\/p>\n

The newly crowned NBA champion \u2014 whose game-winning tip-in helped propel the Knicks to a Game 4 victory over the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> and complete the largest comeback in NBA Finals history<\/a> \u2014 has dedicated time to helping cats in New York City shelters<\/a> find their forever homes by partnering with Royal Canin, VCA Animal Hospitals, and Animal Care Centers of NYC.<\/p>\n

Anunoby picked five felines \u2014 Penne, Sammy, Roxie, Damu and Lil Leo, referred to as \u201cOG\u2019s Starting Five\u201d \u2014 that were available for adoption by Knicks fans or anyone ready to welcome a cat into their home.<\/p>\n

Within a matter of days, three of the five cats had been adopted, including Damu, a senior cat with medical issues.<\/p>\n

Katy Hansen, director of communications for the Animal Care Centers of NYC, said Anunoby helped give the available cats more visibility.<\/p>\n

\"OG<\/p>\n

OG Anunoby has helped shelter cats in NYC find their forever homes (Reuters)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis really made it possible for this cat to be adopted,\u201d Hansen told NBC New York<\/a>. \u201cAnd who knows how many people came in thinking they were going to meet one of those five and then they ended up adopting another cat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking specifically of Anunoby\u2019s five picks, Hansen said: \u201cThey’re some of our favorites. Especially the ginger Roxie. Gingers are very special. We had over 300 to choose from, so we were really happy with his selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The adopters of those five cats will receive a free year of pet food from Royal Canin and a year of free unlimited exams provided by VCA.<\/p>\n

Anunoby helped lead the Knicks on a historic run to the finals<\/a>, beating the San Antonio Spurs in five games to secure the team\u2019s first championship in 53 years. Jalen Brunson<\/a>, who set a finals record with 45 points in the win, was named MVP of the series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The win was celebrated with a June 18 ticker tape parade in New York City<\/a> that saw an estimated 2 million people line the streets as the team traveled aboard a float from Battery Park to City Hall, where they were awarded the keys to the city<\/a> by Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside City Hall, Brunson<\/a> said in disbelief, \u201cDamn. We really did it, dawg.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Knicks star OG Anunoby may have helped the franchise to its first championship in 53 years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13001,6123,4777,105063,102086,9,24,55,54,1104,56,6474,16883,9138,105064],"class_list":["post-272662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-animal-care-centers-of-nyc","tag-cats","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-katy-hansen","tag-nba-finals-history","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ny","tag-og-anunoby","tag-royal-canin","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-vca-animal-hospitals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}