![\"Knicks](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274880217-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNEW YORK \u2014 The Knicks winning the NBA championship is still more dream than reality, a New Yorker\u2019s version of fantasy basketball. That\u2019s what happens when you wait more than half a century for something.<\/p>\n
You refuse to believe it is actually possible, even in the face of mounting evidence suggesting that it is, you know, actually possible.<\/p>\n
But there was Walt Frazier on \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d speaking it into existence, or at least trying to. Every legitimate title charge in the big city has to start with the ball in Clyde\u2019s hands, just like it was in the \u201970s, when the Knicks made a lasting romantic connection with New York by twice playing beautiful basketball and winning it all.<\/p>\n
Frazier said Tuesday night that he was \u201cmesmerized\u201d by the way his old team has been playing this postseason. \u201cActually,\u201d he told Jimmy Fallon, \u201cI\u2019m living vicariously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes, the 81-year-old Hall of Famer has been living through Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart. And why not?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey remind me of my team,\u201d Clyde said. \u201cMy team personified team. You couldn\u2019t mention Frazier without (Bill) Bradley, without (Dave) DeBusschere, without (Willis) Reed, without (Dick) Barnett. And I see similarities to this team \u2026 their camaraderie, their teamwork; they like each other. It\u2019s manifested on the court. \u2026 So, hopefully we\u2019ll see another championship, guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe the 2025-26 Knicks realized this was the ultimate compliment. Maybe they didn\u2019t. Either way, given how they destroyed the Atlanta Hawks in the final three games of Round 1 of the playoffs and, Wednesday night, took a 2-0 lead over the Philadelphia 76ers in Round 2, the Knicks should understand they are playing the game at a level this franchise has rarely reached.<\/p>\n
And a major part of that has been Anunoby. Back in the day, the Knicks made a trade with the Detroit Pistons, Walt Bellamy and Howard Komives for DeBusschere, which changed everything. A rugged 6-foot-6 rebounder and defender, DeBusschere was often referred to as \u201cthe missing piece\u201d to the championship puzzle, exactly the kind of player whom stars Frazier and Reed needed.<\/p>\n
Anunoby is not DeBusschere, an eight-time All-Star. OG has never made an All-Star team. But entering Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semis, this much was clear:<\/p>\n
If the Knicks reach the NBA Finals and somehow upset, say, the Oklahoma City Thunder, someone was bound to be labeled a New Age \u201cmissing piece.\u201d And until Anunoby started hobbling in the final minutes of the Knicks\u2019 108-102 victory, he was the leader in the clubhouse for that designation.<\/p>\n
Maybe that comes as a surprise to those who thought the trade with the Brooklyn Nets for Bridges, for the price of five first-round picks, would fill that void, not the trade with the Toronto Raptors for Anunoby, at the expense of R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley.<\/p>\n
But through the first seven games of the playoffs, the 6-foot-7 Anunoby was the one averaging 21 points and 7.9 rebounds while shooting nearly 64 percent from the field and playing suffocating defense. He had never before posted numbers like that in the playoffs, in the regular season or in the Big Ten while at Indiana.<\/p>\n
Anunoby was coming of age at the perfect time, with the Knicks suddenly the emerging favorite to win the conference. And then, with 24 points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists tucked inside his hip pocket, Anunoby started cutting to the basket from near the midcourt logo.<\/p>\n
He got inside the foul line when he appeared to pull up lame and reach for his right leg. Hart recovered a loose ball and started driving to the goal before shoveling a pass to Anunoby, who had gathered himself. OG went up for the dunk attempt and failed to convert over Paul George\u2019s challenge. After Bridges made a jumper, Anunoby hobbled upcourt and signaled to Knicks coach Mike Brown that he needed a replacement.<\/p>\n
He ended up off the bench and in the locker room, or trainer\u2019s room, for the conclusion of the game. If this was a buzzkill, there was good reason.<\/p>\n
The Knicks can win this series without Anunoby. But they can\u2019t win the championship without him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Knicks forward OG Anunoby had 24 points, five rebounds, four steals and two assists before leaving with an injury late in New York\u2019s victory. (Dustin Satloff \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
As expected, nobody on the winning side wanted to touch this one with a 100-foot pole. Brown said he hadn\u2019t talked to any medical personnel about his invaluable wing but conceded, \u201cHe looked like he was hopping.\u201d Brunson offered only, \u201cI\u2019ll cross that bridge when I get to it. I don\u2019t know too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
At his locker, Hart recoiled when asked for his level of concern over Anunoby. \u201cHey, man, I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said while exiting stage left. \u201cYou gotta holler at him on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby, Bridges didn\u2019t offer much more. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cBut next man up, that\u2019s really it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next man up?<\/p>\n
Not when Anunoby has been playing like an OG.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was amazing in the (Atlanta Hawks) series \u2026 and I thought he was really, really great in Game 1, too,\u201d 76ers coach Nick Nurse, who had Anunoby in Toronto, said before Game 2. \u201cHe\u2019s kinda always been really great at D, and then the shooting came. And now he\u2019ll rebound heavily when they need him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis cutting game\u2019s gotten a lot better. I think his starting and ending drives have gotten better as well. He just kinda gets better year after year, and he\u2019s just a hardworking guy. When I had him, he was really fascinated with the art of shooting. That was really cool to see him dig into that and take his own journey on it to improve, and he\u2019s a guy you cannot leave open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown put it this way when asked about Anunoby\u2019s improvement: \u201cHe was frickin\u2019 good back then, and he\u2019s frickin good now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, the Knicks can\u2019t afford an extended absence. They can\u2019t afford Anunoby to be sidelined for playoff games like he was two years ago.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s this simple for the basketball dreamers in New York: The missing piece can\u2019t be missing for long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 The Knicks winning the NBA championship is still more dream than reality, a New Yorker\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,361,1767,99],"class_list":["post-628703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-opinion","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}