We’ve always heard that the path to success in the NBA is through superstars. And I am clearly ruminating on this myself.
The Knicks have been chasing it for a long time, making plans that involve a big trade to gain cap space, high draft picks, and box office revenue.
But today, in April 2024, we are here with the most exciting New York City basketball team in decades, with a roster built on college camaraderie, connections, and grunt work. enjoying.
The most striking statistic about these Knicks, and one that is often overlooked, is that not one member of the rotation was a lottery pick. You can’t say that about any other team in the NBA, let alone a team in the playoffs. Excluding the injured Julius Randle (who hasn’t logged a second since January), the top pick is Donte DiVincenzo, who isn’t a great player coming out of high school, at No. 17.
More than half of the rotation was second-rounders Jalen Brunson, Isaiah Hartenstein, Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride and Bojan Bogdanovic.
The other half has the same characteristics.
“They’re all overachievers,” former Knick and current TNT analyst Greg Anthony told the Post. “There’s not a single player in their rotation that isn’t an overachiever.”
In all areas of life and human existence, it takes a certain personality to grow beyond external expectations. Most of it is about commitment and effort.
In basketball, that translates best to more possessions. And that’s exactly how the Knicks beat the Sixers on Monday night, with two more shots from DiVincenzo in the final 20 seconds. One came off a Josh Hart strip and the other came off an offensive rebound from Hartenstein.
This team in the corporate heartland is more blue-collar than the Rockies’ hometown Sixers. Knicks core players Brunson, Hart and DiVincenzo hung a banner in Philadelphia as NCAA champions from an elite private school on the outskirts of a “gritty” city, and now they have a chance to dig the Sixers’ grave. will return for Game 3 on Thursday. .
No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
“They’re just better,” said Anthony, who is calling TNT for Thursday’s game at Wells Fargo Center. “They can get the ball off you more than you can. They seem to want it more. Their basketball instincts are just better.
“Rarely do they go into a game where you look at them on paper and say, ‘They’re more talented,’ but in the end they won that game because they had more will.” I did.”
It’s reminiscent of the identity that Anthony’s Knicks team built nearly 30 years ago.
“If you look at basketball talent, the basketball teams of the ’90s weren’t that great. But from a toughness standpoint, we were really talented. And this group was built that way. Anthony said. “They were tougher and more physical than Philadelphia. They won 50-50 ball possession battles. They win them all. And those are momentum plays.”
Hart has become the embodiment of the Knicks’ recycled identity, an undersized forward who reacts to loose balls like a bloodhound to a rabbit. He’s part of a group that cleans the glass better than any other team in the league, an identity cultivated by the NBA’s finicky coach Tom Thibodeau.
Even with Brunson in a shooting funk, they managed to beat the Sixers twice, a team with the reigning MVP (Joel Embiid) and the most improved player (Maxey) despite limping off with a knee injury. It was very successful.
Hartenstein, who suffered a cut on his arm in the locker room Monday after stealing DiVincenzo’s winning offensive rebound, wasn’t ready to celebrate the victory.
“That doesn’t make much sense,” he said. “The work isn’t done yet.”
That’s a nice idea, but according to the long history of the NBA, a 2-0 series lead means: The chance of winning is 93%.
And the Knicks got to that point by reclaiming their identity.
“They represent this city,” Anthony said. “That’s how they built this team. And Thisbus is coaching like that.”
