The New York Knicks' star-crossed history is dotted with shocking shots and fateful flings that shook the basketball world.
The New York Knicks' fateful eight's tenuous tip ignited metropolitan mayhem.
OG Anunoby added himself to the brief yet brilliant list of those who will never have to pay for a drink in Manhattan again on Wednesday night. His penultimate-second tip home of a Jalen Brunson misfire in Game 4 of the NBA Finals served as the coup de grace of the largest single-game comeback in the event's history, as the Knicks earned a 107-106 win over the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden.
New York, which trailed by as much as 29 on Wednesday, now leads the best-of-seven set 3-1, marking the closest it has been to a Larry O'Brien Trophy hoist since 1994. One more win would also end the fifth-longest active championship denial on the league's ledger, as the Knicks last prevailed in 1973.
While Anunoby remained characteristically stoic upon entering New York immortality ("I'm excited, too. We're all excited."), his Manhattan mates were already discussing the putback's place on the historical ledgers: head coach Mike Brown pegged it "the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball" (which could raise eyebrows among the Knicks' estranged seafoam siblings in Brooklyn) while Karl-Anthony Towns claimed the shot was sunk by the "right hand from God."
4. What the Tuck? (1990)
Is it daring, perhaps even sacrilege, to group a shot from January with the slings of late spring? Perhaps, but considering its mark on NBA history as a whole, it feels equally egregious not to include the toss of Trent Tucker from Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1990.
Tucker, a longtime Knick and one of many fan favorites forced to leave Manhattan without a ring, is the last to sink a conventional shot with one tenth of a second left on the clock. He did so in the grandest of fashions when he threw up a tumultuous triple at the end of regulation in a holiday haunt against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, granting the Knicks temporary bragging rights over His Airness before his tyrannical reign began.
Tucker's tally eventually led to the creation of the "Trent Tucker Rule" enforced in the following season. The mandate essentially dictated that attempts at a buzzer-beater (save for a lob and/or tap-in that ironically mirrors Anunoby's thrilling closer) would require at least three tenths to successfully manage. Tucker retired in 1993 but his heroic heave remains referenced to this day anytime a professional game's clock carries the digits of doom. The WNBA, FIBA, and various three-on-three leagues have likewise adopted the law in Tucker's name.
3. Larry's Third (1999)
The Knicks' prior run at Finals glory back in 1999 was equally brutal on the cardiac-challenged: New York's rampage from the eighth seed to the medal round carried dramatics that would rival any of the city's stages, including Allan Houston's fateful drive that mashed Miami in the opening round.
That, however, perhaps had nothing on the hysterical haunting Larry Johnson gave the equally-hated Indiana Pacers in what became the turning point of the conference final round. Johnson made off with the MVP—most valuable possession—in the closing stages of Game 3 at MSG, nabbing a four-point play when he sank an equalizing three-pointer while Antonio Davis fouled him.
The four-point play is one of the most thrilling plays in all of sports ... albeit one that can never be planned or scripted. The lingering practical nature of fouling dictates that any and all efforts, no matter how illegal, will be used to prevent the shot in question from going in. Johnson overcoming all that and then some to create one of the most emphatic momentum swings in hardwood history makes his quality quartet a quintessential quip on lists such as these.
2. The Need For Reed (1970)
It's not often the first shot of the game makes any sort of history no matter the prestige of the contest. Never a franchise to take the conventional approach, the Knicks have quite the entry to buck this trend and then some.
Should the Knicks seal the deal in the next three games, the basketball world may finally be free of one of the long-standing staples of Finals season: no montage of moments is complete without the image of injured Knicks legend Willis Reed taking the floor for Game 7 of the 1970 Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Reed's subsequent box score is often not included in discussions of his pregame march, as he put up just four points and three rebounds in 27 minutes. However, Reed's quartet, headlined by a foul-line jumper on the Knicks' debut possession, set an immaculate tone for what became a 113-99 victory at MSG. Despite Reed's quiet output, the metropolitan consensus is that his unexpected entrance and the early mini-frenzy has been said to be the emotional catapult the Knicks needed to secure their first NBA title.
"The fans became so catalytic," recalled Walt "Clyde" Frazier, whose brilliant 36-point, 19-assist closeout was relegated to subplot status (h/t Jerry Kavanagh, Sports Business Journal). "Once they started cheering, [Jerry] West, [Elgin] Baylor and [Wilt] Chamberlain were mesmerized. They stopped doing what they were doing and were standing there staring at Willis. At that point, I said to myself, “We got these guys.” I felt so confident once I saw that."
1. Spur of the Moment (2026)
There is recency bias. There is instant gratification. There is subjectivity, debate, nuance ... and there is Anunoby's dramatic double, which brings all those concepts and then some together in the utmost jubilant fashion.
The moment is ironclad in the hearts and minds of the basketball-loving public (at least those beyond San Antonio), even if the unthinkable befalls the Knicks in these next three games. It has gotten the snake-bitten Knicks franchise closer to a title than it has ever been at any point in the last 27 years.
Consider also the pertinent personal case that follows Anunoby.
The ex-Toronto Raptor is one of the few on-court reps in this series that carries a Finals ring in his carry-on, getting it when the Larry O'Brien Trophy went north of the border in 2019. These games, however, mark the first time that Anunoby's sneakers are touching championship hardwood, as he missed the Raptors' run due to an emergency appendectomy. There was likely no doubt Anunoby was going to let any Finals moment, no matter how mundane, go by the wayside, and he provided the most emphatic reminder through his emergence from a sea of hands that went after Brunson's misfire.
OG Anunoby Trade Has Paid Off for the Knicks
Anunoby is also one of the undeniable faces of the Knicks' Leon Rose era as the biggest risk (along with the barter for Mikal Bridges) that paid off and then some.
With other Rose moves, there was some form of assurance: it was easy to haggle with Brunson once his father/assistant coach, Rick Brunson, was on board. The biggest loss in obtaining Josh Hart was the little-used Cam Reddish. The Karl-Anthony Towns/Julius Randle swap was made to be, as Wednesday attendee Jerry Seinfeld would say, a mutual breakup that benefited all sides. Anunoby, on the other hand, was dealt at the cost of homegrown franchise faces RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, and was meant to be a clear signal that the Knicks no longer found mere playoff appearances and single-round advancements to be tentpoles for success. It's safe to say that this Rose deal has reached its most prominent state of bloom.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
