NEW YORK — Typically, basketball immortality arrives with flair.
A dagger 3 or a contested jumper worthy of a poster. A fearless drive through traffic and perhaps a thunderous dunk. A sudden steal or emphatic block. The moments that become legend, the ones etched into the psyche of fans who place their hearts on the altar of sports, tend to be acts of undeniable brilliance. Mastery executed under pressure.
But the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, arguably the greatest victory the New York Knicks have ever authored, and probably the wildest experience at Madison Square Garden in two generations, came courtesy of an offensive rebound. On a June night Manhattan will tell stories about for decades, with the Knicks dangling between misery and miracle, salvation arrived in unremarkable form. Not genius. Not artistry. Just hustle.
A bricked 3. A failed blockout. A perfectly timed burst. A gentle tap of the ball. New York’s comeback from a 29-point deficit against the San Antonio Spurs in its 107-106 Game 4 win was punctuated by a tip-in with 1.2 seconds remaining. The mundane made the magic.
And OG Anunoby, with his 40-inch vertical and 7-foot-2 1/4 wingspan, carved his name among Knicks legends Wednesday as, this time, glory didn’t go to the shooter, but to the one who chased the miss. As has become the norm on this fairy tale Knicks run, the improbable wound up feeling inevitable.
“I don’t know if there was a play bigger than (that) in the history of Knicks basketball,” coach Mike Brown said. “That was a huge offensive rebound. Huge offensive rebound. He took on the challenge, and he went and won the game for us doing exactly what I called him out for during shootaround today.”
Knicks fans chanted his name as they filed out of the arena. OG is an abbreviation for Ogugua, which, in the Igbo tribe of Nigerian culture, carries connotations of tranquility and comfort. “The one who brings peace” in some translations.
On Wednesday night, Anunoby brought pandemonium. The quiet player from London provoked the loudest moment. The do-it-all forward flexed the depths of his contributions.
He scored 33 points on 15 shots and might’ve become the front-runner for finals MVP.
“OG is someone who brings it every night,” Jalen Brunson said. “His work ethic, since the moment I’ve been teammates with him and seen him, has grown. His confidence has grown just because of his work ethic. Everything that I’ve seen, he’s gotten exponentially better at.
“So regardless of what the outside world thinks of him, we know what we have in our locker room, and we have a superstar in that locker room.”
The NBA’s obsession with size and athleticism made Anunoby a coveted player around the league. He remained with the Toronto Raptors through multiple trade deadlines as the team’s asking price — reportedly multiple first-round picks — proved too rich for the blood of most suitors.
The Knicks acquired Anunoby in December 2023 for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a second-round pick. Looks like then-Raptors president Masai Ujiri should’ve stuck to his sticker price.
Because after three seasons with the Knicks, Anunoby has looked every bit worth a bounty of first-round picks. He’s almost the perfect player for the modern game. A wing with the skills of a guard and the strength of a big, and someone athletic enough to keep up with either.
After what he did in Game 4, Knicks fans would give up a generation of picks and half the kidneys in Manhattan for him.
“When the shot went up,” Anunoby said, “I was free. There was no one boxing me out. So I just went in there for a tip-dunk and then ended up just tipping it in.”
It wasn’t just the tip-in by Anunoby. He was the engine of a furious comeback that silenced the haughtiness of Victor Wembanyama, rattled the seemingly unflappable Spurs and left a basketball globe in collective disbelief.
The Knicks, who trailed by 20 with 9:33 remaining, had the lead down to 14 when Anunoby checked back into the game.
The belief returned to the building. San Antonio spent the first 40 minutes of the game bleeding the Knicks dry of all rhythm and confidence. The defense of the Spurs, spearheaded by a true hound in guard Stephon Castle and anchored by the Defensive Player of the Year in Wembanyama, had the Knicks completely out of sorts.
The angst filled the arena and drowned out the fervor that has become trademark during this postseason. The raucous Garden hushed to a murmur that wouldn’t be too loud for a senior center. Wembanyama taunted and trolled the Knicks. The Spurs made nearly every shot they threw up. And the Knicks title that seemed inevitable after Game 2 felt like knockoff Louis Vuitton luggage by halftime of Game 4.
But belief would gradually return. To the Knicks. To MSG.
The Spurs cooled off. Anunoby and Brunson got rolling. Somehow, the Knicks found themselves in the wheelhouse of their mojo. Every stop, every big shot, ratcheted up the intensity in the Garden.
Karl-Anthony Towns started the rally in earnest with a stepback 3 from the left corner — his first fourth-quarter basket of the series — over Keldon Johnson. Just 11 seconds after checking back in at the 7:14 mark, Anunoby drilled a 3-pointer from the same area.
Brunson, Mr. Clutch himself, who finished with 36, scored on back-to-back possessions to pull the Knicks within seven points. Josh Hart drove and found Anunoby in the left corner. Wembanyama summoned what juice he had left to run out to contest. But Anunoby drilled it. The Knicks trailed by three.
The vibes returned. The same arena that was too stunned at halftime to give Wu-Tang a worthy energy suddenly shook in celebration. That feverish, percolating exuberance that’s rattled opponents for two months finally showed up in the finals. The Spurs’ eyes widened and knees quivered. Finally, their youth and inexperience collected taxes.
A Brunson 3 over Wemby — the best kind of retaliation for the shot Wemby delivered on Brunson in Game 3 — brought the Knicks within one, 104-103. New York was close to cresting the hill, to scaling the psychological wall of the comeback.
So even though a pair of free throws by Castle reclaimed the lead for San Antonio, and even though Brunson’s floater missed off the glass, winning was still on the table. The Knicks made it back to that mode where the universe catered to their command. And everybody, including the Spurs, so it seemed, sensed some cosmic theater would play out in the Knicks’ favor.
That’s perhaps the most critical gain from Game 4. The belief in their worthiness. The conviction of their inevitability.
That’s what Anunoby confirmed Wednesday night.
First, he blocked Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox’s baffling attempt for a transition layup with 11.1 seconds left. The kind of gaffe that lets everyone know the basketball gods are binging Clyde Frazier and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe highlights.
“He does everything,” Landry Shamet said of Anunoby. “He’s a virtuoso.”
Then, with 5.7 seconds remaining, the Knicks down a point, Anunoby inbounded the ball to Brunson, who launched a 3-pointer before the Spurs could bring the double-team. The 31-foot shot missed. And, for a split second, everything that haunted the Knicks for half a century loomed again.
Because Knicks fans know that feeling. The ball hanging in the air. Hope suspended. Disaster approaching.
When Brunson’s shot banged off the front rim and into the anxious air of the Garden, the Knicks had all but lost back-to-back home games. They’d squandered the two road games they’d won to start the series. They’d surrendered momentum and confidence to San Antonio. They’d mounted pressure on themselves by resurrecting the dread of Knicks defeatism.
But because Wembanyama and Fox moved towards Brunson, Anunoby had an unimpeded lane to the rim.
So he took off toward it. Brown told him before the game that a player his size — 6-foot-7, 240 pounds — and athleticism should be a force on the offensive glass. Anunoby got to his peak faster than Spurs rookie Dylan Harper and got up higher than San Antonio wing Devin Vassell.
The ball caromed too high for violence. So Anunoby chose touch. He redirected the rebound with a soft tap and, in the process, redirected the trajectory of the Knicks’ franchise. From an even NBA Finals headed to Game 5 in San Antonio, to a 3-1 series lead and one win from the coveted crown. Euphoria swept through MSG.
This franchise spent generations haunted by bad luck at the rim. This fan base, this arena, still wears the agony of Charles Smith’s four thwarted bunnies in the lane in 1993. And Patrick Ewing’s missed finger roll in 1995. The inches that separated glory from grief. But Anunoby gave Knicks fans a new image to carry. His game-winning tip-in covers those scars like a fresh tat.
And for one night, OG became an acronym for Overlord of Gotham. Anunoby’s been Officially Goated for the Overdue Glory he delivered by crashing the Offensive Glass.
A poetic justice exists in the Knicks winning this way. For it declares fate’s refusal to let them down. Because this run has never really been about superiority, not in the traditional sense.
New York now needs one win to end a 53-year playoff drought. And the beauty of that fantastical truth is that it wasn’t produced by a singular greatness. It hasn’t been authored by an obvious dominance. Their advantage can’t be explained by words. The Knicks, somehow, keep arriving at the same destination via roads that should’ve broken them.
This improbable run borders on mythology because of its unexplainable components, the almost spiritual force guiding this team to a glory ordained, clearly, by Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet. It seems every great New York sports story eventually feels like destiny. Like it’s being governed by forces bigger than coaching adjustments and analytical data.
The Knicks now live in a world where coincidence resembles prophecy. A space where the defining moment of a team, of a dream season, and perhaps a championship for the ages, came courtesy of an offensive rebound. Oh, Goodness.