Who Benefits More From An NBA Title?

As far as legacies go, um, who would benefit the most from winning a championship?

The obvious candidates are Wambayama at 22 years old, winning a title, Jalen Brunson.

You know, becoming, I've been trying to think about this, like the smallest number one guy since I guess Isaiah Thomas.

You go back to, which again I would say everyone's like, oh yeah, what Becky Hammond said Jalen Brunson's size can't win.

Look at Isaiah Thomas.

I'm like, different game, people.

That was a very different game back.

Those games were like 87 to 80, some of them, and they won in a different kind of way.

This is, this would be arguably a bigger accomplishment.

Um, who do you think benefits the most?

Definitely Jalen Bronson and the Knicks, because, and look, that's only because I think Wemby is so great, and, and he will win other titles.

And if it's not this year, it's next year.

And if he ends up with, you know, God knows how many he's going to end up with, um, you know, if it's one less or one more, I don't think in the end that is going to change, you know, injury willing or whatever that that is going to change who Wemby is as a player and a person in, in legacy in this league.

Jalen Brunson and these Knicks win, they become one of those sweetheart teams, the 2004 Pistons, you know, a team where it's just sort of like for one moment that lightning in a bottle, the 2006 Miami Heat, like where something great happened and for that to happen in New York City where they haven't won in 52 years, you know, I was listening to, uh, Clyde.

Frazier talk earlier today, he was just, you know, talking around with some of us, and he's like, I still can't spend money in New York.

He's like, I can't sit down at a dinner and pay my bill.

I go into a store and people are like, no, no, that's, that's on the house, Clyde.

That's on the house wall, you know, like, he goes, first of all, I'm never gonna, like if, if this Knicks team wins, he's like, my, my time of never having to spend money in.

New York is only going to expand further another for another 40 or 50 years.

Like these guys will literally never pay for a thing again.

And if Wemby and the Spurs win one title and then it turns into 2 or 3 or 4, it won't have mattered that this was the first one.

Yeah, it gets Wembby started on what is probably going to be a run of NBA championships, but there are other guys that were.

Superstars that won championships at younger ages.

Magic Johnson was 20 when he won the title in 1980.

Tim Duncan, 23 when he won the first title with the Spurs.

Kawhi was 22, Finals MVP that year.

So he wasn't the guy, but he was the best player in that series.

So it's not like a Wimbayama championship would be like, oh my God, that's unique, um.

Jalen Brunson would check all the boxes.

He would be the first or one of the first small guys to be the alpha on a championship team.

He would end, as you pointed out, a 52 year drought in New York.

And there are people within the Knicks that would make the argument that he is the greatest Knick of all time.

Yeah.

But by the way, what would the other argument be?

I, I'm on that argument.

If he wins this for them, who is the greatest Knick of all time if it's not him?

I mean, there's so many good ones over the years like Ewing has got to be on that list.

Clyde is probably on that list.

I mean, you gotta go back to the 1970s teams, um, that won championships, but does a title, so you, you're Valuing the title in a very high way.

Look, I, I don't buy into the rings are everything, and Charles Barkley has made a great points about the fact that like, it's not like you can say he wasn't a great basketball player.

He absolutely was.

And there are guys who don't win rings because of who they played in the league at at a certain time.

But I'm sorry, if you are, there's enough similarities between Patrick Ewing and what he was trying to do and Jalen Brunson and what he's trying to do that if Jalen Brunson is the one to do it, I absolutely, and I love Patrick Ewing.

I grew up, you know, being a Georgetown fan.

Um, but even I would tell you that Jalen Brunson eclipses him.

I mean, you, you really wouldn't, you think that that's such a huge question only because I think pre, when you're in the 70s, I just think there's an era pre-bird magic where you just have to say that's, yeah, I mean, because you, you'd have to go back to those teams like Willis Reed, you'd put on that list, uh, Earl Monroe, you'd put on that list.

Dave DeBuscher, Phil Jackson, Dave DeBuscher, you put on that list, Bernard King, you know, we, we get a little bit further down the line.

I think the argument becomes between Brunson and Ewing.

Ewing, um, if my math is right, franchise leader in points, uh, rebounds, blocks, all those key categories.

And he played in the Jordan era.

Like he's not Jalen Brunson.

If part of this though is that for everyone for the next 1015, maybe 20 years is gonna be playing in the Wemby era.

And if Jalen Brunson beats not just someone in the Wemby era, but Victor in the Wemby era, you're right.

No, I, I, I can see the argument.

I would have, I guess I would like Patrick beating Michael Jordan.

Would it, like, I mean , Jordan was a finished product at that point, at that age, but I'm just, I, I just, I'm sorry.

I look, you're not gonna convince me Wendy isn't gonna be in this top three conversation all time.

You're not gonna tell me that's not what is eventually gonna happen to him.

Maybe I always, uh.

It's a good question If the Knicks had won the championship last year under these circumstances when they went through Boston, a Boston team that had clubbed them during the regular season that was coming off the championship, that was playing at a high level, forget the Tatum injury, they beat the Celtics , they were beating them.

If they had beaten the Pacers that year and then gone on to beaten the Thunder that year, the Thunder were like maybe not a Wemy-like juggernaut, but they were there like that, that was their time.

Like, you know, Shay was the MVP that season.

Well, Shay was the MVP.

It won't be as big a deal as if they beat this team.

Well, but this is such a young team in San Antonio.

Like there are reasons that the Spurs could lose.

Like, I don't think the Spurs are gonna lose because Wimbayama struggled.

I think the Spurs are gonna lose because Dylan Harper has a Game 5, has a game like he had in Game 5 against the Thunder telling you that when the first of all.

The Thunder have won one title and they did it in Game 7 of a series where in that game 7 momentum was not on their side and the best player on the other team was already getting hot and had a season-ending injury, year-ending injury.

Like, I am not 100% and they didn't beat this Thunder and they didn't beat this Spurs team.

I am absolutely open to the fact that this is, this Thunder team is going to be one of the heaviest hitters in the league over the next however many years because of just who they have on the court now, what they've got coming up the pipe .

I am not ready to crown them, some dynasty-esque team because they won one title in a game 7 against a way underdog that was kind of beating them in the 7th game.

They were.

Halliburton was playing great before he goes down with the injury, um, And the Thunder looked tight in that.

I was, you know, you and I were both sitting in the arena, and that's the thing.

They were just as young.

So, you know, I think it's what it was, was it you who was talking about this earlier today while we were waiting for a press conference?

Maybe it was someone else that the Spurs are now the youngest, 2nd youngest team in the finals after that, like old, old Portland team, well, young, young Portland team from a long time ago, um, uh, beating the 3rd, the Thunder by like 0.

something.

It's like a 0.

something younger in age and only when you wait for playing time and all of that stuff.

I can't put Brunson above Ewing.

Sorry, I've been thinking about it.

I can't put him above you if he wins.

If he wins, I can't put him above you.

I can't.

Ewing was so dominant for so many years.

I love Patrick Ewing.

I loved him in Georgetown.

I had little Rachel had a little Patrick Ewing Georgetown shirt.

Like I am.

I was in on Patrick Ewing long before you were Chris Manning.

I, I, I don't look, but I'm from Boston.

I wasn't a Patrick Ewing guy.

I hated Patrick Ewing in terms of, like, you know, appreciating him, and I, I'm not saying you don't appreciate him.

I, I think.

Maybe you're valuing the championship more.

It's a championship against this guy, this guy after this amount of time, this young, young team, like a team of 27.

You're sitting here telling me how, uh, Dylan, I think they're gonna win.

Like I, I think they're going to win.

You're like Stephen Castle's already like an all Steph Castle is already an all whatever world defender.

He was, that was a criminal.

He was left off the one of the all defensive teams.

Yes.

So there you go.

It would be a huge accomplishment.

Has the, um, has the Toronto Raptors mafia come after you?

Uh, for Scotty Barnes, for, for Scotty Barnes and everyone, I didn't, did, did I get, what did I do with Scotty Barnes, or you're talking about everybody?

They're going after everybody.

Yeah , I saw that.

I didn't.

I had Scotty Barnes on one of my all NBA teams.

Um, I don't know what I did for all defense.

I'm forgetting already right now.

Uh, but no, they're not coming after me like they're coming after some people.

Yes, the Raptors mafia is the Raptors fans, especially for the Canadian voters.

Yes.

Oh, Michael Grange got it.

Michael Grange, who has been around the league forever, had to formally apologize.

For not voting Scotty to his MVP ballot, was that accurate?

Did he, I don't I apologize.

It was a long apology.

I apologize to Michael Ran for not reading that whole thing, but it's like that.

It's like that old that meme.

Like I'm not reading all that, but he's a lot stalwart of Canadian basketball coverage.

He's one of the faces and has been, and I think he said he voted for him for all NBA, and it turns out he didn't.

I think that was the, the crux.

I don't know, man.

Those people are, they are on, they're intense.

They're.

to defend Scotty Barnes' honor.

They're intense.

I didn't have too many.

I, I don't think I had any crazy votes.

I didn't have any votes that I don't think anybody was, was all over with.

Like, it'll, it'll be a coin flip, I would say, between Brunson with a championship and Ewing without one.

I just think Ewing, Ewing having to go through Jordan Pippen every single time.

Knicks Charles Smith, like how many, how many moments did Ewing have that were not his fault ?

I, I agree, but you know, you're only, look, there's.

Guys who we just, I just mentioned Charles Barkley.

If he had been swapped on to another team, he'd, he'd have a ring.

Like, yes, you play in the era and in the time and on the team that you're on.

I think, look, it'll be how if the Knicks win, how Jalen Brunson is an ingredient and instrument of that.

If it's because Jalen Brunson went out there with his cape and, you know, 60 point games and his clutch in the 4th quarter and does the magic, then yeah, I put him ahead of, of Patrick.

And again, that is hard for me.

Washington DC girl, what do you think the Knicks fans would say about that, because Knicks fans are not, I'm not saying you are, but like Knicks fans are not prisoners of the moment, to your point about Clyde, like they all still remember.

Like what do you think Knicks fans would say?

Would Knicks fans put Brunson above it is 100, it is more than it has ever been before, era specific, because there was a time when, yes, wherever you grew up, your Knicks team or your whatever team, no matter where you live in the country, was your.

Favorite team, right, but you were still getting fed the information about the previous teams in the same way as your dad was with his grandfather's team, right?

So you may have grown up on what were your Boston teams growing up, OK, you grew up on the Bird team, but you technically it was Reggie Lewis and like some other guys, right?

But you, you heard about the, the Auerbach era teams and check, you know, all of that, all by the same modus operandi that someone younger.

You would have heard about the Bird teams.

Now , because of YouTube, because of video, because of social media, the younger fans in the NBA who are LeBron fans instead of Michael Jordan fans who just haven't really seen Michael Jordan play that much, who haven't seen some of the Patrick Ewing, how much, what are the highlights of Patrick Ewing?

What do they look like, you know, in terms of how cloudy and grainy are they to a young person's eye today, a young person.

But, you know, even my eye today, um, you know, it's just, I think that the, The mode of being a fan of your particular era team, we've had like the schism of the pre-video era and the post-video on your phone era that Knicks fans will probably fall more into the Brunson camp than you might think.

Then it'll be interesting if you're a Knicks fan.

I'm listening, watching on YouTube .

I wanna hear.

Yeah, let us know, and I could be again.

I love Patrick Ewing.

No, we're gonna cut that.

We're gonna cut that.

We don't, we don't love Patrick Ewing.

Love Patrick cut that.

But you know, all right, uh, before we go, and by the way, if Jalen Brunson doesn't win a title, he's not the greatest Knick.

No, he's not.

He's still then this conversation isn't even happening.

He might not even be above.

I mean, look, it's, I guess, a different time, but the guys like Clyde and Debuscher, and they won a title, yeah, they won a title, and you put them there.