The Night OG Anunoby Became Immortal

The greatest moments in sports become mythology. With one tip-in, OG Anunoby secured his place in Knicks lore forever.

In the waning seconds of the most important game at Madison Square Garden in a quarter of a century, Jalen Brunson rises up from thirty feet away. The shot is contested, coasting over the seemingly endless arm of Victor Wembanyama. It's a shot that Knicks fans have seen go in time and time again during Brunson's tenure with the team, the sort of shot-making ability that has earned him the nickname "Captain Clutch".

But this shot, in a crucial moment, bounced off of the front rim. And in that millisecond, the Knicks trauma flashed over the collective fan consciousness. The Tyrese Haliburton shot in Game 1 of the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals, the Reggie Miller choke sign, the years of Garden ineptitude, the Charles Smith blocks, it all came rushing back. This was going to be another moment where a comeback came up short, where the Knicks, once again were the foils of history.

For that moment, it felt like it was all happening again. Being so close to the pinnacle, maddeningly close to the peak, but failing yet again. Years of Knicks losses, rushing back. The foils of all the eras dating back to the ‘80s descending upon the collective psyche of fans.

But out of nowhere, like a speeding bullet train, came OG Anunoby. Anunoby, who was the in-bounder on that play, was forgotten by the Spurs defense and galloped towards the rim. As the ball levitated in the air, Anunoby rose above the Spurs defense with Victor Wembanyama looking on from the perimeter, helpless. With his arm extended, Anunoby tipped the shot in, leading to a Knicks win and a 3-1 series lead in the Finals.

The play has been played on repeat and through multiple angles. He has been asked about it, and Josh Hart has thanked him for saving him from the scrutiny of a missed layup earlier in the fourth quarter. With that tip-in, OG Anunoby vaulted himself into Knicks and NBA history, a moment that Knicks fans will tell future generations in the sort of poetry that only basketball can provide.

The Knicks, despite having limited success over the last 35 years, have a few moments that fans will remember eternally. There is the John Starks dunk over Michael Jordan in the '93 Eastern Conference Finals, the Allan Houston running jumper over the Miami Heat in the first round in '99, and the Donte DiVincenzo three against the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the 2024 playoffs.

The way that these seasons ended aren't part of the story, rather they are distillations in time, a reminder of the magic that Knicks fans feel when their team has positive moment. The Starks dunk was an exclamation point on a 2-0 series lead against the vaunted Bulls. The team would go on to lose the next four games to Chicago in what would be another disappointment in that era.

The Houston and DiVincenzo shots helped the team advance in the playoffs in seasons that ultimately fell short of the final goal. Both of those runs, sadly, ended in injuries to key players that derailed any sort of title aspirations that the team had.

That's what makes this Anunoby moment so special. It led to a win in the Finals; it capped off the biggest single game comeback in NBA Finals history. It was a blessing from the basketball gods that this team, city, and fanbase have been denied for so many years, decades, and generations.

Anunoby is the ultimate New York athlete. The sort of player that the fan base rallies around and identifies with. Like so many New Yorkers he is an immigrant. Anunoby is of Nigerian descent who was born in London before he moved to the US at four years old. He is a defensive-minded wing who plays with strength that reminds us of New York's past while also possessing the shooting touch that is required for modern wing players.

There is a certain volume to Madison Square Garden. Personalities abound both on the court and on the sidelines. As such, there is an appetite for a sort of stoic star, an understated worker that Knick fans appreciate. John Starks was this sort of player who rose up from being an unknown to a star on a Finals team. Anunoby with his laid back and cool demeanor is the modern representation of that idea, which makes his heroics in this moment that much more special.

Anunoby has often been a player that let his game do the talking, and that has often led to him being overlooked. But on this Finals run, he has been one of the best players in the entire league. A dominant two-way wing shooting 57.8% from the field and 50.6% from three is rarified air. Since 1980, Anunoby has the fifth best three-point efficiency, the best true shooting, and the second-best field goal percentage among players with over 10 playoffs games and more than three three-point attempts per game in a postseason run. It has been a magical postseason run for Anunoby, and now it has a visual capper to encapsulate how great he has been.

The Knicks as a team are searching for immortality, to fulfill a dream that is 53 years in the making. Anunoby has been looking to fulfill his own sort of dream. Despite being an NBA champion with the Raptors in 2019, he was injured during that run so there is a desire to leave an imprint, to have a mark as a meaningful contributor on a championship team. His moment in Game 4, and the terrific shooting night he had before that defining moment, cements his place in Knicks lore forever.

For many generations to come, we’ll talk about the comeback and the miraculous tip-in that led to a stolen Finals win instead of a loss. Every generation of Knicks fans has their own version of agony and ecstasy—the duality of moments that we think back on. The agony of this era has already been cemented. The Haliburton shot will live in infamy in New York for decades, just as his predecessor Reggie Miller’s 8 point in 9 seconds did. But this tip-in is the definitive moment of ecstasy for this era. The play that made all the losses up to that point worth it.

This is a Knicks team that, regardless of the outcome of this Finals series, will be revered and adored for many years to come. Knicks fans of a certain age still think about Ewing extending his arms at the Garden, Willis Reed limping onto the court, or Starks’ dunk. In the years to come, they will also fondly remember the OG tip-in, and remember the night where the impossible became possible, and they felt pure unbridled joy, courtesy of their basketball team.