The single greatest New York Knicks moment of the 21st century requires a name. Something pithy. Evocative. Iconic. Probably with every word capitalized. It can’t be The Shot (already taken), or any variation thereof. It can’t be The Tip-In (too hyphenated), or The Tap (too dull). What unfolded late Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, with the Knicks’ title hopes teetering and 20,000 Gothamites gasping, requires more grandeur.
“Right hand from God,” Karl-Anthony Towns said, smiling broadly. “Right hand of God.”
As far as we know, Ogugua Anunoby Jr.—better known as OG—does not, in fact, possess divine hands, but they are considerable, measuring 9.5 inches across and 9.25 inches in length. And they are, it seems, capable of divine acts so profound that they can alter history, confer NBA immortality, and bring momentary rapture to a city starved for basketball glory.
Less than five seconds remained in Game 4 of the Finals, with the Knicks trailing by one, in a game the San Antonio Spurs once led by 29. Jalen Brunson launched from 31 feet out. Anunoby simultaneously sprinted toward the basket, launched himself past Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell, extended his right arm, and—as the shot sprang off the front of the rim—got a thumb and three fingers on the ball, enough to tap it back to the basket, where it softly hit the back rim and gently fell through the net. It triggered a sonic boom that surely set off car alarms from the Bronx to Sheepshead Bay and the deepest reaches of Staten Island:
The Knicks led 107-106 with 1.2 seconds left. People were bouncing, dancing, even crying. Adam Sandler clapped and smiled. Jerry Seinfeld’s mouth just hung open in delirious disbelief. Taylor Swift and Mariska Hargitay danced with the Haim sisters, while Garden security tried their best to keep everyone off the court. John McEnroe, standing alongside Larry David, rubbed the back of his head and his mouth and mustered a single word: “Wow.”
“That has to be,” said Knicks coach Mike Brown, “the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball.”
It is, at a minimum, on the short list of all-time Knicks moments, alongside John Starks’s dunk over Michael Jordan, Allan Houston’s runner to beat the Miami Heat, Patrick Ewing’s putback against the Indiana Pacers, Larry Johnson’s four-point play, and Willis Reed’s opening jump shot (on one leg) in the 1970 Finals. As it happens, three of those Knicks legends were present on Wednesday to welcome another into their midst.
The Knicks did not win the championship Wednesday night, but holy moly did it feel that way to everyone in the building. They pulled off the greatest comeback in Finals history. They seized a 3-1 series lead after flirting all night with disaster. They put themselves one victory away from securing the franchise’s first championship since 1973. And they left the entire basketball world breathless, awestruck. In the moments after the final buzzer, no one wanted to leave their seats. Towns cried tears of joy. Jose Alvarado said he thought he might, too.
The only one who seemed unmoved by it all was the guy who triggered the delirium. Anunoby is a famously reticent interview subject and a bit of a literalist. Asked to describe a play that’s already being enshrined in NBA lore, Anunoby said: “I inbounded the ball to Jalen. He got a pretty good look, and I just went and crashed. Tried to get a tip-dunk or something. The ball went over my head, so I couldn't really dunk it. So I tried to tip it in softly, and it went in.”
The final tip-in gave Anunoby a new career playoff high in points (33), to go with another career high in 3-pointers (seven).
It wasn’t just the shot, or the victory itself, that made the moment legendary. It was everything that preceded it—most of which the Knicks would just as soon forget. Victor Wembanyama had thoroughly dominated the first half, taunting them along the way. Vassell, De’Aaron Fox, and Harper had buried them in 3-pointers. The Knicks looked stymied, out of sync, seemingly incapable of throwing a counterpunch at all.
After two quarters, the Spurs held a 27-point advantage, the largest halftime lead ever by a road team in the Finals. The Spurs had converted more 3s (14) than the Knicks had 2s (11). Towns had played just eight minutes due to foul trouble. Brunson had missed eight of his 14 shots, many of them contested or at difficult angles. Mikal Bridges was barely noticeable. Mitchell Robinson had missed all three of his field goals and all four of his free throws and had let himself get baited into a flagrant foul on Wembanyama, who fell to the floor with a smile, tapping his temple as if to say, “I’m in your head.”
OG Anunoby takes the game-winning shot in Game 4
One of the most raucous crowds in sports had fallen silent. It looked like an all-time celebrity row had gathered to witness a tragedy. Across social media, fans alternately blamed President Donald Trump (for bringing bad vibes to Game 3) or Knicks owner James Dolan (for saying many ridiculous things on local radio earlier in the day). There were pockets of boos when the halftime buzzer sounded. Prediction models had the Spurs’ probability of winning at 99 percent. A 2-2 tie seemed assured, with the Spurs seizing all the momentum and retaking home-court advantage, with a Game 5 and a possible Game 7 in San Antonio.
You could almost hear all the doubts and critiques seeping back into the NBA ether. That Towns was mistake-prone and unreliable. That Bridges cost too many draft picks. That Robinson couldn’t hit foul shots. Even, perhaps, that Brunson would indeed prove the old adage that small guards can’t lead teams to championships.
But this Knicks group has a knack for spirited comebacks and zeal for killing narratives. The Spurs certainly aided them Wednesday by abandoning their offense in the second half and trading alley-oops and drives for 3-pointers, which suddenly stopped falling (3-for-17 in the last two quarters).
Wembanyama made just three of 14 shots in the second half and committed his own flagrant foul along the way, nudging him closer to a possible suspension. He also missed a pair of free throws with 1:47 to play and the Spurs clinging to a one-point lead.
And when the game was still in reach, Fox—the most veteran member of the Spurs’ starting lineup and generally their steadiest hand—committed one of the costliest blunders in Finals history. With the Spurs up one and 16 seconds to go, Fox ran down a loose ball after a Brunson miss and sprinted upcourt. All Fox had to do was stop and force the Knicks to foul him. But he headed straight to the basket and put up an ill-advised layup that Anunoby swatted. (“I just thought I'd be able to outrun them,” Fox said.) There was contact, but no foul called. And it left the Knicks with just enough time for a miracle.
Brunson launched the ball. Anunoby launched himself. The Hand of God took it from there.
