Is Jalen Brunson the greatest Knick of all time? Making his case after the hero

Watch one New York Knicks home game and you’ll see the seasons come together more seamlessly than any other team. Jalen Brunson may be leading the team on the floor, but Carmelo Anthony, Stephon Marbury, Patrick Ewing and a host of alumni are on the sidelines supporting them. That connection makes as much sense to former players as it does to current Knicks. “They make us all feel a part of it,” Ewing told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. “As if we were part of them.”

No one but the players themselves can really understand how meaningful that must feel. Every Knicks player since the 1970s has felt the brunt of the championship drought that has plagued the team since 1973. All their legacies are, to some extent, defined by their failure to eradicate it. Everyone has to do their part to support this team, but when the dust settled in San Antonio on Saturday night, it was Brunson holding the trophy and ending a 53-year drought. as the Finals MVP. In achievement, he stands above all Knicks in history. He did what they couldn’t.

Well, most of them, anyway. The greatest Knick of all time, Walt Frazier, contributes to that history. Although he spent most of the recent season in the stands, he is the team’s legendary television analyst and is therefore one of the biggest producers among the Knicks. Even before the title, he elevated Brunson to the level of past icons. “He has Willis Reed’s toughness and he’s exciting to me,” Frazier told The Athletic.

Frazier spent generations watching legends watch Brunson. Many of them tried to match his place in the history of the team, to bring the Knicks the championship glory that he did. They all came. Now, for the first time since the end of his playing days, Frazier and Reed have true peers in team history. Brunson is to the current Knicks what they were to the popular teams of the 1970s. And that begs the question: 53 years after their last championship, can Brunson be considered the greatest Knick of all time? It seemed like something that could happen when the topic became accessible.

Whether you think Brunson is already there, or can get there, depends on your definition of the word. Let’s break it down.

The case for Frazier or Reed: They are better players

At least in terms of accomplishments, no Knick has reached the top like Willis Reed. He is the only player in franchise history to win MVP, doing so in 1970. Although the Defensive Player of the Year was not yet available at the time, he could be considered the unofficial winner as a First Team Defensive center.

Raw statistics don’t jump off the page. You won’t see 21-point, 14-point MVP seasons in the modern league. But the few advanced metrics we have since then support the idea that Reed was more advanced than the Knicks of late. He averaged .227 Win Shares per 48 minutes, for example, more than Brunson, Ewing, Anthony or Bernard King at any point in their careers.

However, Mhlanga did not even lead his team in that. Frazier had a .236 Win Shares in 48 minutes. Brunson’s 2023-24 season topped both in terms of PER at 23.4, but other than that, we don’t have much of a viable way to compare the numbers across seasons. All we have is the praise they received in their time. Brunson was never an NBA First Team Selection. Reed did it once. Frazier did it four times. As a regular season player, at least, Brunson wasn’t caught in the same way. All three were playoff heroes, so it’s not like one gets more power than the others out there.

If there is a difference here, it is secure. Brunson is the best scorer of the three, but he’s the weak link defensively based on his size in the elite league. Frazier was one of the greatest guards of all time. Reed was a defensive star in his prime. They obviously beat him in longevity, both having played 10 years in New York and winning two titles in four years with one title for Brunson.

If your barometer is simply “best player to ever wear a Knicks uniform,” right now, the answer is probably Frazier or Reed, and with Brunson at his current level, it’s unlikely he’ll improve enough to pass them on talent alone. If you just add success, their longevity gives them an advantage as well, although Brunson can cover it. He might win another tournament. He will probably end up playing as long in New York as they did. He hasn’t yet, but those All-Star and All-NBA berths will add up over time.

That second championship is the biggest legacy difference here, but it’s also where Brunson’s argument begins to build. He’s probably not a better player than Reed or Frazier, but if your measure of “greatest Knick” is something as constant as “most important player in Knicks history,” that’s where Brunson’s individual title weight comes into play.

Brunson’s one title against their two

If you’ve ever wondered how Bill Russell won 11 championships, it’s where he started in the league he played in. The NBA he joined had eight teams. The one he left was 14. The more teams compete against you in a tournament, the more difficult it is to win that tournament.

For that reason, there is a definite argument for Brunson’s one title having equal weight to Reed and Frazier’s two wins. The first came from the 14-team NBA and the second came from the 17-team NBA. Brunson’s Knicks were one of 30 teams, so they defeated 29 opponents. Reed and Frazier beat 13 teams in 1970 and 16 teams in 1973. Add those numbers up and you get… 29. It’s funny how these things stack up.

Then there is the weighting of specific championships won within the broader context of the franchise. The first Reed-Frazier championship came 24 years after the birth of the franchise. The 24-year drought is significant, but none is half as long as the one that followed. It’s not nearly as meaningful, either. Frazier and Reed didn’t have to carry the burden that came with all the losses that followed.

That’s the real argument here. The championships won by Reed and Frazier, were regular championships. It makes perfect sense. Historically significant, especially the 1970 championship game that ended with “here goes Willis” where Reed played 27 minutes in Game 7 despite a serious leg injury that would have kept him out entirely. But ultimately not particularly out of the ordinary in the context of heroic history. The Knicks were a 60-win team with an MVP and two other All-Stars on their side. They pretend to be champions.

The 2026 Knicks did not. They are the first champions since the 2004 Pistons to win it all without one player making First Team All-NBA. They are just the 9th seed to win it all. They didn’t write a single starter. The 2020 Lakers are the only other champion since the start of the draft that can’t say the same, and it’s not saying much considering they signed the greatest player in NBA history as a free agent two years ago. Brunson is not LeBron James. Not only did he lead one of the most amazing champions in NBA history. You are almost entirely responsible for its existence.

Brunson’s case: He made these Knicks possible

If you’re looking for one differentiator in Brunson’s side, this is it. Reed and Frazier were draft picks for the Knicks. They had no say in being the Knicks or who joined them in New York. They have grown into icons, but they work within the team almost as much as any other big player.

It’s an insult given the chemistry and football the Knicks are known for, but if you replaced any one player on that team with the same talent, the Knicks might still have won those titles. Substitute Frazier for Jerry West or Reed out for a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Knicks would be a good team, possibly a top team.

But Brunson chose to be a Knick. He did this at a time when many prominent stars, especially LeBron James and Kevin Durant, have given up the opportunity to wear blue and orange. That choice has intangible value. He willingly accepted a challenge that many famous players refused and made it his goal to bring the Knicks a trophy that only Frazier and Reed had. It may not make Brunson a better player than either of them, but it underscores everything that followed. He made 2026 New York Knicks. He couldn’t simply be replaced by another guard with the same talent. The Knicks are built entirely in his image.

They traded all his college friends for crying out loud. He started the Nova Knicks. Do the Knicks target Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges without Brunson instead? Remember, the Knicks needed Donte DiVincenzo to trade for Karl-Anthony Towns. The only Knick starter whose spot on the team wasn’t affected in some way by Brunson’s presence was OG Anunoby… with whom he shares an agent, Sam Rose.

Then there is the discount. Brunson has a $156 million extension over four years through the summer of 2024 where waiting just one year would have netted him $269 million over five. He did this in part to help give the Knicks the flexibility they needed to build this program. At the very least, it kept them under the second apron for the 2025-26 season, allowing them to acquire Jose Alvarado at the trade deadline. Alvarado became a key figure in New York’s title run. Big picture, the Knicks wouldn’t feel comfortable taking on Towns’ supermax contract if they were paying Brunson’s fair market value. His financial commitment is what allowed the Knicks to build a championship team.

That alone kills the “replace a similar player” test. The Knicks tried to trade Donovan Mitchell in the summer when they landed Brunson. He didn’t take a discount when he extended Cleveland in 2024 and there’s no indication he plans to do so if he extends again this offseason. Most stars don’t. Brunson, too, is an anomaly.

That, more than anything else, is his argument as the greatest Knick of all time. He is probably not the best player to ever put on a uniform. But he probably meant more to the championship he won than Reed or Frazier did to theirs, and the championship he won, considering the size of the league he won and the pain of the generation that preceded it, is probably the most important banner the Knicks will ever hang. That is, unless they go another 53 years before the new Knick wins it all and runs all three.