Rick Brunson names greatest Knick but didn’t pick Jalen Brunson

With the New York Knicks winning their first NBA title in 53 years with the victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday night, and with Jalen Brunson putting the exclamation point on the Knicks’ incredible season with a monster performance, there’s a debate about whether or not he’s the greatest player in franchise history.

Brunson deserves to at least be in the conversation after leading the Knicks to a title, but we can’t be victims of recency bias and forget about guys like Walt Frazier and Willis Reed from the previous two Knicks championship teams in 1969 and 1973.

However, if you ask Knicks assistant coach and Brunson’s father, Rick Brunson, it isn’t his son or Frazier or Reed.

Instead, he picked Patrick Ewing.

“I’m gonna stop the argument, too, no disrespect, I love my son. Patrick Ewing is the best Knick that I’ve ever witnessed,” Brunson said after the Knicks beat the Spurs in Game 5.

Is Patrick Ewing the greatest Knick?

While we respect Brunson’s opinion and think Ewing was no doubt an all-time great in franchise history, he falls short of Brunson, Frazier and Reed.

The reason for that is very simple: Ewing was never able to lead the Knicks to an NBA title in his impressive but disappointing tenure in New York.

The fact that Brunson was able to accomplish that feat helps him clear Ewing on the Knicks’ all-time list.

But does that make Brunson the greatest Knick of all time?

Is Jalen Brunson the greatest Knick?

Now that we’ve established Brunson being ahead of Ewing, we have to decide if the Knicks guard goes ahead of Frazier and Reed.

For now, we’d say no.

That’s because Frazier and Reed have a pair of NBA titles with the Knicks, and both are all-time NBA greats, as evidenced by their statuses as Hall of Famers.

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That being said, nothing is settled in this debate.

Brunson still has time to win at least one more ring and can match Frazier’s and Reed’s prolific careers by earning a Hall of Fame nod when it’s all said and done.

Even if he ends up falling short of Frazier, who we consider the greatest Knick of all time, and Reed, who is No. 2 on our list, there is no shame in that.

Brunson has cemented himself as a Knicks legend and will forever be remembered as the player who led this franchise out of the 53 years of darkness to an NBA title.