The New York Knicks ending their more-than-50-year championship drought was always going to feel euphoric for their millions of fans across the world. The way that they got it done, though, was the cherry on top from Leon Rose's front office.
The Knicks had two homegrown players in Mitchell Robinson and Miles McBride come off of the bench throughout that successful playoff bid. They had a hometown kid, and New York State CHSAA alum, in Puerto Rican Brooklynite Jose Alvarado alongside them.
Rose didn't draft any of their starting lineup, but none of the five players were free agent mercenaries. The team was criticized widely for each of the five acquisitions — most notably when they first signed Jalen Brunson. Every member of Mike Brown's rotation truly felt like a Knick.
Sam Quinn may have said it all best in his biannual NBA front office rankings for CBS Sports. The longtime analyst gave Rose & Co. their well-deserved, and arguably overdue, flowers. And highlighted just how impressive and unconventional their roster construction was.
"Now, Leon Rose is responsible for one of the most incredible feats of team-building in NBA history. The Knicks just created an NBA champion without drafting a single starter. The only other champion to do so was the 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers, who signed LeBron James in free agency, who, in turn, recruited Anthony Davis to force a trade to join him. The Knicks were built around a former second-round pick and his college friends," Quinn wrote.
Knicks' initial Brunson signing is one of NBA's best free agent adds ever
That former second round draft pick is, of course, Brunson. But the team's family feel doesn't stop there, either.
Brunson's father, Rick, is on the Knicks' coaching staff. He was one of Rose's first clients in the 1990s and previously played for the organization. He would reportedly bring Jalen around the team and locker room often.
When Brunson was announced as New York's Captain, all-time Knicks great Patrick Ewing spoke in a tribute video about memories of the younger Brunson, running around Madison Square Garden, as a kid. At 29 years old, the guard ran circles around defenders on four different teams en route to winning the 2026 NBA Finals MVP. Go figure.
That left Quinn making a confidently-positive assertion about Rose's signing of Brunson while crediting the Knicks as the league's second-best brain trust.
"Jalen Brunson, at the very least, now stands as one of the five greatest free-agent signings in NBA history."
New York's title washed away all of the criticisms they faced over the last several years. It also gave them bragging rights over 29 other organizations in the NBA, and all of the pundits that deemed reality impossible, for the year to come. It's easy to see, with all of these factors looming over such a lengthy championship drought, why this ring means so much to the Knick fanbase.
They won't have to wait long to see their favorite players get their physical rings, either. The offseason gets closer to ending every day.
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