50 years ago in the twilight of the greatest stretch of professional basketball in New York history (with apologies to the two rounds and out KD Nets) the Knicks had two All-Star Starters in Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe.
In those 50 years, the world has changed dramatically. We’ve perfected the internet, the cell phone, and even the Soulja Boy Dance.
And yet in all that time, the Knicks haven’t had two of the top five players in the Eastern Conference. Well, that run has ended.
Jalen Brunson by the skin of his teeth and Karl-Anthony Towns with some margin for error (and benefiting from an extra frontcourt spot) were both voted in as All-Star Starters making the Knicks the only team in the NBA with two.
Though almost foiled by LaMelo Ball’s sheer popularity this honor has felt inevitable for Brunson since he lost a tiebreaker to Dame Lillard a year ago and went on to finish top five in MVP.
Still it feels like outside of New York there’s a perception gap between Brunson and the league’s shiniest stars. Without the history of LeBron, Steph, or KD and lacking the flash of Ball, Lillard, or Trae Young it sometimes feels like JB is left out of conversations he should be near the forefront of.
Ruthlessly efficient, consistently clutch, and boasting arguably the most diverse scoring bag (with shoutouts to SGA and Kyrie Irving) of any guard in the league Brunson deserves this moment to be recognized as the force he is.
And yet this honor for Towns might even mean more.
In the past, he’s been perceived as a titanic talent who lacked the toughness and focus to harness it in the most crucial moments and in the avenues most conducive to winning.
So productive offensively that All-Star bids were undeniable, but a lack of team success that made a starting spot was elusive.
Now after two years in Minnesota where he contributed to winning but had to concede some of the most dominant aspects of his game to do so playing next to Rudy Gobert, he’s gotten to shine for his childhood team showcasing every part of the skill set that once made him the league’s GM’s most desired player to build around.
He’s having one of the most efficient high-volume scoring in the history of basketball while leading the Eastern Conference in rebounds per game.
He has been a game-changer.
There’s nothing he could do this fall and winter to dissuade skeptics (myself included) of the notion that he’s not fit to win big in the spring, but he’s done just about everything short of mastering drop defense to turn New Yorkers into believers. And starting his first All-Star game is a sign the league at large recognizes one of the best people in the NBA fulfilling his enormous promise.
Time will tell whether this Knicks team is great or merely very good.
The good news is this is a league built around star power. And for the first time in a long time, they have two of them.
Other Topics in Today’s Locked On Knicks Podcast:
• Analysis of other Eastern Conference All-Star selections
• Discussion on whether Brunson and Towns are top 15 NBA players
• Breakdown of the Knicks’ recent performances and upcoming games
