Ranking Jalen Brunson and the Top 10 New York Knicks of All Time
In case you haven't heard, the New York Knicks are headed to their first NBA Finals since 1999. And in case no one's told you, this gives them a chance to win their first championship since 1973—53 years ago.
Numerous factors have juiced New York's return to the Finals, as well as its dominant run through the Eastern Conference. Chief among them is the man bordering on myth, the defining acquisition of this era, the captain himself, Jalen Brunson.
That got us thinking: Four seasons into his orange-and-blue tenure, where does he stand among the greatest Knicks of all time? And how might winning it all impact where he stands now?
Our Rank-A-Nizer 5000 is revved up, fueled by career accolades and organizational lore and ready to go.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 11
The following players all received consideration for a top-10 slot but did not make the cut:
Barnett and Oakley were the hardest to leave out.
Not only does DB have two championship rings, but he churned out a bonkers debut season for New York, clearing 23 points while getting to the line more than eight times per game in 1965-66.
Oakley, meanwhile, typified 1990s Knicks basketball more than anyone except Patrick Ewing. He was a gritty, physical, relentless, high-IQ try-hard who ranks in the franchise's top three of rebounds (first on the offensive glass!), steals and minutes played when factoring in both the playoffs and regular season.
Seeing him in a Toronto Raptors jersey following the Marcus Camby trade still feels icky to this day.
10. Bill Bradley
2 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 10
Per-Game Averages: 12.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 0.7 steals
Notable Accolades: 2x champion, 1x All-Star
Choosing Bill Bradley over Dick Barnett and Charles Oakley was a tough call. Barnett's peak was probably higher, and Oakley's physical brand of basketball makes him more of a touchstone in the modern Knicks lexicon.
Bradley edges them out on the back of his role during both of New York's championship runs.
A highly decorated college player and noted iron man, he started in every postseason game while averaging over 30 minutes. Though Barnett was on those squads as well, he was 37 years old and didn't play nearly as much en route to the 1973 title.
All of those postseason reps leave Bradley in the top seven of both total playoff points and assists—a dual-standing we can't ignore.
9. Carmelo Anthony
3 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 7
Per-Game Averages: 24.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.0 steals
Notable Accolades: 6x All-Star, 2x All-NBA, 1x scoring champ
Everything about Carmelo Anthony's place in Knicks history is complicated. From the circumstances of his arrival to the results of his time in New York to when and how he was shipped out, his entire tenure feels like a concatenation of missed opportunities.
Making it past the first round just once works against him. Even the 2012-13 campaign, in which the Knicks had the vitals of a title contender, ended in a haze of disappointment and Roy Hibbert.
Melo is nevertheless one of the two or three most prolific scorers ever to put on a Knicks jersey. Bernard King is the only other orange-and-blueman to win a scoring title. Anthony's 62-point eruption versus the Charlotte Hornets in 2014 is a franchise record. And he holds three of the Knicks' 11 highest-ever scoring-average seasons.
For all of his perceived flaws, Melo also bagged a top-three finish on the MVP ballot in 2013. Patrick Ewing, meanwhile, is the only player in franchise history who ranks ahead of him in Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) for the regular season.
Whether New York's lack of success in the Anthony era is more about his own missteps and shortcomings or the organization itself remains and will forever be debatable. His peak reaching a high enough apex and lasting long enough to be viewed as top-10-in-team-history material is not.
8. Richie Guerin
4 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 8
Per-Game Averages: 17.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists
Notable Accolades: 6x All-Star, 3x champion
Richie Guerin was arguably the Knicks' inaugural superstar.
Sure, his tenure wasn't marked by a ton of playoff success. Or rather, any playoff success. He made the postseason just once with the franchise. But he was a mainstay in the All-NBA and All-Star discussions.
These accomplishments are diluted by the league having just eight or nine teams during Guerin's Big Apple tenure. While that's fair game for dragging him down the best-Knicks-ever ladder, excluding him cannot be treated as a throwaway decision.
Walt Frazier is the sole Knicks player with more 18-point, five-assist seasons under his belt. Guerin's 29-point, six-assist campaign in 1961-62 is the only one of its kind throughout franchise history—and something fewer than 30 players overall have ever done.
It wasn't until Jalen Brunson came along that Guerin's single-season benchmark for 30-point, 10-assist games fell. He held the team's single-game scoring record with 57 points for 25 years until Bernard King dropped 60 in 1984.
While his name isn't mentioned often when discussing the team's record books, he's in the top 16 of total points (sixth), assists (fourth) and rebounds (16th). Just two other players hit the top-16 trifecta: Frazier and Patrick Ewing. He's also first in free throws made per 36 minutes.
7. Earl Monroe
5 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 9
Per-Game Averages: 16.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.0 steals
Notable Accolades: 2x All-Star, 1x champion
Known for his derring-do handle and dazzling scoring package, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe's crowning achievement with the Knicks was proving his scalability.
Make no mistake, he scored a ton. Across both the regular season and playoffs, he is seventh all-time among Knicks players in points scored.
But when he first joined the Knicks in 1971, coming over in a trade with the Baltimore Bullets, he was tasked with retrofitting his game to a more movement-heavy, egalitarian offense under head coach Red Holzman. That's no small feat for a usually ball-dominant headliner.
The shift proved to be no issue. Monroe came off the bench during his first season in New York and then formed "The Rolls Royce" starting backcourt with Walt Frazier that following year—when the Knicks won their second (and to date last) championship.
6. Dave DeBusschere
6 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 6
Per-Game Averages: 16.0 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 0.9 steals , 0.5 blocks
Notable Accolades: 2x champion, 5x All-Star, 5x All-Defense, 1x All-NBA
Other players have longer track records with the Knicks, but Dave DeBusschere made the most of his five-plus seasons in New York. He went bananas on the glass for someone standing just 6'6" and was a defensive linchpin, pestering players on both the interior and the perimeter.
DeBusschere was selected to six All-Defense squads during his time with the Knicks. (He was traded from the Detroit Pistons to New York in the middle of 1968-69.) Each of those honors was a first-team nod. To this day, Walt Frazier is the lone player in franchise history with more All-Defense selections.
Everyone knows he was a member of both Knicks championship squads. However, fewer people realize that he nabbed three top-11 MVP finishes in the four years he continued playing after that first title.
DeBusschere's durability was off the charts, too. Even as he aged into his 30s, his hustle on defense and the glass persisted. He never played in fewer than 71 games in a season with the Knicks, and he averaged nearly 37 minutes per night.
Despite not being the craftiest scorer, his availability helped him comfortably average in the double digits—paving the way for him to record more double-doubles through the regular season and playoffs than all but three players in franchise history.
5. Bernard King
7 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 4
Per-Game Averages: 26.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.9 steals
Notable Accolades: 3x All-NBA, 3x All-Star, 1x scoring champ
Much like Jalen Brunson—who, you might notice, still has yet to appear here (teaser!)—Bernard King enters the discussion without the benefit of longevity.
Unlike Brunson, he isn't buoyed by his postseason pinnacles. He never made it out of the second round with the Knicks.
He doesn't need it. Because he transcends it.
Because the dude could get buckets.
No player has more 50-point detonations in a Knicks uniform (five). The 26.5 points per game he averaged in orange and blue are second to only Bob McAdoo.
Back in 1984-85, King became the first Knicks player (and remains one of two) to win a scoring title. The 32.9 points per game he notched to do so remain a franchise-high—as well as the only time anyone on the team averaged 30 for an entire season.
Of the three All-NBA nods he received with the Knicks, two of them werefirst-team honors. Walt Frazier is the only player with more of those bad boys (four) on his Mecca resume.
4. Jalen Brunson
8 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 4
Per-Game Averages: 26.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 0.9 steals
Notable Accolades: 3x All-NBA, 3x All-Star, 1x ECF MVP
Just four seasons into his Knicks tenure, this is Jalen Brunson's floor. There is zero trace of projecting forward at play here, either.
Brunson's arrival in 2022 was the mother of all turning points. He rescued New York from a moribund existence.
Doing so as a small guard who not even the Knicks could have believed would morph into a top-10 player only increases his hold on franchise history. The same goes for his decision to sign a bargain-bin extension while still playing out one of the Association's most below-market deals.
This isn't to say he owes his place on New York's Mt. Rushmore purely to vibes. Brunson is stewarding an era of sustained excellence the Knicks and their fans haven't seen since Patrick Ewing.
Brunson already ranks in the franchise's top three of both playoff points and assists, and he sits second in postseason VORP. His three All-NBA selections trail only Ewing, Walt Frazier and Willis Reed.
There is no cap on how much further up these rankings Brunson can climb. Leading the Knicks to their first championship in over five decades likely puts him on a third-place track. From there, anything would be possible.
3. Willis Reed
9 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 10
Per-Game Averages: 18.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.6 steals, 1.1 blocks
Notable Accolades: 2x champion, 2x Finals MVP, 1x MVP, 7x All-Star, 5x All-NBA, 1x All-Defense, 1965 Rookie of the Year
Game 7. The tunnel. Torn thigh muscle. Painkillers. "Here comes Willis!" The crowd exploding. Two made baskets. Championship. Finals MVP.
Willis Reed etched his place in Knicks lore with that one appearance. His return to play after missing most of Game 5 and all of Game 6 was just as much of an emotional lift as a functional boost.
Recognizing him exclusively for that moment, though, is ultimately reductive. He has a league MVP under his belt—in 1970, he became the first player to win MVP, All-Star MVP and Finals MVP in the same season—and he earned his second Finals MVP when the Knicks won the title in 1973.
The merits of his getting the Finals MVP nod over Walt Frazier on both occasions are debatable. The seven years he spent churning out dominant double-doubles before injuries started taking their toll are not.
Reed joins Frazier and Patrick Ewing as the only players with at least five All-NBA selections in a Knicks uniform. He is also third all-time in points and second all-time in rebounds. Equally important, Frazier believes that Reed was the lifeblood of New York's lone two title teams.
"I was a captain of the Knicks," Frazier told The Athletic's Darnell Mayberry in 2021. "But I wasn't The Captain like Willis. Everybody didn't follow me. Everybody didn't respect me. We've had a lot of captains of the Knicks. But he is The Captain, still. After all these years, 50 years, he's still The Captain."
2. Walt Frazier
10 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 10
Per-Game Averages: 19.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 2.0 steals
Notable Accolades: 2x champion, 7x All-Star, 6x All-NBA, 7x All-Defense
Walt "Clyde" Frazier dominated at the intersection of flash and substance. The handle and jumper were silky, the passing was quixotic and the fashion was worthy of the social media era.
While he often deferred to the importance of Willis Reed, Frazier was the engine that powered the most successful era in Knicks history. Look no further than Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals.
That night is remembered for Reed gutting out a muscle tear in his right thigh. Because, duh. But it was Frazier who rang up 36 points, 19 assists and five steals on 12-of-17 shooting against a Los Angeles Lakers squad led by Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor.
"Let's put it this way, if I don't make those first two shots, if I don't play, they're still going to win the game," Reed told The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov of Frazier in 2020. "Having been the captain of the team, I think all that had something to do with it too. I don't think he got enough credit."
Headlining the only two championship teams in franchise history does a lot of lifting, as it should. Frazier and Co. probably don't receive enough credit for unseating two iterations of the Lakers spearheaded by West and Wilt.
Still, New York's all-time assist leader is more than the accumulation and gravity of his teams' success. He was the standard-bearing two-way guard before the two-way guard was a thing.
Through his role as an analyst with MSG Networks, his enthusiasm for contemporary hoops, and, yes, even his resplendent suit collection, his legacy has only strengthened over time.
1. Patrick Ewing
11 of 11
Seasons with the Knicks: 15
Per-Game Averages: 22.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.0 steals, 2.7 blocks
Notable Accolades: 11x All-Star, 7x All-NBA, 3x All-Defense, 1986 Rookie of the Year
The "Patrick Ewing or Walt Frazier?" debate is a legitimately painstaking one. People who value rings above all will default to Frazier. It doesn't mean the margins aren't thin.
Never mind sussing out their places in Knicks lore. When my esteemed colleagues and I ranked our greatest 100 NBA players of all time during the 2025 offseason, Ewing checked in at No. 40, while Frazier landed at No. 43.
Longevity and singular dominance tip the scales toward The Big Fella. He is the franchise's all-time leader in combined regular-season and playoff points, rebounds, steals and blocks by (mostly) cosmically wide margins. What he lacks in hardware he offsets with all-everything-hub credentials. His post play and floor game on offense were just as critical lifelines as his defensive presence in the middle.
Frazier has more first-team All-NBA honors (four to one), but Ewing has more overall All-NBA selections (seven to six). While Frazier has more All-Defensive nods (six to three), his recognition came when the league had fewer teams.
To that end, Ewing racking up six top-five MVP finishes during an era in which Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Charles Barkley all existed and took home trophies doesn't get talked about enough. He was more of a central force because he needed to be. His teams were not peppered with future Hall of Fame running mates.
Ewing's place among all-time greats writ large is complicated by the absence of a ring and The Ewing Theory that was popularized by Bill Simmons during his time at ESPN. Neither submarines his New York-only standing.
Greatness goes beyond the entirely quantifiable, too. Frazier's ties to the organization are stronger, largely because of his role as an analyst with MSG Networks. Ewing's cultural impact is a different kind of permanence, but permanent all the same.
The planet-sized knee pads and rivers of sweat are tattooed to memory even for those who didn't watch him at his peak because he was the face and foothold for the Knicks' longest stretch of uninterrupted relevance.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
_0.jpg?w=600 "Takeaways From Garrett, Brown Deals ✍️")
.jpg?w=600 "A.J.'s Patriots Post 🔮")
.jpg?w=600 "A.J. Brown Trade Grades ✍️")
.jpg?w=600 "Grading Monday Night Raw 🔠")
