Knicks’ OG Anunoby Stands By Game 7 Decision

OG Anunoby’s potential New York Knicks season-saving cameo was over before the opening credits were finished rolling.

The Knicks’ otherwise fruitful 2023-24 campaign ended amidst medical madness: franchise face Jalen Brusnon missed the macabre fourth quarter of a 130-109 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals while Anunoby lasted only five minutes before the hamstring that kept him out of the prior four contests began to act up, rendering him mostly immobile as the visitors built an early lead that proved permanent.

“We lost, so it sucks,” Anunoby said in the somber aftermath, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “(I) was just trying, but couldn’t really sprint, couldn’t really jump, but just tried my best.”

Thus ends Anunoby’s abbreviated first season in Manhattan, one that began when he was traded from Toronto in late December. Energized by his renowned defense and sporadic scoring bursts, the Knicks were undoubtedly among the Eastern Conference’s finest when Anunoby partook, as they were 26-6 (including postseason) when he donned his blue and orange metropolitan uniform.

Injuries, alas, will come to define Anunoby’s maiden Manhattan voyage: the hamstring injury created his third difference absence of at least four games, as elbow woes previously shut him down for 27 games in the regular season. New York still managed to win 50 games and secure the second seed on the Eastern playoff bracket.

Even as Anunoby noticeably labored through the first five minutes of Sunday’s game, watching from the sidelines was not a option, especially considering his past: Anunoby is one of the few Knicks to own a championship ring but a different injury forced him to watch the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 title run from the sidelines.

“(I) just wanted to play. I wanted to at least try and help my teammates,” Anunoby said in Botte’s report. “We’ve been working really hard so I wanted to at least be out there. … I just couldn’t move.”

Anunoby’s return did offer the Knicks a glimmer of hope in the early going, as he scored five early points that ignited an already-raucous Madison Square Garden crowd. Offensive reinforcements from Anunoby were nothing new in the series: when Brunson went down with a foot injury in Game 2, Anunoby scored 28 points in a 130-121 win that gave the Knicks a 2-0 series lead before his own departure.

Once it became clear that Anunoby wouldn’t be his old self, however, head coach Tom Thibodeau made the sobering yet commendable decision to remove him from the game.

“Just the way he was moving, I didn’t think it was worth it,” Thibodeau said, per Botte.” “The lift from him hitting the shots, and then I just didn’t feel like he was moving well. It didn’t make sense. I didn’t think it was worth the risk. I didn’t wanna take a chance. I love OG. I talked to medical, and we didn’t know what it was going to be until he got out there. He gave us everything he had, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Anunoby may live to fight another metropolitan day: he is widely believed to be turning down a $19.9 million player option that came with him from Canada and will no doubt land a pretty penny and then some considering his impact in an abbreviated year one.

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