That's not quite how it works for the Knicks. One of the best players in franchise history — the legendary Walt Frazier — has been the team's primary broadcast analyst for almost 40 years. Former All-Star Allan Houston has been a fixture in the front office across several regime.
Look in the stands in almost any meaningful game and you'll see a cavalcade of former players. Many of them, like Stephon Marbury and Carmelo Anthony, were fairly divisive among the fanbase during their careers. They get raucous applause now. Once a Knick, always a Knick.
The Unique Dynamic
It creates a somewhat unique dynamic when you remember their most notable shared trait. Most of these former Knicks didn't win championships, but their presence at these games, at least spiritually, makes it feel as though they're still trying.
Generation after generation of Knicks building on one another, pouring whatever of themselves they can still offer from the sidelines into the Herculean task of ending the 53-year championship drought they couldn't snap on the court.
A 53-Year Story
Time doesn't march forward for the Knicks. We're watching the 53rd season of the same show here. The principal cast may change every few years, but the greats still show up for the biggest episodes.
No one wants to miss the moment that the last lingering plot thread resolves. Bernard King got hurt before he could do it. Patrick Ewing came agonizingly close. Anthony never had the right teammates.
Failed Pursuit of Outsiders
The Knicks have spent the bulk of this century trying to import an outsider capable of carrying them across the finish line. They tried and failed to sign Kobe Bryant in 2004, punted two whole seasons to carve out the cap space needed to chase LeBron James in 2010, met with him again in 2014.
They were then spurned so famously by Kevin Durant in 2019 that they needed to do damage control by putting out the narrative that they actually weren't willing to pay him a max contract anyway.
Why Jalen Brunson Resonates
The attempts felt like shortcuts, and that's part of why Jalen Brunson resonates so much with this fanbase. He wasn't someone else's icon gracing Madison Square Garden with his presence.
He arrived in New York with one year of experience as a full-time starter. He's the sort of small guard who spends his whole career hearing about how players like him don't lead champions.
He may have started his career in Dallas, but he hardly even felt like an outsider. His father, Rick Brunson, played for the Knicks' 1999 Finals team. His godfather, Leon Rose, runs the team.
Brunson Era Keeps Getting Better
He was family to the fanbase and city from the moment he arrived. After years of rejection, someone actively chose the Knicks, knowing fully what that choice meant.
He grew from underdog to superstar while wearing the blue and orange, sharing the journey with both the fans and the icons watching from the stands.
He's now led the Knicks to nearly as much sustained success as any of them. His arrival coincided with the team's first four-year playoff streak this century. They've won at least one round in all four of those postseason trips. No other team in the NBA today can say the same.
He's now a three-time All-NBA player.
The Bigger Job Ahead
The on-paper résumé doesn't quite stack up to the best of the best yet. Ewing and Frazier hold most of the team records. Willis Reed won their only MVP. King and Anthony won their two scoring titles.
Brunson is still in his 20s. He might have another decade on this team to go. That will be his accumulation phase.
He has a bigger job now, the one that Ewing and Anthony and King couldn't finish. Even Reed and Frazier did so under different circumstances. They weren't burdened by the 50 years of history that followed them.
Brunson, named the Eastern Conference Finals MVP on Monday after New York swept Cleveland, has carried that weight as comfortably as anyone could expect.