Some may view the New York Knicks' OG Anunoby-induced surge as an early favorite for the most pleasant surprise of the 2024 calendar year.
Don't count Tom Crean among them.
Few are more well-versed in Anunoby's positive impact than Crean, who oversaw his college days as the head coach at Indiana University. Crean spoke to Peter Botte of the New York Post shortly after the trade that sent his former protege south to New York and immediately foresaw great things ahead.
"I’m telling you this right now, New York is really going to love him," Crean said. "No question about it, he’ll fit into the fabric of the city and the Knicks. He’s got the game, he’s got a lot of substance to his game, there’s some style to his game, he works and makes a difference at both ends, and most of all, he is who he is."
"New York always has embraced that combination, that type of player."
Crean's words have proven prophetic: since acquiring Anunoby from the Toronto Raptors, the Knicks (21-15) have won each of their ensuing four games, including demonstrative victories over contenders from Minnesota and Philadelphia. With Anunoby well-known for his defensive work in Ontario, the Knicks have felt an immediate jolt in that department, allowing an average of 100.8 points in the last four, the lowest in the NBA in that span.
The winning streak has been defined by the scoring antics of Julius Randle and newly-recrowned Eastern Conference Player of the Week Jalen Brunson but Anunoby's more subtle prescience is the type of impact that Crean saw over two seasons in Bloomington (2015-17). The first of those seasons saw Indiana win the Big Ten's regular season title and reach the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
“He’s not going to give outlandish quotes, but he’s going to be a very good representative of that team and that city because of who he is," Crean remarked. "He’s an old soul in a lot of ways, a very caring person, but he has got an incredible drive. I’d almost say it’s an insatiable drive to be great and to win.”
Crean also spoke of the de facto medical chip that Anunoby carries on his shoulder: a knee injury cut his latter season at Indiana short (indirectly relegating the Hoosiers to the NIT) and an emergency appendectomy kept him out of the Raptors' 2019 title run two years later.
“I believe that created an incredible hunger for him because he wasn’t on the court for it,” Crean said. “It’s almost like, yeah, he got the ring and was a big part of it all season, but in his own mind, he didn’t feel the level of winning it."
“He was around the team and he’d been instrumental in getting to that point, but he wasn’t out there on the court at the end, and I think that’s what he truly wants more than anything else. That’s where that drive is for him.”
That drive's been quite apparent in the early going: the Knicks (21-15) have leaped into a three-way tie for fourth place on the Eastern Conference playoff bracket with their four-game winning streak and will have a chance to keep things rolling when they face the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).
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