The casual NBA fan likely doesn’t know who New York Knicks backup point guard Ryan Arcidiacono is. College basketball fans will remember him as the starting point guard at Villanova, helping lead the team to a National Championship as a senior in 2016.
Also on that team are his current Knicks teammates, Josh Hart, Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo. While those three garner all of the headlines as the Nova Knicks, many people forget it was Arcidiacono who won Most Oustanding Player of the Tournament the year they took home the title.
While his NBA career hasn’t been as successful as his Villanova peers, he has made an impact with the Knicks. He isn’t on the team because of nepotism, as Arcidiacono was in New York before any of his college teammates donned the orange and blue.
He first joined the team in 2021 and was part of the trade that landed Hart. He made enough of an impact during his first tenure with the team, the Knicks brought him back last offseason and he had his contract guaranteed a few weeks ago.
Not part of the rotation, Arcidiacono makes his presence felt in other ways. He has become known for pointing out violations by the opposing team, getting the referees attention for defensive three second calls.
Arcidiacono is also the Knicks’ human victory cigar. While NFL teams have victory formation they go into and kneel the ball, when he checks into a game, it has the same feeling. Given how well the Knicks have played this season, he has had his number called several times at the end of the games.
In the process, that has led to Arcidiacono making some NBA history. He has appeared in 20 games this season and has yet to score a point. That puts him alone in first place when it comes to the most consecutive games played without a point being scored.
His active streak is at 20, which topped the 17 game streak Charles Jones in 1995 with the Houston Rockets. Jason Collins with 15 and then Malcolm Miller and Tony Snell with 14 each round out the top-five.
That is certainly an interesting NBA record to hold as all of Arcidiacono’s appearances have come in blowouts, whether it is a win or loss for the Knicks. He has attempted only six shots in his appearances, all of which have been 3-point attempts.
It will be something to keep an eye on, as you can be sure his teammates remind him of this every night they have a game. When will the streak come to an end? The Knicks’ next game is against the extremely short-handed Memphis Grizzlies, which has some blowout potential and the chance at some extra minutes for Arcidiacono.
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