The last time that the New York Knicks won a championship was more than 50 years ago.
With a roster that featured future Hall of Fame players like Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, and Earl Monroe, they were able to defeat the Jerry West-led Los Angeles Lakers in the 1973 NBA Finals. This current iteration of the Knicks, led by team captain Jalen Brunson, may be trying to recapture the glory the franchise had in the 1990s. However, the ultimate goal is to accomplish what Frazier, Monroe, Reed and their teammates were able to accomplish all those years ago.
In a recent interview with the New York Post’s Steve Serby, Monroe took the time to answer myriad questions. Among these were a few that focused on the Knicks’ 1972-73 season. Describing his individual play style, Monroe says that he was unpredictable, but not necessarily in an unstructured way. Like a counter-puncher, he let the situation dictate his reaction:
“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Monroe says. “I tried to let the situation determine pretty much what my actions were going to be, because it was the action and reaction is kind of the way I played the game early on.”
Knicks Hall of Fame Guard Earl Monroe Sees Similarities In Jalen Brunson
“The Pearl,” as he became known, also emphasized his understanding of fundamentals. Because he wasn’t an exceptionally athletic player, he developed a bag of tricks that allowed him to score at a high rate. In many ways, he was ahead of his time.
“My playing style was to be where they’re not. I wasn’t a great jumper, so I had to be trickier and do things that were kind of unorthodox. But my game, basically, was a very fundamental game, but understanding what I needed to do to be successful. I intertwined the craziness of ball-handling and whatnot with the steadiness of understanding what the game was about.”
Perhaps that’s why Monroe sees a lot of similarities in Brunson, who was born 52 years after him.
A Spitting Image
“I like his game,” Monroe confides in Serby. “I’ve always liked his game, even in college. I followed him when he went out to Dallas. I always wondered why he was taken so late in the draft, he was Player of the Year. And if anybody understood the game, they could see that he was a leader.”
“I’ve seen him smile I think maybe this year maybe twice. But I never seen his smile before, because he was so serious about the game and how he played it. He might have smiled somewhere and I missed it.”
“He understood the game, that was the whole thing in a nutshell. He was a student of the game,” Monroe concludes. “I’m saying I didn’t jump well, I’m looking at another guy that didn’t jump well, but understood what he needed to do to get his shot off and get his game off against anybody.”
Brunson may only be second to Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, a wizard with the ball in his hands, when it comes to shot creation.
Brunson isn’t exactly crossing up defenders like Irving. He just has the uncanny ability to free himself from the defense. A player capable of knocking down the toughest shots from the rim to the hash, he’s truly a shot to behold.
