After the New York Knicks came close to reaching the NBA Eastern Conference finals despite an injury-depleted roster, they went all-in this offseason by trading Brooklyn Nets star Mikal Bridges to reunite him with his Villanova teammates.
Bridges reunites with Jalen Brunson , Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. They were the national champions at Villanova in 2016 and won again in 2018 without Hart, who jumped to the NBA a year earlier.
While Knicks management believes they are now closer to a championship after trading Bridges and re-signing OG Anunoby, four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” has a different opinion.
“You know what it is? New York is a place that runs on hype. That controls hype,” O’Neal said on “The Big Podcast” on July 27. “They can hype everybody else up. They didn’t win [expletive] but ‘Oohh, New York, New York.’ So [Brunson] can play. I was wrong about him. He’s impressive. But they’re not even close to winning a championship. They’ll win some games and do that, but I’m more impressed by – at the end of your career – how many championships you’ve won.”