Jeff Van Gundy has seen a lot of Knicks basketball. The former New York head coach took the franchise to the 1999 Finals as an eight seed and was on the bench for most of the best moments the building has hosted in the last 30 years. When Van Gundy says this Knicks playoff run is the best in franchise history, the statement carries weight.
He said it this week, and the reaction from Knicks fans was about what you would expect. Half of them lined up to agree. The other half pointed at the 1970 and 1973 title teams and asked Van Gundy if he had lost his mind. Both groups have a point, but the deeper read is what Van Gundy was actually saying.
This Knicks team did not just win playoff games. They walked through the league. New York dispatched the Pistons in the first round, then ran an Eastern Conference favorite Cavaliers team off the floor in a sweep, and now they sit waiting for whoever survives the Pacers and Bucks. Along the way they set the record Van Gundy is really talking about: largest cumulative point differential through a postseason run in Knicks history.
Jalen Brunson has been the engine. He has averaged just under 30 points per game in the playoffs, controlled the late-clock possessions, and made every read the team needs him to make. Josh Hart has been everywhere on the glass. Karl-Anthony Towns has bullied second-line centers, and OG Anunoby’s defensive switchability has unlocked the kind of half-court coverages Tom Thibodeau used to dream about.
The 1970 and 1973 teams won championships. That cannot be taken away from Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Bill Bradley, and the rest of them. Van Gundy is not saying this Knicks team is better than those teams. He is saying that the cumulative dominance of the route through these playoffs has been more impressive than anything he has watched from a Knicks roster.
That distinction matters. The 1999 Knicks team Van Gundy coached caught fire as a low seed and rode chaos all the way to the Finals. Those Knicks did not steamroll anybody. They survived. The Patrick Ewing teams of the early 1990s had brutal series against Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller, and Hakeem Olajuwon that ended with bruises and disappointment. The 2026 Knicks have not had a series like that yet.
The risk in this kind of statement is obvious. If New York runs into either the Spurs or Thunder in the Finals and loses, the line gets a little harder to defend. The point of a playoff run is the trophy at the end, and the franchise has not lifted one since 1973.
Van Gundy knows that. He also knows that the way you measure a team during the journey is not the same as the way you measure them after the parade. Right now, before the Finals tip off, this Knicks team has been more dominant than any playoff group in franchise history. That is the truth he was speaking to.
The Knicks have a chance to take this conversation completely off the table by closing out the title. Brunson has handled every level of pressure they have thrown at him. Thibodeau, who has worked his entire career to get back to the Finals, finally has the roster to do it. The bench is short but the starting group is one of the most complete in the East in years.
Van Gundy’s quote will age beautifully if New York wins it all. If they fall short, it will go down as one more bold take that the city held onto a little too tight. Either way, the man knows Knicks basketball, and his vote is in.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
