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The Nova Knicks are history in the making. Can college champs win an NBA title together?
We should have seen this coming.
In 2022, the New York Knicks swung a minor trade that seemingly signaled a larger scheme. About a month ahead of the trade deadline, they acquired Cam Reddish from the Atlanta Hawks to pair him with his former Duke teammate and then-Knicks guard R.J. Barrett. People around the league (including yours truly) wondered if this was the move before the move. That is, to eventually lure Zion Williamson to New York and complete the Duke triumvirate that won the ACC championship and eventually reached the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament in 2019.
We had it all wrong. Little did we know what Knicks top brass Leon Rose and head coach Tom Thibodeau were plotting. We should have set our sights higher, because here’s the thing: that Duke team didn’t win an NCAA championship.
On Tuesday night, the Knicks traded Bojan Bogdanović, five first-round picks and a first-round pick swap to acquire former Brooklyn Nets wing Mikal Bridges, a package that somehow undersells the Knicks’ bold plan. By acquiring Bridges, it appears they’re recreating Villanova’s NCAA championship squads from 2016 and 2018. Bridges will now join his former Wildcat teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo as they try to duplicate their success at the collegiate level.
The Knicks, as of now, will pursue an NBA championship while boasting four players from the same NCAA championship teams. Former Villanova head coach Jay Wright’s reaction to the trade spoke to the rarity of what’s in front of his former players:
We should have seen this coming.
In 2022, the New York Knicks swung a minor trade that seemingly signaled a larger scheme. About a month ahead of the trade deadline, they acquired Cam Reddish from the Atlanta Hawks to pair him with his former Duke teammate and then-Knicks guard R.J. Barrett. People around the league (including yours truly) wondered if this was the move before the move. That is, to eventually lure Zion Williamson to New York and complete the Duke triumvirate that won the ACC championship and eventually reached the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament in 2019.
We had it all wrong. Little did we know what Knicks top brass Leon Rose and head coach Tom Thibodeau were plotting. We should have set our sights higher, because here’s the thing: that Duke team didn’t win an NCAA championship.
On Tuesday night, the Knicks traded Bojan Bogdanović, five first-round picks and a first-round pick swap to acquire former Brooklyn Nets wing Mikal Bridges, a package that somehow undersells the Knicks’ bold plan. By acquiring Bridges, it appears they’re recreating Villanova’s NCAA championship squads from 2016 and 2018. Bridges will now join his former Wildcat teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo as they try to duplicate their success at the collegiate level.
The Knicks, as of now, will pursue an NBA championship while boasting four players from the same NCAA championship teams. Former Villanova head coach Jay Wright’s reaction to the trade spoke to the rarity of what’s in front of his former players:
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