From the NBA’s First Basket to a Finals Run, the Knicks’ Jewish Story Runs Deep

The Knicks are one win from ending a 53-year title drought, and New York is vibrating again. After erasing a 29-point deficit against San Antonio and winning Game 4 on OG Anunoby’s putback in the final seconds, the Knicks now lead the Finals 3-1. But beneath this run is a deeper New York story, Jewish players, coaches, broadcasters and executives have been tied to the franchise from the very beginning.

It starts with Ossie Schectman. Long before the NBA became a global machine, Schectman, the son of Jewish immigrants, scored what is remembered as the first basket in league history as a member of the original New York Knicks. That opening-era roster reflected the Jewish city game that helped build basketball in New York, with Schectman joined in the franchise’s early chapter by names including Leo Gottlieb, Ralph Kaplowitz, Nat Militzok, Hank Rosenstein and Sonny Hertzberg.

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Dolph Schayes sits just off that Knicks line, but still inside the Jewish New York basketball universe. A Bronx-born NYU star and one of the NBA’s earliest superstars, Schayes was pursued by the Knicks before signing with Syracuse, where he became a Hall of Famer, 12-time All-Star and champion. That near-miss is part of the same story: Jewish New York was feeding the pro game before the NBA knew what it would become.

No figure gave that story a championship form like Red Holzman. Born to Jewish immigrant parents and raised in New York, Holzman became the head coach behind the Knicks’ only two NBA titles. His teams in 1970 and 1973 were not built on flash; they were built on ball movement, defense and the Garden’s belief that the right pass could become a citywide religion.

Then came Marv Albert, Brooklyn-born Marvin Aufrichtig, whose voice became inseparable from the franchise. From 1967 to 2004, Albert called the Knicks through glory, heartbreak and playoff madness, turning “Yes!” into one of the most recognizable calls in American sports. For generations of fans, his sound was the Garden.

Then comes Ernie Grunfeld, a Romanian-born Jew and son of Holocaust survivors who played for the Knicks in the 1980s and later helped lead the franchise from the front office, and through Amar’e Stoudemire, whose arrival in 2010 helped revive the franchise’s modern relevance before his journey took him to Israel, Israeli citizenship and a completed conversion to Judaism.

Finally Leon Rose, the Jewish former super-agent who took over a broken Knicks operation in 2020 and rebuilt it into a Finals team. Rose’s own path runs through Jewish community basketball, the J.C.C. Maccabi world and the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame; his roster now stands one win from delivering New York its first championship since the Holzman era.

That is why this Knicks moment hits differently. It is Brunson, Anunoby, Towns, Bridges and a Garden crowd that sounds possessed. It is also Schectman’s first basket, Holzman’s bench, Albert’s voice, Grunfeld’s front-office climb, Stoudemire’s Israel chapter and Rose’s rebuild. The Knicks’ Jewish connection is not a side note. It is part of the franchise’s spine.