The New York Knicks have many former Villanova basketball players on their team, and it makes for an interesting dynamic in the team's playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers, especially with Villanova posting highlights of those players beating Philadelphia playoff games, which caused Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart to make some comments about the matter.
“In their eyes, we're not a Philly school. But when we win, apparently we're a Philly school,” Jalen Brunson said, via Knicks Videos on X.
Brunson is essentially saying that Philadelphia fans like to claim Villanova basketball as one of their teams when the Wildcats are winning, like they did during Brunson's time there. But then when Villanova struggles, like it has in the last two seasons under Kyle Neptune, they do not like to claim it as one of their teams.
The “Nova Knicks”, as many have called them, are leading the 76ers in the series 2-0 after winning two nail-biters at Madison Square Garden in games one and two of the series. Now, the series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Thursday, as the Knicks will look to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. Some Philadelphia fans have been irked by Villanova posting highlights of Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo. Hart thinks that is a laughable stance.
“Why not?” Hart said when told about Philadelphia fans' reactions to Villanova's posts. “Why? That's stupid. Villanova in our blood bro, what you mean? That's a bond that goes deeper than where you're from or who you're rooting for or whatever, like we have a bond there that goes beyond basketball. That goes beyond any of that stuff, so for Philly fans to be mad about that, I think that's idiotic. That's who we are. We're a family. We played for the ones that come before us there. That's how it is there, so I don't care about it. I think it's idiotic that Philly fans are mad about that, because whether they like it or not, Villanova is in our blood.”
For many 76ers fans, their former heroes they rooted for at Villanova have burned them, so it must be a weird feeling. But it is clear that Hart and the rest of the Knicks do not care about that.
Knicks' key for closing out the series
By far the biggest thing for the Knicks in closing out this series and hopefully getting a road win in the next two is getting a better performance from Brunson on offense.
So far in this series, Brunson has shot 16-55, which is right around 29% from the field. Needless to say, that will not cut it, and the Knicks should feel fortunate to be up 2-0 with that shooting performance from their star player.
It will be interesting to see if he can turn in a performance that we are used to seeing on the road in Game 3 on Thursday night.
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