Chris “Mad Dog” Russo Talks Knicks, Cavs, LeBron & More

Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo always answers the phone, and with the Knicks in the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years, the show needed him. He is not a Knicks fan, he made that clear, but he understands the euphoria. He also came ready to pour a little cold water on it.

The Knicks offense, long their weak spot, looks phenomenal right now, with everybody contributing down to the bench. Russo gave Mike Brown his bouquet for moving the ball around and getting production from everyone, not just Jalen Brunson, who bailed Brown out after game one. Russo was never in favor of firing Thibodeau, but he credited what Brown has built.

Now the cold water. The Eastern Conference, in Russo's telling, is terrible. Cleveland stinks. Philadelphia won a game seven in Boston without Embiid and finished around 44 or 45 wins. Atlanta is not good, and the Celtics were not whole without Tatum. The West, with OKC and San Antonio both winning 60 games, was a different animal. He would not bet against the Knicks given their flow, continuity, and confidence, but he wanted the context on the record. Sometimes, he said, it is simply your year, the way it was for the 2010 Giants or the 1996 Yankees.

That set up the Brunson question dominating every show. Where does he rank among Knicks all-time greats? Russo refused to get carried away. Brunson is a great clutch player, but the greatest Knick ever talk is, in his word, ridiculous. He is not Willis Reed, who won two titles and an MVP and beat West, Baylor, and Wilt in a game seven. He is not Clyde, another two-time champion. Russo does not even put Brunson on Patrick Ewing's level yet. Ewing is a top-50 player all time who spent 15 years in New York and had to get through Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Pippen. Brunson, he noted, is not top 50.

His verdict came with a condition. Win a championship, Russo said, and he would grant Brunson a spot ahead of Ewing. Short of that, to make Knicks fans happy, he would slot Brunson fourth, behind Ewing, Willis, and Clyde. First, he kept repeating, go win one.

Then Russo turned to Cleveland, and he did not hold back. Kenny Atkinson, a coach Russo genuinely likes from his Brooklyn days, had a rough series, headlined by an all-time gettable game one. With a 22-point lead and 7:52 to go, Russo said, a coach's job is to land the plane: call timeout, get the ball out of Brunson's hands, get a basket or a stop. Instead came talk of analytics and fluidity. Russo does not think Atkinson gets fired given his track record, but the explanation infuriated him.

James Harden infuriated him more. After Harden said the Cavs were the better team, Russo called it a stupid comment and called Harden a bum, a player who treats a game seven like a January night in Sacramento and is careless with the ball. He is not a championship player, and Russo would not have him on his roster even at the roughly $43 million player option he is expected to opt into.

So what is Cleveland's next move, Giannis or luring LeBron home? Russo shut both down. He would be shocked if LeBron ever returns to Cleveland and risks tarnishing what he won there. He sees James staying with the Lakers, settled at home and playing alongside his son, loving the spotlight too much to walk away from it. And the Cavs, he said, do not have the pieces for Giannis. The team that does is Oklahoma City, with two first-round picks and tradeable salary, a point Stephen A. Smith has also made.

Underneath the Harden rant was a broader Russo gripe about front-office analytics. Larry Bird looked too slow on paper, he said, and Magic could not shoot, and both turned out fine. Watch the games with your eyes.

His pick stayed put: OKC in seven, and OKC to win it all. He gave the Knicks far more respect than he did before the playoffs, though, promising they would be a complete pain in the neck in the Finals.