ESPN’s Monica McNutt Talks Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals, WNBA Top Storylines wRich Eisen

Monica McNutt has spent the entire postseason hearing "Knicks in four" and gently pumping the brakes. She joined Rich before Game 3 of the Finals against the Spurs, with the city as loud as she has ever heard it, and made the case that the Knicks fan, after the lean years, has earned every decibel. "I cannot tell you how many times folks have brought up the 17-win seasons as if they are on the cusp of being champions," she said. "I could not be happier for a fan base." Rich, born in Brooklyn and raised on Staten Island, called this the best Knicks team he has ever seen with his own two eyes.

The streak is not a this-year story, McNutt argued, and you miss the point if you treat it like one. She framed it as a four-year evolution. Tom Thibodeau and Julius Randle, neither still with the program, helped put the organization in a position to attract Leon Rose and Jalen Brunson. The heartbreak of recent playoff runs with the core intact, she said, is exactly what propelled them. She gave heavy credit to Mike Brown, who came in joyful and collaborative and willing to grab the 15th man off the bench. When the clock struck playoffs, she saw a level of accountability where players were comfortable calling each other up. Both Brown and Brunson, she noted, arrived to skepticism and answered it on the floor.

On the Karl-Anthony Towns conversation, McNutt was emphatic that the "too soft" label no longer fits. Having watched all three regular-season meetings, she said Towns has always had Victor Wembanyama's number, calling it the perfect matchup for him and a nightmare for Wembanyama, a big of similar size who also has the offensive skill set to exploit him. "No shade to Chet," she said, but what Towns is doing now is what people expected Chet Holmgren to do a round earlier. The bench, she added, is the other engine. Brown runs a more innovative offense and trusts his depth, so Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Mikal Bridges have all stepped up. She told Towns earlier this year that the group are not babies and not quite veterans either, so she landed on "big cousins," and he bought in.

As for closing it out, McNutt would not board the broom train, noting it has burned her twice already. Her worry is not Wembanyama but a Spurs guard getting loose, the way Julian Champagnie went for 36 points and 11 threes in a New Year's Eve loss, or De'Aaron Fox getting downhill and hot. She praised the Spurs as a group that wears its honesty and emotion on its sleeve, but said that may have tipped into being too emotional for what the Finals demand. Her call landed between four and five games, with the Knicks the eventual victors.

One thing she is genuinely curious about is the room itself. Citing earlier comments from Josh Hart, McNutt admitted she wants to see what MSG feels like at that ticket price. Still, she does not expect the energy to be robbed. Even the casual fans and Celebrity Row, she said, "happen to be Knicks fans for real," and the place is going to be alive.

McNutt also weighed in on the WNBA, where officiating has become a storyline again in year 30. After a season she described as too physical, the amendments made this offseason have tempers flaring, and she sees a real adjustment period only 10 games in, complicated further by an upcoming World Cup break that returns players to a more physical international style. On Caitlin Clark being singled out, McNutt offered a more nuanced read than the idea that Clark is simply being taken out of her game. This remains a league dominated by veterans, she said, and while the rookie curve looks different for stars with big brands, it still hits everyone as opponents gather more tape and learn how to get under a player's skin. Her surprise team of the early season was Minnesota, with Olivia Miles off to a rockstar rookie start and Napheesa Collier still to get healthy, an oversight she admitted she was disappointed not to see coming.