Knicks Fan Rich Reacts to New York’s Historic Comeback/Spurs’ Epic GM4 Collapse in NBA Finals

The Knicks completed the largest comeback in NBA Finals history, erasing a 29-point deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, and Rich watched it as a Knicks fan who could not believe what he was seeing.

"I've never seen anything like it, nor have you, cuz nobody's ever come down from 29 points down to an NBA Finals game," Rich said. "It was as historic as ever and it sure didn't feel that way to me or anybody in that building."

For most of the night, it felt like the opposite of history. The Spurs hit the Knicks in the mouth from the opening minute. Mitch Johnson challenged a foul barely a minute in, getting a second foul reversed onto Karl-Anthony Towns and sending him to the bench faster than any player has picked up two fouls in any game since 1998. From there, San Antonio rained threes, 14 of them in the first half, on the way to 76 first-half points.

"Wemby wasn't missing. My god, Vassell wasn't missing. Champagnie wasn't missing. De'Aaron Fox wasn't missing. Dylan Harper is unbelievable," Rich said. The Knicks, he admitted plainly, "spiraled."

Then the second half flipped everything. The Knicks sped the game up, and the Spurs played "ridiculously unspurs-like basketball," in Rich's words, refusing to stop hoisting threes even as the makes dried up. New York sliced the deficit to 15 entering the fourth, then to nothing.

A Jalen Brunson three over Victor Wembanyama made it a one-point game. "I was screaming my head off. I couldn't believe he was doing it again," Rich said. After a missed Brunson logo three in the final seconds, OG Anunoby crashed from the inbounds spot and put it back with 1.2 seconds left to give the Knicks the lead.

"I will never forget this moment. Knicks fans will never forget this moment," Rich said. "This is how legends are born."

He compared the near-misses along the way to franchise ghosts, including Josh Hart's blown layup, which he likened to "this generation's version of Patrick Ewing finger-rolling one off the back of the rim."

As for San Antonio's collapse, Rich did not dance around it. Pressed on whether it was the greatest choke in history, he said: "You have to call it the biggest choke job ever."

Now up 3-1, the Knicks have to finish. "They've now got to win three in a row," Rich said, against a team that won 13 straight before Game 3.