Knick Of Time

Can anyone tell TigerBlog who the following people are: Jacob Evans, Dzanan Musa, Omari Spellman, Elie Okobo and Jevon Carter? 

That's right. They're the five players selected in the 2018 NBA Draft directly before Jalen Brunson, who was the 33rd overall selection that year. Those five combined have 4,003 career NBA points. 

Brunson? He has 2,195 — in just his playoff games. In the regular season? Brunson has 10,748. 

Do you know who Deandre Ayton is? It's likely you've heard of him. He's had a solid NBA career, with 7,426 career points. Of course, he was the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, or 32 spots before Brunson. 

You can go through the entire 2018 draft and not find more than three players who have had the impact in their NBA careers that Brunson has had. So how do they keep missing, in the NBA and the NFL? Who knows. 

Even when Brunson misses it can come up roses. Did you see how his New York Knicks won Game 4 of the NBA Finals Wednesday night? Brunson, who finished with 36 points, missed a potential game-winning three in the final seconds, only to have OG Anunoby make one of the greatest plays you'll ever see with a follow tip-in that, well, can hardly be described:

AN ALL-TIME CLASSIC!

THE FINAL MINUTES OF SPURS-KNICKS GAME 4 🔥 pic.twitter.com/My5dHDiQ64

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 11, 2026

Understanding recency bias and all, TigerBlog has to say that 1) this was quite possibly the greatest NBA Finals game ever played and 2) this immediately vaults to one of the two greatest Knick moments in Madison Square Garden history. The other? Hint - it happened before a game even started. 

If you're looking for the other absolute greatest Finals games, you have the Magic Johnson 42-point night as a center Game 6 in 1980, Michael Jordan's "flu game" in Game 5 in 1997, Jerry West's three-quarter court heave to force overtime in Game 3 in 1970 and, in the only other game that can rival the other night, Game 5 in 1976, when the Celtics beat the Suns 128-126 in three OTs. 

As for this year's Game 4, TigerBlog was going to call it a night when the Knicks were down by 29. Or in the early fourth quarter, when they were still down by 18. Instead, he figured he'd ride it out, mostly because he was too lazy to get off the couch. 

The fact that he stayed with it to the end enabled him to keep, well, track of how Princeton was doing at the NCAA track and field championships in Oregon, which started Wednesday night. 

The first day saw three second-team All-American performances by Princeton men — Jackson Shorten and Brian Boler in the steeplechase and Joey Gant in the 400. Gant finished 0.04 seconds out of qualifying for the final; that is literally less time than the blink of an eye. 

The two biggest stories of the first night were from Greg Foster, who finished fourth in the long jump to earn first-team All-American honors, and Connor McCormick, who ran the 1,500 in a school record 3:35.81. 

McCormick advanced to run in tonight's final, which starts at 8:12 Eastern. McCormick will be one of 12 runners in the race, and his qualifying time Wednesday was the fastest. Princeton's Miles Hogan will run tonight as well, in the 5,000 meter final at 9:55. 

The Princeton women began their competition last night. There were seven Tigers who reached the finals, all in field events. In fact, Princeton qualified in more field events than any other school in Division I. 

Princeton had five athletes who were in finals last night: Angela McAuslan-Kelly (hammer), Tessa Mudd (pole vault), Shea Greene (javelin) and Alexandra Kelly and Georgina Scott in the long jump. 

The championships — and, for that matter, the 2025-26 Princeton Athletic year, conclude tomorrow, with Layla Giordano in the discus, Alysa Carrigan in the high jump and Georgina Scott in the triple jump.