This time, the scene unfolded 10 blocks north of the Garden, two months after OG Anunoby first took off from just inside the paint and tipped in a Jalen Brunson miss — with 1.2 seconds left in Game 4 of the NBA Finals — to form his forever Knicks moment.
This time, Anunoby was at Times Square — inside the mesh surrounding an Essentia-created court as part of the water company’s “Change the Equation” platform — taking shots as Gersh Park Basketball players cycled through a line, trying to flip Anunoby’s misses in.
A set of footprints on the court, with an “O” in one and “G” in the other, marked the approximate spot of Anunoby’s historic moment. Fans along the outside tried to capture his presence with their phones.
Knicks forward Og Anunoby takes part in an event sponsored by Essentia Water, featuring The Essentia Supercharged Court, an immersive basketball takeover in Times Square on Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Less than three years ago, Anunoby was in Toronto, already with a championship ring but without much of a celebrity presence on the Raptors.
But now, two months removed from that iconic tip-in, Anunoby has become just that for the Knicks — a defining presence in the NYC sports lexicon and the main attraction of the takeover event in the tourist hub of the world.
“It’s been really fun,” Anunoby, near the end of his summer as a Knicks champion, told The Post.
The scene Tuesday, remembering the tip, was “really cool,” Anunoby said. He could “feel all the fans, all the excitement after the win, all together” on the Essentia court.
“OG, we’re going back-to-back,” one fan shouted as Anunoby posed for pictures.
The most stoic Knicks player even cracked smiles as the Gersh Park Basketball players kept trying to recreate his shot. Sometimes, they couldn’t tip it in. Other times, Anunoby made his attempts.
Knicks forward Og Anunoby takes part in an event sponsored by Essentia Water, featuring The Essentia Supercharged Court, an immersive basketball takeover in Times Square on Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
But unlike some of his other public appearances that followed the title — when he won Best Play at the ESPYs with his Knicks teammates in attendance, when his reaction on a “Good Morning America” appearance alongside other players went viral, when he attended a World Cup match next to Mikal Bridges and Miles McBride — this spotlight belonged to Anunoby.
The challenge for the Knicks and their $212.5 million star, though, has already shifted to sustaining that success. In just over two months, their quest to repeat will begin. The 76ers, their Opening Night opponent, added Jaylen Brown from the Celtics via trade and LeBron James in free agency. The Heat won the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. The Pacers will get Tyrese Haliburton back after he missed the entire 2025-26 campaign.
LeBron James will play of the 76ers this season Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Knicks forward Og Anunoby takes part in an event sponsored by Essentia Water, featuring The Essentia Supercharged Court, an immersive basketball takeover, on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, in Times Square. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
“Every year, there’s turnover, player movement,” Anunoby said of the shifting landscape in the East. “So just usual.”
So much went right for the Knicks to etch their place in NBA history. So much went right for Anunoby to become a featured piece of that, too, with his Game 4 moment. He averaged 16.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game during the regular season, and those numbers rose to 20.3 and 6.1, respectively, in the playoffs.
And along the way, Anunoby became more than just a complementary piece alongside Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. Tuesday served as just the latest reminder of that.
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