New York City was stuck in a bad Patrick Ewing hangover. Since he was traded in 2000, the Knicks had won just one playoff series and 10 postseason games, leaving their fanbase miserable. That was until Jalen Brunson arrived in 2022 and helped oversee a turnaround, ultimately leading the Blue and Orange to their first Finals since ’99. Now, with the franchise just four wins away from its first championship in 53 years, there’s a real case for Brunson to be the Knicks’ GOAT.

“He’ll be in the conversation, 100%,” Paul Pierce said on No Fouls Given, answering a question on whether Brunson would become the greatest Knick ever if they won the chip in 2026. 

But would he be greater than Ewing, an 11-time All-Star and an NYC cult hero? Pierce, who spent his entire Boston Celtics career trying to destroy the Knicks, doesn’t think so.

“This will be four years as a Knick. You’ve got to throw in guys that’s been there, like Patrick Ewing, for so many years. And even if Brunson wins it, he still wouldn’t be greater than Patrick Ewing. Just because you won,” he added.

It’s not that Pierce thinks Brunson has reached his ceiling. It’s just that, in his eyes, Brunson has to do a lot more for the Knicks over a much longer period of time to have a legitimate shot at becoming the face of the iconic franchise’s history.

“If you look at Patrick’s career as a Knick overall, but if Brunson continues and after like eight or nine years, with a championship, more All-Star games and better stats, then he’ll definitely be in the conversation for number one,” the Celtics legend added. 

Ewing spent 15 seasons in New York, where he became the franchise leader in points, rebounds, and blocks. He took the Knicks to two Finals, led them to the best record in the Eastern Conference in 1992-93 at 60-22, and averaged 22.8 points and 10.4 rebounds across his Knicks career. He did it all without a championship, but Pierce is adamant that does not disqualify him from his status.

Winning one ring in year four does not erase the gap between four seasons and fifteen.

That said, Brunson may be the most popular man in the Big Apple right now. The Knicks, reeling from their loss in the ECF to the Pacers in 2025, desperately wanted a whole new generation to experience the joy of winning a conference title. And Brunson has led like a true leader, averaging 27 points and 6.6 assists throughout the 2026 playoffs.

He was the best player in the Cleveland series, averaging 23.7 points as the Knicks demolished the Cavaliers 4-0. And their record in the last 11 postseason games this season? 11 wins. The kind of dominance that has the country’s largest city dreaming of a Larry O’Brien Trophy parade next month.

Paul Pierce acknowledges all of it. His point was simply that a verdict of this magnitude requires more than one title and four years. Bernard King, whom the host invoked, averaged 32.9 points in 1984-85 before a devastating knee injury cut his Knicks’ prime short. Ewing gave the franchise 15 years of his life and still never got the ring. The question of whether one championship erases that gap has a straightforward answer, according to Pierce: it doesn’t. Not yet.

Brunson isn’t synonymous with the Knicks like Ewing was

Brunson, currently 29, has a contract with the Knicks until the 2028-29 season on a deal worth $156 million.

Let him do what he’s been doing for another three seasons, and maybe the hardliners and long-time Knicks loyalists will place him on the pedestal next to Ewing. But for now, The Hoya Destroya remains arguably the most iconic name associated with Knicks history.

He was the hero of Madison Square Garden in the ’90s, bringing physicality and grit to the court that made the Knicks a relevant franchise again. Between 1975 and 1985 (the year they traded Patrick), they won just one playoff series. Ewing took them to the Finals twice, in 1994 and 1999.

Like Pierce, Mark Jackson (Ewing’s former teammate at the Knicks) emphasized that no one comes close to Ewing when it comes to legacy on the team.

“I don’t even think it’s close. Patrick represented the Knicks organization both on and off the court and left an indelible mark,” he said on Boardroom. “It’s a disrespect to name anybody else. And the fact that he left it in between those lines like nobody I’ve ever met. I don’t think he gets enough credit…”

Maybe someday in the future, Jackson and Pierce will change their minds. That day could come very soon if Brunson performs in the Finals the way he has all postseason against the Thunder or Spurs and brings a ring back to New York City. Fail to do that, though, and he may just fall back out of favor in their eyes.

Game 1 is scheduled for June 4th, with the eyes of the NBA world on the epic Thunder vs. Spurs clash, which the former currently leads 3-2.