OG Anunoby unquestionably was the best defensive player on the team with the NBA’s seventh-best defensive rating. His net rating was the best of any Knick who played more than half the season. He was also, with little debate, the best player in New York’s first-round playoff victory over the Hawks.
Yet Anunoby remains, in the words of his former college coach, “almost taken for granted.” At least on a national level. In New York, he’s serenaded with the “OG, OG” chants. His bank account was rewarded with the largest contract in Knicks history. Mike Walczewski, the longtime Knicks PA guy, gives extra oomph when announcing Anunoby in the starting lineup.
But if the Defensive Player of the Year voting was any indication — which it usually is — Anunoby again won’t be a first-team All-Defensive selection. He finished 10th, which means there’s a solid chance — but no guarantee — of a second-team appearance, representing just the second of his career. The star-level recognition — like All-Star consideration, for instance — has eluded Anunoby.
“That’s really always irritated me at a high level is the national attention he was getting for being such a good two-way player and being a legit first-team all-defense guy,” Tom Crean, who coached Anunoby at Indiana University, said in an interview with The Post. “That’s what bothered me. Because that’s what he does. And I think that’s sometimes where because he’s not out there like that, people almost take him for granted. That’s kind of what it is.”
