Jay Wright’s two championship teams at Villanova, in 2016 and 2018, were obviously talented. They had future NBA players and elite college players.
But they were also remembered for their consistency, their desperation even as the wins piled up and a team-first mindset in which everyone sacrificed in the pursuit of ultimate glory.
He saw the same qualities with these Knicks, not simply because they included three of his championship-winning players, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart.
“It really starts with Leon [Rose]. I’m so impressed with his vision to put this together,” the former Villanova coach told The Post in a phone interview Monday. “I think the guys he went out and got, Karl-Anthony Towns and [OG] Anunoby, [Landry] Shamet — Mitchell Robinson fit in that way, even though he had him. He went out and got those kinds of guys like Josh, Mikal and Jalen that were about winning and about the team. It sounds simple, but that’s really hard to do today. All of those guys sacrificed parts of their games.”
