Jalen Brunson was named the 36th captain in New York Knicks history this week…and neither Jerry Recco nor Joe Benigno can believe it.
Not that Brunson was named the captain, but that there were 35 before him.
“Thirty-six? The only captain I ever remember is Willis Reed,” Joe said.
“Can you tell me who the last one was before Brunson?” Peter Schwartz, in for updates, asked, and after Jerry guessed Julius Randle, Peter gave a hint: “It was 2018-19, bad team.”
The answer is Lance Thomas, which led Joe to yell ‘what?’ in an exasperated manner.
“I’m a Knicks fan since like 1962, and I didn’t even know they had a captain besides Reed!” Joe said. “The Yankees haven’t had 36 captains!”
“Ewing and Oakley were co-captains,” Peter replied, “and if you go out in the hallway between here and 1010 WINS, we have those great sports pictures up on the wall, and there's a picture right next to each other of Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing. We have to put Lance Thomas right next to it.”
Joe’s response?
“Oh, yeah, they're right in the same boat, Lance is right up there with those guys.”
History says he is, and now, so too is Jalen Brunson, alongside those three and 32 others.