Becky Hammon is perhaps the figure who has received the most relentless criticism since the New York Knicks won their NBA championship. It has been a steady, near-constant stream of callouts from fans, critics, players, and even Knicks-loving analysts, all targeting her now-infamous prediction that the team would never win it all. And as it turns out, the criticism shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The latest voice to join that chorus came from somewhere particularly notable, a player on the Knicks roster itself. Complex Sports shared his quotes on Instagram, where Josh Hart appeared to call for a direct apology from Hammon, even if he stopped short of naming her outright. 

“I’m not naming names, but I’m still waiting for somebody to say they was wrong about someone who led our team to a championship in 53 years. I know they have media availability, so we’ll be waiting for that apology,” he originally said on The Roommates Show.

And Hart wasn’t alone in that sentiment. Two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas appeared to strongly agree with the message, signaling his support by commenting on the post with four exclamation emojis.

So far, however, Becky Hammon has not addressed the growing backlash directed at her. If anything, she leaned further into her original position rather than retreating from it. Back in 2023, she had argued that the Knicks would never win a championship with Jalen Brunson leading them. She cited his size as a limiting factor for a true number-one option. And remarkably, she doubled down on that same claim even after Brunson won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and led New York to the NBA Finals.

Of course, everyone now knows how the story ultimately played out. The Knicks won the championship, and Brunson was the Finals MVP. It wasn’t just that Hammon’s original statement turned out to be incorrect. Virtually every component of that prediction was wrong, from the assessment of Brunson’s ceiling to the broader doubt cast over the team’s chances entirely.

Some have suggested that the backlash Hammon is receiving has become a bit excessive. And there is a reasonable argument there, perhaps it is time to let the moment go. But then again, this is a fanbase that waited 53 years for a championship. It is only natural, and arguably well-earned, that they want to rub this moment in the face of anyone who ever doubted that it would happen, Becky Hammon included.

Hammon’s Take Was Historically Fair, but Brunson Became the Exception

Looking at Becky Hammon’s take through the lens of basketball history, her assessment of Jalen Brunson and the Knicks actually looks far less like an empty doom prediction made in the spirit of banter, and far more like a reasonable basketball opinion grounded in genuine precedent. The premise behind her argument was, to a very large extent, historically accurate.

Hammon’s core position was that winning an NBA championship with a smaller guard like Jalen Brunson serving as the undisputed “1A,” the team’s primary, defining option, would be impossible. And of a truth, it’s actually an extraordinarily rare feat in professional basketball. 

History backs her up. NBA championship teams are almost always anchored by dominant big men, versatile two-way wings, or oversized, do-everything initiators. These are players like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

The list of smaller guards who have carried a team to a title as the unquestioned best player is remarkably short. Before Brunson, that list essentially consisted of Stephen Curry and Isiah Thomas, who led the Detroit Pistons to back-to-back championships in 1989 and 1990. Outside of those two names, the pattern Hammon described holds up almost without exception.

And again, what often gets lost in the backlash is that Hammon explicitly left room to be proven wrong, and she was. Analysts get predictions wrong all the time, even those with deep basketball expertise and genuine historical grounding for their opinions. Brunson became the exception to a rule that had held for decades. And there is no shame in failing to predict an outlier before it happens; that is precisely what makes outliers so remarkable in the first place.

But to Knicks fans still riding the high of a 53-year championship drought finally ending, none of that nuance seems to matter much. All they see is a prediction that didn’t come true. And in the eyes of some, like Josh Hart, that alone is enough to warrant a public apology. Whether Hammon ultimately offers one remains to be seen, but if she doesn’t, it likely won’t be because she was wrong about basketball history. It will be because, on this one occasion, history decided to make an exception.