OG Anunoby is not Dave DeBusschere.

That is not what I’m saying. I couldn’t possibly, in good conscience — and no matter how difficult it is to resist recency bias and dismiss the players I’m too young to remember — tell you Anunoby belongs in the same stratosphere as a top-75 all-time player.

Plus the Knicks, when they traded for DeBusschere in 1968, were further along the path to a championship. They didn’t realize it at the time, of course. But they had all the pieces in place, including a point guard waiting to break out into superstardom.

And as that stylish point guard explained when I approached him last week with my idea for this piece, DeBusschere was the final piece for Red Holzman’s Knicks.