Landry Shamet watched the same sequence everyone else did. De’Aaron Fox scooped up a loose ball in the final seconds of Game 4, took off down the court, and tried to finish. OG Anunoby swatted the layup. The Knicks scrambled the other way. Anunoby tipped in the winner. Madison Square Garden lost its mind.
Shamet, speaking on JJ Redick’s ‘Old Man and the Three’ podcast, said his first instinct when Fox grabbed that ball was dread for the Knicks. He thought it was over.
“I thought he was gonna dribble it out and get fouled,” Shamet said. “He caught some flak for shooting that layup. He’s done that, he’s outrun everyone, he always has. He’s done that his whole life. Even still, it was a layup … that alone in itself was like a quick drop, like s**t.”
Fox took heat for not holding the ball. The Spurs had been up double digits in every Finals game except Game 1. A loss in Game 4 would have given San Antonio a 3-1 series lead and all the leverage. Instead, Fox went for the bucket, got blocked, and New York stole the game.
But Shamet gets it. Fox is a speed player. His whole career is based on getting downhill before the defense sets. That split-second decision — attack or hold — is the same one he’s made a thousand times. This time it backfired. And the result was absolute chaos.
“What followed could only be described as chaos,” Shamet said. Anunoby’s block, the Knicks grabbing the rebound, the sprint up the court, the put-back. Then pandemonium.
The Knicks would close out the series in five games. Fox’s mistake is the kind of thing that gets replayed forever. But Shamet’s point is fair: you don’t undo a player’s instincts in a moment like that. Fox has outrun people his whole life. One time, he got caught.
Shamet’s own offseason is up in the air
The Knicks have a lot of decisions to make, and Shamet is one of them. He’s an unrestricted free agent, an eight-year veteran who played a real role off the bench this season. In the playoffs, he averaged 6.0 points and 1.1 rebounds while shooting 45.3 percent from the field and a sharp 47.5 percent from three.
He made the roster out of training camp, which itself wasn’t a sure thing. But the Knicks are in a tight spot financially. If the front office is serious about avoiding the second apron, bringing Shamet back might not fit the math. That’s not a reflection of his play. It’s just the reality of how the cap works now.
Shamet has bounced around the league — Phoenix, Brooklyn, Washington, Memphis, and now New York. He’s carved out a role as a shooter who can handle a little pressure. That three-point percentage in the playoffs, nearly 48 percent, is the kind of number that gets you a look somewhere. Whether it’s with the Knicks or someone else, he’ll find work.
For now, the talking point is Fox. And Shamet’s take is a reminder that sports fans love to judge the result, not the decision. The decision made sense. The result was brutal.
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