{"id":754807,"date":"2026-06-07T10:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754807\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:48:16","slug":"he-brings-the-vibes-sophie-cunningham-names-her-favorite-knicks-player-amid-teams-nba-title-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/754807\/","title":{"rendered":"“He brings the vibes” \u2013 Sophie Cunningham names her favorite Knicks player amid team’s NBA title pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0New York Knicks<\/a>\u00a0are two wins away from ending a 27-year championship drought, and the basketball world is watching. After taking a 2-0 series lead over the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, New York has shown it can win even when it gets ugly, and they can do it comfortably. Game 2 was indeed a narrow, 105-104, escape act despite Jalen Brunson<\/a>‘s poor shooting.<\/p>\n

The Knicks fans can feel that their team isn’t just clicking; they are a different kind of dangerous. Many in the basketball sphere have their eyes stuck on the series; they’re rooting for their favorites, and Indiana Fever star\u00a0Sophie Cunningham<\/a>\u00a0is one of them.<\/p>\n

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Cunningham has a favorite Knick<\/p>\n

During a recent segment of her “Show Me Something” podcast, Cunningham made no secret of where her NBA Finals allegiance sits. While she had her reasons to lean towards the Spurs, she has enjoyed watching Grepp Popovich’s involvement and Victor Wembanyama<\/a>‘s work in the Western Conference; her personal connections pulled her the other way.<\/p>\n

Brunson’s play. OG Anunoby<\/a>‘s helping hand. A friendship with Mikal Bridges<\/a> that goes back to his Phoenix Suns<\/a> days. Landry Shamet<\/a>‘s contributions in the Eastern Conference Finals. Even Jordan Clarkson<\/a> was on her list through his Missouri ties with her sister, Lindsey.<\/p>\n

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Still, for her, one name sits above the rest. She ranked\u00a0Josh Hart<\/a>\u00a0among her favorite “teammates” in the game.<\/p>\n

“I think that Josh Hart might be one of my favorite teammates,”\u00a0Cunningham\u00a0said<\/a>.\u00a0“Like, he has no ego. He just does whatever the team needs. And, like, he’s a fun dude. Like, he brings the vibes, and I appreciate that.”<\/p>\n

The WNBA Commissioner Cup champion is a player who understands locker room chemistry, having managed her own high-profile season in Indiana. She wasn’t just talking about Hart’s numbers or his playoff performances. Sophie was talking about what he brings to a room.<\/p>\n

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It’s sometimes the hardest thing to keep when a team is this deep into a Finals run.<\/p>\n

Related: “Michael is like a Bond villain” – American journalist jokes that Michael Jordan sent Marcus Jordan after Larsa Pippen<\/a><\/p>\n

Hart’s numbers back what Cunningham said<\/p>\n

Some of his vibes are visible in the post-game press conferences, but so is the production. Hart has averaged 10.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 4.6 assists in 16 playoff games in 2026. For a player without a defined offensive role, those numbers are really good.<\/p>\n

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What makes Hart genuinely difficult to game plan for is the range of what he’s willing to do on any given night. Against the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>, he averaged 33.5 minutes and contributed 10.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and eight steals. Then, in the ECF against Cleveland<\/a>, when the Knicks needed more from him offensively, he dropped 26 points and was comfortable doing it.<\/p>\n

Recently, in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, some of Hart’s best moments came when the Spurs assigned Wemby to guard him. Hart understood that attacking a 7’4” defender was not always the smartest option. So, he focused on making Wemby constantly move, by cutting, changing directions and pulling him away from the basket. That kept Wemby preocupied, limiting the impact of his wingspan.<\/p>\n

Hart really has the willingness to be whatever the team needs rather than protecting a particular role for himself. Most players want to feel useful. And it’s a big reason why New York is still playing basketball in June.<\/p>\n

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Related: \u201cStay at the White House\u201d – Stephen A. Smith urges Donald Trump to avoid the NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Jun 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0New York Knicks\u00a0are two wins away from ending a 27-year championship drought, and the basketball world is watching.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[208,7,305,459,288,2131,327,4988,1260,6,1220,191,741,472,474,3748,693],"class_list":["post-754807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland","tag-indiana-fever","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-jordan-clarkson","tag-josh-hart","tag-landry-shamet","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-og-anunoby","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116708435763252531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}