Ranking the all-time Knicks villains as CJ McCollum joins the club
Between his antagonizing antics and soul-shaking shot-making, CJ McCollum needed only two playoff games to achieve Knicks villain status . A sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden informed McCollum of his addition to the club with booming, profane chants throughout the second half of his Atlanta Hawks’ come-from-behind 107-106 victory in Game 2 of their first-round series. This was inevitable after McCollum inadvertently kicked Jalen Brunson in the groin, then accused the Knicks star of flopping in Game 1; and then got into a heated spat with Jose Alvarado before sinking the game-winning jumper in Game 2.
“I ain’t no villain. I’m a nice guy with two kids and a wife,” McCollum said Monday night after scoring six of his 32 points in the final 2:08, helping the Hawks complete a 14-point comeback. “I think it’s admiration.
Great, passionate fans in a really hostile environment. It’s fun. It’s basketball.
It’s the playoffs. If anything, I think it’s a sign of respect. ” With the series now tied, McCollum has at least three more games to add to his newfound lore as a Knicks enemy, including at least one more at the Garden.
But McCollum still has a long way to go to even think about the top of the leaderboard. Here are our power rankings for the all-time Knicks villains: 6. JOEL EMBIID Another relatively recent addition to the fraternity, Embiid earned the ire of Knicks fans during a 2024 first-round playoff series fraught with tension.
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