Mark Bryant gleefully acknowledges the crowd, when Seton Hall honored him as a “Pirate Legend” at a Seton Hall basketball game in December 2024.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE — The New York Knicks are NBA champions for the first time in 53 years and all of the metropolitan area is in a tizzy.
One of the members of the Knicks is Mark Bryant, the pride of Columbia High School. A 1984 CHS graduate and Cougars basketball legend, Bryant is one of several assistant coaches for the Knicks. Bryant could be seen sitting behind the Knicks bench during their glorious and historic playoff run.
Bryant, a 6-foot-9 power forward, is a CHS Athletic Hall of Fame member. At CHS, he scored 1,254 points and had 966 rebounds and 139 blocks during his career. Bryant led the Cougars to the Group 4 state sectional finals and was named First Team All-State. After a stellar four-year career at Seton Hall University, Bryant was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 1988 NBA Draft, the 21st selection overall. He played for 10 teams for 15 seasons. He was on the Trail Blazers that went to the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992.
Bryant, who completed his second year on the Knicks coaching staff, also was an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 and for the Phoenix Suns in 2021, when those teams went to the Finals in those seasons. Bryant has been an assistant coach for the past 22 seasons for six teams, including the Knicks.
Behind stars Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby, among others, the Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs, 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals, winning three games in San Antonio, including the clincher in San Antonio in Game 5 on June 13.
The Knicks went a remarkable 16-3 in the playoffs, including winning 15 of the final 16 games and nine straight road games.
The Knicks were simply dominant in the playoffs. They set the NBA playoff record in points differential, outscoring their four playoff opponents by a whopping 283 points. They beat the Hawks 4 games to 2 after being down 2 games to 1 in the first round in the Eastern Conference, then swept both the Philadelphia Sixers and Cleveland Cavaliers to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999.
The Knicks also staged incredible comeback victories. In Game 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cavaliers, the Knicks rallied from a 22-point deficit with 7 minutes left in the fourth quarter and eventually won 115-104 in overtime at Madison Square Garden.
In the NBA Finals in Game 4, the Knicks were down by 29 and beat the Spurs 107-106, with Anunoby scoring on the game-winning tip-in, sending the Madison Square Garden crowd in a frenzy. It marked the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history.
Then in Game 5, the Knicks erased a 15-point deficit in the third quarter and a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter, behind Brunson’s 45 points, to win 94-90 in San Antonio to clinch the title for the first time since 1973.
The Knicks also defeated the Spurs in the NBA Cup tournament final earlier in the season. The Knicks were the first team to win both the NBA Cup and NBA championship in the same season. This was the third season that the NBA Cup tournament was held.
The Knicks’ ticker tape parade was scheduled for Thursday, June 18, beginning at Battery Park at 10 a.m. and will travel north on Broadway – the Canyon of Heroes – and end at New York City Hall.
Other photos Courtesy of Seton Hall University
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