It’s crazy to think Jeremy Sochan is about to receive an NBA championship ring regardless of how the Finals play out, despite likely never seeing the floor in the series. Waived by the Spurs midway through the season and later signed by the Knicks, Sochan has been used sparingly by New York. Yet thanks to a bizarre twist of timing, he’ll walk away with championship jewelry no matter which team ultimately raises the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The Knicks and Spurs might be the last two franchises you’d expect
to share a long history together.
Sure, they famously met in the 1999 NBA Finals, when the eighth-seeded Knicks shocked the basketball world by fighting their way through the Eastern Conference before running into Tim Duncan and David Robinson. But outside of those five games, the two franchises have spent most of the last three decades living in completely different worlds.
One spent years collecting Hall of Famers, championships, and 50-win seasons like they were participation trophies. The other spent much of that same period trying to figure out how to stop stepping on rakes.
And despite spending most of the last 30 years in completely different basketball universes, 40 players have somehow ended up playing for both teams. Some were stars. Some were fan favorites. Some were role players who quietly carved out long NBA careers.
The Headliners
David Lee is probably the biggest Knicks success story on the list. Before becoming an All-Star, Lee was one of the few reasons to watch some truly dreadful Knicks teams in the late 2000s. Across 368 games in New York, he averaged 13 points and nearly 10 rebounds while becoming one of the league’s best double-double machines. By the time he landed in San Antonio late in his career, he wasn’t the same player, but he still gave the Spurs a reliable veteran big man who shot 59 percent from the floor during the 2016-17 season.
Kurt Thomas is another obvious one.
Knicks fans still love Kurt Thomas. The man played 569 games in New York, averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds, and spent most nights looking like he’d happily fight an entire opposing frontcourt by himself if necessary. He later became one of Gregg Popovich’s favorite veteran role players and spent parts of four seasons with the Spurs.
Rod Strickland also stands out.
Many younger fans probably associate him more with Washington, but Strickland started his career with the Knicks before eventually averaging over 14 points per game during two productive seasons in San Antonio. Few point guards from that era could get into the paint whenever they wanted quite like Rod.
Then there’s Trent Tucker.
Most Knicks fans know him because the NBA literally created a rule named after him. Tucker spent eight seasons in New York before eventually becoming part of San Antonio’s first championship team in 1999. That’s a pretty unique NBA résumé.
The Players Who Thrived in Both Places
Charles Smith averaged over 11 points per game in New York and later posted similar production for the Spurs. Maurice Cheeks, long before becoming one of the league’s most respected coaches, spent time with both organizations and remained a steady floor general everywhere he went. J.R. Reid quietly put together nearly 350 combined games between the two teams.
Wait, He Played for Them Too?
Then there are the names that make you stop and do a double take. Tracy McGrady, arguably the biggest name on the entire list, somehow played for both franchises and accomplished virtually nothing with either. Doc Rivers and Antonio McDyess are here too, although McDyess probably deserves an asterisk after averaging 12.3 points and 12 rebounds during New York’s brief but memorable 2001 playoff run. Then you have Charlie Ward, Steve Novak, Nazr Mohammed, Beno Udrih, Roger Mason, Doug McDermott, and Luke Kornet. Some were fan favorites. Some were valuable role players. Some probably had you saying, “Wait, he played for the Spurs too?”
The deeper you go, the stranger the list gets.
Eventually you find yourself staring at names like Billy McGill, Mo Layton, Howard Fisley and Len Chappell. What makes the list interesting isn’t necessarily the star power. It’s how many different eras of Knicks basketball are represented.
You’ve got players from the late 1960s sharing a list with members of the 1999 Finals team, the Melo era, the lean years, and now the Jalen Brunson era.
Some arrived in New York after learning how to win in San Antonio. Others left New York and found themselves playing meaningful basketball for championship contenders. A handful barely unpacked before moving on.
But every one of them became a small part of both franchises’ histories. And considering how dramatically different those histories have been over the last 30 years, that’s actually pretty remarkable.
Every Player to Play for Both the Knicks and Spurs
- Willie Anderson
- Anthony Bowie
- Shannon Brown
- Jackie Butler
- Anthony Carter
- Len Chappell
- Maurice Cheeks
- Terry Cummings
- Mamadi Diakite
- Howard Fisley
- Sidney Green
- DerMarr Johnson
- Luke Kornet
- Mo Layton
- David Lee
- Brad Lohaus
- Roger Mason
- Doug McDermott
- Antonio McDyess
- Billy McGill
- Tracy McGrady
- Nazr Mohammed
- Pete Myers
- Steve Novak
- J.R. Reid
- Doc Rivers
- Malik Rose
- Charles Smith
- Jeremy Sochan
- Felton Spencer
- Rod Strickland
- Kurt Thomas
- Trent Tucker
- Ime Udoka
- Beno Udrih
- Charlie Ward
- James White
- Monty Williams
- Ray Williams
- David Wingate
