What the New York Knicks accomplished by winning the 2026 NBA Finals was both historic and long in the making. 

The Knicks are one of the NBA's oldest teams, but in the 80 years that they've existed as a franchise, there are only three time periods where they could have truly been considered great: the 1970s, when they won their first two championships, the late-1990s, when a Patrick Ewing-led franchise seemed to return hope to the Knicks for the time being, and right now.

In all of the time between those three periods, the history of the Knicks has been defined by struggle, mediocrity and jokes at their expense. 

But there was a time before this current iteration of greatness where it seemed like the Knicks were finally on the rise and that was in the late 2010s and early 2020s, the build up period to the current NBA champions and while that process also had some bad years mixed in, the Knicks still seemed like they could be building to something.

Julius Randle was one of the kew building blocks to that process, joining the team in 2019 and taking a major leap in his own career as he became the face of the Knicks' franchise at the time. In five seasons with New York Randle averaged 22.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists. 

But for all of his efforts, Randle couldn't lead the franchise to glory and was eventually traded in a package that included Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns, but even though he's no longer with the team, Randle is still able to feel pride for them and recognize the magnitude of the moment, and he's hoping that the Knicks' winning energy finds its way across the city to him in Brooklyn.

"What the organization accomplished is great. Been a long time coming. Took a lot of hard years, a lot of different players, to build it up to what it was. It’s amazing. Definitely look forward to creating that in Brooklyn," Randle said in a recent interview. 

Eve though the Knicks moved past Randle and took on new heights in his absence, his impact on restoring the team to prominence is worth noting and laid the groundwork for what the team eventually became. 

It's easy to see how watching the Knicks win from the sidelines may have been bittersweet for Randle, but there are few players in the NBA today playing outside of the current Knicks' roster that know just how much this championship means to the franchise and to the city, but Randle is surely one of them.