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You can't teach experience. That's an intangible you have to go through to truly earn as a merit. Now that Dillon Jones is two-for-two in terms of NBA championships, he's likely bought himself some more time in the NBA — and probably a post-playing career.
You need as much luck as talent to survive the NBA. After the Oklahoma City Thunder celebrated their NBA championship, Jones was shipped to the Washington Wizards. His stay there didn't last long as he was eventually cut. Bouncing around the G League for a couple of months, he landed on the New York Knicks as a two-way player in Jan. 2026.
From there, Jones experienced deja vu. He sat near the end of the bench as the Knicks became red-hot at the right time. They went a historic 16-3 en route to an NBA championship. Blowing teams out left and right, New York took care of business in the 2026 NBA Finals by gentleman-sweeping the San Antonio Spurs.
Still enjoying that once-in-a-lifetime achievement, Knicks head coach Mike Brown recounted on a recent podcast relying on Jones for advice. While the two-way player was at the bottom of the depth chart and ineligible to play in the NBA playoffs, his one season in OKC proved to be an experience the first-year coach relied on.
"Dillon was fabulous. I spoke to Dillon often during this playoff run because he had just gone through it with Oklahoma City," Brown said. "I said, ‘Hey, when you guys were in this position, what was Mark saying? What was Sam Presti saying? What were you guys saying to each other? What do you think here?’ You remember the video that we showed of you guys when you lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Pacers? That was his idea. He wanted to show still shots. Because they did something similar to that because they lost from the year before."
It's cool to see that the Thunder indirectly helped the Knicks beat the Spurs. They entered the NBA Finals as an underdog. Most thought San Antonio would win pretty easily. Instead, New York followed the same game script for most of its wins — hang around just enough throughout the game and let Jalen Brunson carry them to the finish line in the fourth quarter.
Jones might carve out a decent NBA career because of his two championship rings. That type of experience is something every locker room seeks. Even though his playing career hasn't gone the way he likely hoped it would, there's still a niche for him to stay in the league.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: How this former OKC Thunder player helped Knicks win NBA championship
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