Before Karl-Anthony Towns can win a tip-off or Jalen Brunson can score a basket, Avery Wilson sets the tone.
Wilson, a Grammy-nominated singer-actor, has performed the national anthem before nearly every Knicks playoff game at Madison Square Garden during this year’s historic run to the NBA Finals.
His booming rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is becoming as much a part of the MSG experience as a Mikal Bridges 3-pointer or an OG Anunoby defensive stop.
And for good reason.
“They refer to me as a good-luck charm,” Wilson told the Daily News.
That’s because the Knicks are a perfect 6-0 in these playoffs when Wilson performs the anthem.
The only game Wilson missed? That would be the only home game the Knicks have lost.
“People were like, ‘We need you,’” Wilson said with a laugh. “Especially some of the staff backstage that I deal with all the time, they’re like, ‘Every time. Every time.’ And I’m like, ‘You might be on to something.’”
Wilson’s magical run began with the Knicks’ first-round opener against the Atlanta Hawks on April 18.
When he performed that night, Wilson expected it to be a one-off. Unlike the co-tenant Rangers — who enlist John Brancy as their nightly anthem singer — the Knicks have always rotated artists for the pregame performance.
But, as Wilson tells it, his rendition stood out so much to Jamaal Lesane, the Chief Operating Officer of MSG Sports, that he was immediately invited back.
“He closed his eyes and felt emotional hearing me sing,” Wilson said.
“When he heard me sing it [that] time, something felt different. He was like, ‘That’s it.’”
Wilson was unable to perform before Game 2 of the Hawks series due to a prior scheduling conflict, and the Knicks lost that night.
But Wilson hasn’t missed a home game since, and the Knicks haven’t lost a home game since.
It’s a streak the Knicks — and Wilson — will look to continue on Monday night at Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.
“I’m now realizing the amount of adrenaline and energy that comes from the audience and what their role is, actually, in the arena when you’re at the game,” Wilson said. “When I sing, there is an energy and there’s all these endorphins let out from the people screaming.”
Performing for live audiences is nothing new for Wilson, a native of New Haven, Conn., who is now based in New York.
He starred as the Scarecrow in Broadway’s revival of “The Wiz,” a performance for which he earned a 2024 Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album.
Wilson, an alumni of NBC’s “The Voice,” has a series of concerts scheduled in New York and beyond this summer as well.
But singing the anthem before an amped-up Garden crowd is a totally different experience for Wilson, who is pleased that audiences have resonated with his soulful take on the centuries-old song.
“It’s an incredible feeling to know that so many crazed and roaring fans are sitting there watching you, and really, they don’t have to be invested at that point,” Wilson said.
“I mean, I’ve seen it in halftimes [when] everybody goes to the bathroom. Like, nobody has to be locked in. So the fact that they are, it shows me really how special the moment is.”