Aaron Ashby, Landry Shamet connection is shared thread in magical Brewers, Knicks runs

Championships are built on star power, sure. But they're also built on athletes doing their jobs, day in and day out, with metronomic consistency. Championships are about showing up, undaunted by the rigors of the daily challenge. They're about getting punched and punching back. And they're often fueled by men who've always been solid, but overlooked, finding something midstream and hoping desperately that whatever clicked doesn't un-click until the job is done.

For the Milwaukee Brewers and their fans, a patient group that has waited for a title for (checks watch) the duration of the franchise, it must've felt like the pieces were destined to never fit together. But 2026 was the year, and Aaron Ashby was the cog. The left-hander (former starter, stuck in purgatory, emerging as a bullpen weapon) threw 18 innings across three postseason rounds, all scoreless. He allowed five hits and struck out 20, erasing innings at a time with relative ease. He threw 31 pitches in Game 4 and looked like he could pitch forever until Pat Murphy pulled him. Without Ashby, the Brewers likely do not approach a championship.

For the Knicks and their fans, a patient group that heard tell of the 1970 and 1973 NBA Champions in the same way Milwaukee grandchildren used to hear about Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews' Braves, it certainly felt like the team would never again reach proximate heights. While the Brewers were eternal also-rans, the Knicks were a national joke, felled by a combination of egos and financial bloating in a league where the title almost always goes to a top-five megastar. How do you find one of those? They were perma-flummoxed.

But in 2025-26, Jalen Brunson and the power of friendship played that role, supplemented by the emergence of Landry Shamet as an essential bench piece (and eventual sixth man). Shamet, a forgotten sharpshooter and high-effort defender (with precious few results), was a last-ditch returnee to the Knicks roster after an injury marred his tryout the previous year. He averaged 9.3 points per game in the regular season and was an occasional clutch savior. When the playoffs arrived, he could not miss; in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he shot 11-of-12 (91.7%) from three. Without Shamet, the Knicks likely do not approach a championship.

Ashby and Shamet are childhood best friends from the Kansas City area, attending Park Hill High School together. As Shamet's star rose, Ashby kept in touch, soaking in lessons about preparation, availability, and staying even-keeled. It worked.

Aaron Ashby, Landry Shamet fueling magical Brewers, Knicks championship runs four months apart is the stuff of legends

Imagine you and your childhood best friend both persevere in remarkably competitive fields and sign professional contracts. You work your way up the org chart. You might change cities a few times. You might get surpassed. You might get hurt. You might lose your job and have to find it again. You're never the centerpiece. You're never even close. Until the spotlight finds you and you seize it.

Imagine you're both suddenly, after a decade of toil, instrumental in drought-breaking and cathartic championships separated by four months and hundreds of miles, but you never lose the thread. Both Shamet and Ashby's teams got theirs the hard way, but finished it the easy way, with undeniably potent championship runs that removed a good deal (but not all) of the anxiety from the shoulders of beaten-down cities.

Knicks in five. Brewers in five. It was always meant to be, and it will be forever. And it will always be them.

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