To the Igbo people, Nigeria’s third-largest ethnic group, the name Ogugua (pronounced: oh-GOO-gwah) means ‘one who brings comfort or peace.’
But to long-suffering New York Knicks fans, it has taken on a holy connotation, even in its abbreviated form.
‘I pray to the temple of OG Anunoby every damn night!’ Knicks superfan Timothée Chalamet said of New York’s Game 4 hero after a historic 29-point comeback win over the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden, a victory that saw A-listers like Taylor Swift and Kylie Jenner literally jumping for joy.
The London-born son of Nigerian parents, Ogugua ‘OG’ Anunoby Jr. carved his initials into NBA Finals history in the last 10 seconds of Wednesday’s classic with a clutch block and a game-winning putback. Since then, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal declared June 11 to be ‘OG Anunoby Appreciation Day.’
Now, the Knicks enter Saturday’s Game 5 in San Antonio with a commanding 3-1 series lead and a chance to win their first title since 1973. Meanwhile, by averaging 23.8 points a game and locking down an array of Spurs stars on defense, Anunoby is threatening to take home MVP honors – not that anyone who knows him is too surprised.
‘I felt like he’s earned everything he’s got,’ Blair Thompson, Anunoby’s former coach at Missouri’s Jefferson City High told the Daily Mail. ‘He’s put the time in, he’s battled some injuries along the way and when these moments come, he’s just ready.’
Normally known for being stoic, Anunoby was all smiles after his heroic Game 4 performance
Anunoby’s late block on De’Aaron Fox in Game 4 helped the Knicks pull off their comeback
Anunoby makes a game-winning tip shot against San Antonio Spurs guards Dylan Harper
Anunoby was robbed of his first crack at the NBA Finals as a member of the Toronto Raptors seven years ago when he was forced to undergo an appendectomy before the playoffs.
Although he dressed for the Finals’ win over Golden State and later received a championship ring, the 6ft 8in forward didn’t see a minute of action due to lingering infection.
To his credit, Anunoby described it as a ‘learning experience’ at the time rather than bemoan his personal frustrations as the Raptors were winning their first title in franchise history.
The 28-year-old has overcome his fair share of hardships in life, most tragically the loss of his mother in 1998 and his dear father 20 years later.
One of seven high-achieving siblings, he was just a year old when their mother, Grace, died from cancer.
Not much has been reported about her life or passing, but as Ogugua Sr. told SportsNet prior to his death in 2018 that it was Grace who blessed their children with great athleticism.
‘Their mother was a champion athlete [on the Nigerian national track-and-field team],’ Ogugua Sr. said in 2017. ‘She was a sprinter, she was a jumper – she was very competitive.’
For his part, Anunoby has shied away from discussing Grace much with reporters. But while admitting to SportsNet that it was ‘tough not having a mother’ he also credited his father for doing ‘a good job raising us.’
Anunoby is pictured alongside his father, Ogugua Sr., after being drafted by Toronto in 2017
Ogugua Sr. (right) credited OG Anunoby’s late mother with giving him his athleticism
Anunoby is swarmed by teammates after hitting the game-winner on Wednesday night
It was only a few years after her death that the England-educated Ogugua Sr. relocated the family from London to central Missouri, where he’d taken a professor position teaching business at Lincoln University.
As a result, OG grew up in Jefferson City, where he’d follow in his mother’s footsteps by competing in the 400-meter dash as well as the high and long jump events.
He also took to team sports.
Anunoby was both a patient hitter and strong pitcher in baseball, which his father initially saw as his best sport. He even picked up football from older brother Chigbo, a massive defensive tackle who would go on to join several NFL team practice squads before pursuing a career in medicine.
Anunoby’s brother Chigbo was a defensive tackle on several NFL practice squads in 2013
Anunoby’s childhood home shows the basketball hoop he once begged his father to buy him
The one constant was basketball, which Anunoby discovered at a young age.
By the time he was 8, Anunoby was pleading with his father to install a top-of the-line basket in their back yard. But given his financial acumen, Ogugua Sr. was disinclined to spend so much money without some assurance from his son.
‘I said to him, “You have to promise to actually use it. You will make sure that we have value for money,”‘ Ogugua Sr. told SportsNet. ‘It turns out, it was a very good investment.’
Not only did Anunoby practice relentlessly, but as he grew older, he began pestering high school coaches to unlock local gyms so he could shoot on a real court rather than his cracked driveway. When he failed to pick up for Anunoby, Thompson said his ‘gym rat’ pupil would simply start calling middle school coaches for court access.
‘There’s several gyms scattered across town, and he knows a lot of people, so he would call and blow up a lot of cell phones just trying to get access,’ Thompson told the Daily Mail.
Then there was Anunoby’s physique, which went from lean and lanky to something much more formidable as he began to embrace the weight room after some initial reluctance.
As Thompson learned, such dedication was an ingrained trait of the Anunoby family, which prides itself in diligence at school, sports and work.
‘I do not intend to be immodest, but we tried to raise a proper family,’ Ogugua Sr. told SportsNet. ‘And when I say proper, what I mean is we are people who do things well. We value hard work, order, and success.
‘You don’t talk unless you have to talk,’ he continued. ‘And if you have to talk, you should say something that doesn’t take away from the conversation, but enriches it.’
Young OG was required to read an hour a night as a child, frequently returning to his favorite, Aesop’s Fables. Years later, he was credited with maintaining strong grades throughout high school and his two NCAA seasons at Indiana.
Anunoby spent two years at Indiana before an injury prematurely ended his 2016-17 season
Anunoby has is seen battling for position with San Antonio’s Wembanyama and Vassell
But while Anunoby was becoming a star in Bloomington, he faced another setback by suffering a season-ending knee injury in January of 2017. As a result, he fell to Toronto with the 23rd pick of that year’s NBA Draft.
Things grew far worse in September of 2018, when his father unexpectedly died in his sleep at age 66.
As has been the case with his mother’s death, Anunoby hasn’t discussed his father’s passing publicly, but Ogugua Sr’s impact is obvious to anyone who knows his son. As Thompson explained, Ogugua Sr. was a ‘very, very kind man, very polite,’ who had a good sense of humor – all traits he sees in the younger Anunoby.
‘He’s a very funny kid, but he’s definitely, definitely on the quiet side early on,’ Thompson said. ‘He’s comfortable talking [to reporters and] giving credit to his team.’
The only awkwardness from the younger Anunoby surfaces ‘whenever he’s asked questions about himself,’ Thompson said.
‘I think he’s just a team guy, cares about people, his family,’ added Thompson.
As his star has risen, so too has the interest in his life away from the court. In 2025, he was repeatedly linked to dating Olympic gold medalist USA gymnast Suni Lee after she made several courtside appearances at Knicks games last year.
She insisted, however, the the pair are just friends, once saying: ‘I feel like social media kind of just, like, took it further than that. We’re just friends, and I’m really good friends with a bunch of the guys on the Knicks team, like Karl-Anthony Towns.
‘Honestly, I just enjoy watching basketball, which is why I went to most of the games.’
He has been linked to dating USA gymnast Suni Lee, but she has insisted they are just friends
Anunoby is pictured walking off the court after New York’s Game 1 win in San Antonio
And it’s that mindset that has helped Anunoby excel, first as a young upstart with the Raptors, and later as a key star for the Knicks following his 2023 trade from Toronto to New York.
These days, Anunoby has fans scattered across the world, from his parents’ home country to his birthplace, where he now owns a minority stake in the London Lions basketball team. Teammates and coaches have reportedly teased him for slipping into a British accent on occasion, with his UK roots detectable in certain interviews and social media clips. He even hopes to popularize the game in Great Britain, and with late-game heroics like he had in Game 4, it’s hard to envision Anunoby falling short in that pursuit.
He’s not going to win a scoring title, and he’s unlikely to capture regular-season MVP honors. But in this series, even when the Knicks were trailing by 29 points as they did on Wednesday, Anunoby has refused to quit.
‘He’s just positive instead of feeling sorry for himself,’ Thompson said. ‘He’s a good locker room guy, a good teammate, and somebody you want on the floor all the time.’
And in that sense, Anunoby has truly lived up to his name.
