Avery Wilson has become a familiar voice at Madison Square Garden this spring, and the Knicks have kept winning every time he sings. New York is 6-0 when Wilson performs the national anthem, a run that has turned the R&B singer and Broadway actor into an unexpected part of the team’s playoff routine.
That is why Wilson is being searched now: the Knicks are in the NBA Finals at home, and his presence before games has become part of the pregame spotlight. Wilson, who is from Connecticut and first came to national attention as a contestant on The Voice in seasons three and eight, sang before the Knicks’ playoff opener in April and was invited back by MSG Sports chief operating officer Jamaal Lesane after that performance.
Wilson’s path to the anthem has not been a straight one. He missed Game 2 because of a scheduling conflict, but returned for Game 5 and for each of the Knicks’ home games against the 76ers and Cavaliers. The team won all of them, including the games where Wilson’s voice opened the night. The only home playoff loss came on the one night he could not perform before a game against the Hawks, a detail that has only strengthened the feeling around him in the building.
Wilson has his own explanation for why the moment seems to land so strongly with the crowd. He said one fan “closed his eyes and felt emotional hearing me sing,” and that people have started to refer to him as a good-luck charm. The label fits the numbers, and the numbers are hard to ignore when the playoffs have been so tight and every small edge gets noticed.
The Knicks do not usually bring back the same national anthem singer night after night, which makes Wilson’s repeated appearances stand out even more. But his voice has become part of the home-court rhythm during this postseason, and his return has tracked with the team’s unbeaten run at Madison Square Garden. What remains unanswered is whether he will sing at every remaining Finals game in New York, or whether the streak will simply continue without the full schedule ever being announced.
Wilson’s rise to this moment started long before the Knicks noticed him. He appeared on the Billboard Hot R&B chart with his 2015 single “If I Have To,” returned to the charts in 2024 with “Kiss The Sky,” and moved into acting the same year when he was cast as Scarecrow in The Wiz on Broadway, a role that earned him a Grammy nomination. He said he had seen a few shows a couple of years earlier and thought, “I want to do that,” then eventually got his chance onstage.
For now, Wilson is both a Broadway name and a playoff regular, and the Knicks keep calling him back. If the team keeps winning at home, the next anthem at Madison Square Garden may carry more than ceremony; it may carry expectation.
