My brain melted yesterday, thought it was Sunday, not Thursday.
Anyway, today’s Friday. I guess.
Here’s the latest from Tarrytown as we keep hearing from different Knicks.
Mike Brown
On Josh Hart’s injured finger and the toughness it reflects:
“Josh, he’s a handsome young man. But that finger is ugly. So, I don’t look at it. But it adds
to his toughness. Josh is a tough son of a gun, man. I can’t even watch when he [shakes his hand], because I’m just like, oh, my gosh I can’t imagine having a finger like that.
“But it just shows who he is. He’s tough but, more importantly, there’s dedication there to wanting to be a great shooter, and you’ve got to put it into work. And he puts in the work, even though his finger’s bothering him. And even though it’s a little crooked, he’s putting in the work to get it right. [Shooting coach] Pete [Patton] and the rest of the coaches are helping him out, and it shows that he can shoot at a high level with the dedication he has in the first place.”
On OG Anunoby’s playoff performance boosting his All-Star case:
“It should help him a ton because guys that are quiet naturally, they have a hard time getting the necessary publicity and promotion toward being an All-Star, unless you’re doing something extraordinary and people start talking about it — like OG in the playoffs. So doing it in the playoffs and having people talk about it should have carryover, in my opinion, since he helped us win the championship.
“And he was in the conversation for [NBA] Finals MVP. That should definitely help create calls for him to have a case to be an All-Star this year. He’s still got to go earn it, but he should be in everybody’s conversation from the beginning.”
On Anunoby’s shooting ability:
“He’s not [at Stephen Curry] or [Klay Thompson’s] level but the next tier. He’s way better than I thought.”
On Anunoby’s confidence, shooting and the Knicks’ spacing:
“His confidence is really high. And I thought during the playoffs we did a really good job of touching the paint and taking the right 3s. With OG being 6-foot-7 with long arms, if you’re closing to him with a smaller guy or a guard, it’s going to be good for us because they try to put their best player on Jalen, and sometimes, their best player is a bigger perimeter defender.
“So that means OG may have a smaller guy [defending him]. That’s not impacting him when he shoots the basketball.
“So I think first starts off with him, yes; he’s way better than what I thought. I would categorize him as a great shooter. But more importantly, I thought our spacing and our ability to touch the paint and spray it helped out a lot.”
On his plans for the preseason games:
“We’ll try to ease them in. The last game is always a dress rehearsal, but we’ll try to build them up leading to that game.”
On the Knicks’ conditioning entering camp after a short summer:
“All the guys look like they’re in pretty good shape, especially for a short summer. We have a conditioning test that we did last year and this year that the guys have to pass to get into camp and they all passed it.”
On James Wiseman’s presence at training camp:
“Fantastic human being, fantastic young man…. Good to see him in the gym. When you’re that long and that athletic, with skill – he has skill – there’s a place for you in this league. Sometimes it takes the right moment, the right team, the right situation, all that stuff, to be able to fit someplace and grow. We have a lot of great guys in camp that have potential of impacting us in a lot of different ways throughout the course of the year. He’s definitely one of the many guys that we have that we’re excited about.”
On Tony Bradley after his training camp signing:
“We’re looking for bigs. Tony’s a veteran guy that’s still in his prime and has a good feel for the game, knows how to play the game the right way and he’s hurt us in the past. To be honest, when a guy hurts you in the past, you tend to remember him more than others. So to be able to add him to camp was a positive for us because again, I said this last year, (Karl-Anthony Towns) has one of the most (challenging positions) out of everybody because I want to move him around when I play him at center. I want to play him at power forward; (when he’s at) power forward 1-4 is interchangeable. Same with OG (Anunoby). OG we put him at the 5 last year. We probably will do it a little bit more this year as well.
“But to be able to do that, you’ve gotta have enough centers around on the team, so having Tony here with his skill set and feel is definitely a blessing because we’re looking at that position heavily.”
Josh Hart
On the options to fix his finger:
“The only option for my finger at this point, because of how damaged it is, is a full joint replacement. With a joint replacement, you can’t have the banging, grabbing a rebound, palming it, shooting, catching the ball, doing all that. You can’t do that. So if I did a joint replacement, then I wouldn’t be able to play. So I guess it’s either wrap it until I retire or cut it off. I guess that’s the other option. That’s really the only alternative: either joint replacement, let it go, or, I guess, amputation.
“I mean, there was a lot of stuff that I had to get checked, and that was one of them. It was just with how it deteriorated, the joint and the bone and everything, that’s what it’ll be. So I’ll do that probably when I retire. Hopefully, they can make it straight. You know, it’s a little off center if y’all didn’t realize. So I’m hoping after that joint replacement it can kind of get a little straighter.”
On how the pain in his finger varies from day to day:
“Some days, it’ll be good. Some days it’ll hurt to catch the ball. It varies. I wish I could tell you when I wake up what’s gonna be good, what’s gonna be bad. Somedays it’s good, like a regular functioning finger. And other days it hurts to just close my hand, to make a fist.”
On why a joint replacement would prevent him from playing basketball:
“You can’t have the banging, you know, repetitive, grabbing a rebound, palming it, shooting, catching the ball, doing all that; you can’t do that. It was just with how it deteriorated — the joint and the bone and everything — that’s what it’ll be. So I’ll do that probably when I retire. Hopefully they can make it straight. You know, it’s a little off center if you know y’all didn’t realize.”
On the appearance and functionality of his injured finger:
“I mean, it’s it’s not the prettiest to look at. I would love to have a straight finger, but you know, it works.”
On the physical toll of an NBA career and what fans don’t get:
“I think people think money is everything, and for me, obviously, you want to be compensated fairly for your performance and all that. But at the end of the day, just because you get paid, be blessed in a position to get paid well and take care of our families, [it’s not like] we’re not humans at the same time. I’m sitting here thinking, my knees are aching a little bit, but I want to leave the game and be able to run around and play with my kids when they’re you know 10, 11,12-plus. So that wear and tear, it’s significant to a certain point. If you’re in this league for 14, 15, 16 years, and you see some of these guys that are older, they they got limps, knees are barking, those kind of things. So I think that definitely gets overlooked. But that’s also why I don’t think I’ll play till I’m 40.”
On OG Anunoby’s increased recognition helping his All-Star chances:
“It’s extremely impactful. Obviously, you have to be a gifted and good player to make an All-Star team, but also you have to have the press and all that kind of behind you, bolstering it. So it’s good for people to see how talented he is, how impactful he is on both sides of the ball in the game. So hopefully that recognition will continue throughout this year, and hopefully we’ll be able to get him in.”
On Jalen Brunson’s increased fame following the Knicks title:
“He’s not LeBron, let’s relax.”
On planning to attend Yankees Game 3:
“I think I’m going to be able to get to Game 3. We have a preseason game the next day. So I’m excited, man. I’m excited for New York. Excited for that team.”
Jose Alvarado
On OG Anunoby’s playoff success boosting his confidence:
“That’s definitely a boost of confidence going into this year. OG knows how good he is, and we know how good he is. So he’s gonna continue doing what he does.”
On learning the backcourt rule during his late Game 4 possession:
“I learned on the fly. When I watched the video after, they said you can leave the ball in the backcourt but your body can be in the frontcourt – I didn’t know it was a thing until then. I’m glad it worked out.”
On what has allowed the Knicks to embrace their roles:
“We care for each other, we compete, we want to get each other better”
On whether he always planned to return to the Knicks before signing his extension:
“In my mind, yeah. ‘I want to stay here, I want to stay home.’ We had a chance to do that, and we did it.”
On his championship summer:
“My favorite summer of all time”
