Mikal Bridges and Coach Mike Brown Post Practice Media | October 1, 2025

Hey, welcome to Abu Dhabi. Speaking to a couple of your teammates. They have their best spots. They’ve picked locations that they think is they can go unwind or whatever. Do you have any specific favorites here in the city? Here? Yeah. In Abu? I’m I’m a I’m a I’m a homebody, so I love the hotel we staying at. So, I’ll say the hotel where we’re at right now. Maybe some room service. We got some restaurants at at our little resort. So, some cool spots there. We were speaking to uh Joshua earlier and uh he said preseason is just as important but the idea that you switch off and you know you take some time out. It’s part of your mental reassessment. How do you see you know the warm up before the season kicks off and the pressure comes in? Yeah. No, it’s great man. I think it’s just especially team we have you know new coaching staff. I think preseason’s even more important because um you know putting in you know offense defense for everybody is a first for everybody and um so preparing for that and be able to in practice every day and preparing to you know go against you know different team um and use it against them. Uh you will see new coach with a new philosophy of play. How was the team you received that? Say it again. Sorry. a new coach with a new philosophy of play and uh tell us about how you received as a team, his uh philosophy and his Yeah. Um no, I think you know coach is great. Him and all his coaches too, the whole coaching staff. Um I think they just work together so well and they do a great job of us learning what we have to do. Um I know it’s early, but I think a lot of us catching on really good and fast about all the new things we’re learning. Um no, I think they do a great job. I I think you know so far and I’m you know just real appreciative all of them. You show you show loyalty this year with uh signing a new contract. You get a little less money but you you you uh you send the message that it’s important for you to play in Europe and with these guys. Yeah, 100% man. You know like I always voiced like I love it here. Um love the culture, a lot of fans, love my teammates. Um you know my new you know coach staff as well. Um and I just you know appreciate appreciative of the organization too. So, um, you know, I’m just excited to be here and, you know, just the more I’ve been here, the more comfortable I’ve been and yeah, like, you know, I don’t think there’s nowhere else I want to be. Are you real league iron man with all the games you play without injury and without passing on? Yeah. Say the first part again. Are you real league iron man like Marvel? Oh, yeah. Um, yeah, man. I’m just, you know, just just grateful, you know, I think that’s what it is and and blessed. Um but yeah, I just I try to go out there every night and you know, I want to play for my fans, family, friends, teammates, coaches, and um just try to be out there every night I can. Now, I want to pick up on the loyalty part that he just asked and the answer that you gave is the idea is the idea to leave a legacy behind with the mix and what would it mean to you and how and if that’s the case, how do you picture that to be? Yeah. Um, I mean, obviously everyone wants to win championships and that’s the goal, but uh, you know, I feel like everybody says championship championships and that’s what we want, but you know, it’s going to take time, you know, this year and working and you can’t just get there, you know, you got to take it day by day and um, and it starts with being Abu Dhabi being preseason against the Sixers um, to get our ultimate goal. So, I think just yeah, I think obviously a legacy you want to leave is is pretty much winning. You know I individual accolades really don’t mean too much matter too much to me but um just do as much winning as possible. Last season was amazing from next. Do you think this season you will repeat the old team will now ready for the strongness? Do you say it again? Sorry. Last season was amazing from the next but this season all the team will be ready for the strongness. Yeah, you you will think you would have beat that the last season where you reach in the final. Um I mean last year last year was a great year. Um and I think we just we learn from it and just try to keep getting better. Um I know everybody, you know, all the fans, everybody, and trust me, we all want to, you know, go to the finals, win the finals. That’s, you know, that’s everybody’s dream and hope. But um like I said, you just can’t get there. You know, you got so many steps you got to do. And and I think our biggest thing is just worrying about today and trying to, you know, be the best best version of ourselves and and try to be the best team we can be and and keep learning, you know, from one another every day. It’s going to be summer this this summer United States there’s World Cup soccer. Did you get your ticket? How is your preparation for this occasion? uh for here or this is it’s it’s an world cup and it’s going to be in in United States 26 next next uh June next summer. Yeah. Yeah. Did you get your ticket? How did you prepare yourself? Um how many match you are preparing to attend? Um I don’t know man. I definitely want to go to a game. I definitely I think was it LA? Is there different locations? Um but I definitely I don’t know. I want to go. I guess I’ll see when the schedule drops. Um, see see where I can go and and and what team I want to watch this. Messi or Ronaldo? Uh, I think I was I was always I was always a Messi guy growing up right here. Uh, m welcome to Abu Dhabi. Thank you, man. Um, what Arabic words did you learn or did you learn? I don’t learn any. Or do you like to know any? Uh, yeah, sure. So, for hello, we sayam. What is it? Alam alaykum or hello. Salam ali. Salamkum. Okay. So what did you discover something different here in Abu Dhabi than the airport? Um was different weather maybe. Yeah. I mean the weather is is crazy. It’s hot. It’s hot out here. I think it’s just culturally just a little different as well. Um I don’t know what else. I don’t know. I feel like I feel like you guys are way more polite, you know. I like that a lot. So, um, thank you. I like I love it out here. Thank you. Thank you guys. Uh, and and not make too many changes while also employing your own philosophies. Well, I mean, it it’s hard, you know, I I coach the way I coach and so, uh, that’s what I’m going to do. And um you know I’ve had success or been a part of success in the past and we think uh with the veteran group they can adapt the you know relatively easy. It’s going to take some time. Uh but no matter what you do whenever you start something new usually takes some time and we’re going to embrace that and try not to skip any steps during the process. There’s often there’s often talk about pressure to coach team like New York Knicks. Uh how do you plan to channel that into positive energy? Well, you know, the first thing is I I embrace any type of pressure that comes my way because uh nobody’s going to put more uh importance or pressure on themselves in my opinion than me. So, uh if others are putting it on you too, then that means what you’re doing is pretty important to a lot of people. And uh that’s what I’d rather have than the opposite. So, I embrace it and and our guys embrace it. If you want to be who we think we’re capable of, uh, we have to embrace anything and everything that comes our way. In Sacramento, you promoted the system with the based with three point attempts. How do you plan to apply that philosophy here in New York? Uh, is same way. We’re going to play fast. Uh, not just in the full court, but in the half court too. Um, and uh, the floor is going to be spaced. Uh now if you add on top of that uh how we like to touch the paint to generate threes um you know we feel we have guys that are more than capable of doing that. Uh that’s how you generate a lot of threes and so the philosophy offensively is going to be the same uh for this group. Um and hopefully we’ll be able to get up a whole bunch more threes.

The New York Knicks host media availabilities after practice in Abu Dhabi on October 1, 2025

Comments from Mikal: 0:00
Comments from Coach Brown: 6:15

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