It feels like the Knicks last played a basketball game five years ago.<\/p>\n
Turns out that\u2019s not real, and they\u2019re also back on the schedule tonight. Yay!<\/p>\n
On believing the Knicks can win the championship:<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believe it. Now, having said that, there are things that have to go right. You got to be playing your best basketball. You have to be connected. The things that I talk about. You got to sacrifice. If you got guys on your team that aren\u2019t sacrificing, you could be in trouble, because it\u2019ll mess with your connectivity, which is huge. You got to have a competitive spirit. You got to want to compete every night. And you\u2019ve got to believe. You\u2019ve got to keep believing. Even when things are going bad. Even when you go through stretches of 2\u20137 or 2\u20139. You got to believe not just in the process \u2014 because it is a process \u2014 but you got to believe in each other.\u201c<\/p>\n
On peaking at the right time for the playoffs:<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is geared toward being your best toward the end of the season and going into the playoffs and hopefully throughout that run. I\u2019ve never been a guy who put stocks in everything and it\u2019s the end of the world if it doesn\u2019t happen in this game. That\u2019s not life in general. Things are going to average out to however they need to at the right time. And hopefully after 70 games or whatever it is, you feel pretty good where you are going into that postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
On accountability within the locker room:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, in anything you do, starting with me, everybody has to be held accountable, because everybody has slippage. I have slippage. Guys on my staff have slippage. Obviously, the players have slippage, too. So we all have to hold each other accountable and I can\u2019t get mad if I\u2019m not doing what I\u2019m supposed to be doing and somebody tells me \u2014 they\u2019re not telling me to put me down. They\u2019re telling me so I can be better. And help uplift the group better. So those things, which are our standard, are huge for us. Those things are not necessarily what the outside world can see. The outside world sees the shots, the points, the defense and all that. If you want to win a championship, you gotta have a team that\u2019s talented. We have that. Can we make sure we maximize and embrace our standard every time we step on the floor? If we can, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to get us over the hump more than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Mohamed Diawara\u2019s confidence amid Jeremy Sochan\u2019s arrival:<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, it can [hurt his confidence]. But that\u2019s my job more than anybody else\u2019s is to make sure I communicate with him and anybody else when that happens. There\u2019s a part of me \u2014 and I could be wrong about this \u2014 but there\u2019s a part of me that doesn\u2019t think so because I started him. And I thought it would rattle him. It doesn\u2019t rattle him. I bring him off the bench in the first half. And then I don\u2019t play him at all in the second half. And I throw him out there the next game. The dude \u2014 at least my experience doing those things with him \u2014 he doesn\u2019t get rattled. And like I said, the biggest one is, \u2018You\u2019re starting tonight.\u2019 He might not even play two games and it might be a \u2018big game.\u2019 And he\u2019s just like, OK. And the way he plays, it\u2019s OK. He\u2019s a pretty confident young guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Mo-Sochan battle for backup forward minutes:<\/p>\n
\u201cBack and forth. It could be Jeremy tonight. It could be Mo tomorrow night. Mo has played well. He\u2019s gotten better. Jeremy just hasn\u2019t had an opportunity to. And the biggest thing is, obviously between the two guys is Jeremy is in his fourth season and he\u2019s a little bigger, he\u2019s a little stronger and he knows the league a little bit better. But Mo is coming. And I say Mo is coming because everybody needs to understand that. Not just Jeremy. But everybody. Because Mo is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
On OG Anunoby\u2019s regression after coming back from injury:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was playing at an extremely high level. When he was out, we even had a conversation \u2014 he was like, \u2018Man, I was playing extremely well.\u2019 Which he was. He was shooting the 3. He was rebounding. His crashes were unbelievable. He was getting out in transition. His decisions were quick and decisive. And he was really impacting the game on both ends of the floor. The injuries have happened. And he hasn\u2019t played like that since. But he\u2019s only been back for a few games too.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Knicks\u2019 work-in-progress season:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still a work in progress. New system, a new coach, new philosophy, so we\u2019re just making sure we can do the best we can to maximize all of our opportunities of who we are in our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCleveland was just a bad game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
On overcoming the odds to reach the NBA:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know my story, you know I\u2019m not supposed to be here. I\u2019m not the biggest guy. I don\u2019t jump out the gym. But you know, when I step on that floor, I give everything I got. That\u2019s what I owe to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
On being traded to his hometown Knicks:<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it was bittersweet. Obviously, I love New Orleans. It\u2019s a situation I was comfortable in. But if I had to go anywhere, I\u2019m glad it was New York. This is where I\u2019m from. This is the culture I was raised by. I know how much the Knicks mean to everybody out here, including my family. Just to be a part of what these guys are building is dope.\u201d<\/p>\n
On not pushing to leave New Orleans sooner:<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really comfortable with the team, with the people in the organization. My family was comfortable in New Orleans. You also gotta understand that I know how dope my relationship is with the city. Guys don\u2019t get that chance to connect with a city like that. It\u2019s special. I got to be a part of the growing process for the organization and we won some big games for the city. But joining the Knicks, everything just lined up perfect at the right time. I think right now, this is the best situation for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
On how he learned about the Knicks trade:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe organization did a great job with me. (Pelicans lead executive) Joe (Dumars) they were keeping me updated leading up to the (trade) deadline. They told me it looked like the deal was gonna happen. I just appreciate that they kept me in the loop the whole time. None of it was really a surprise, like you hear with some guys. I got to make sure my family knew so we could be ready for what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n
On representing New York and playing at MSG:<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, I get to represent my hometown and I have a lot of pride when I put that jersey on. I\u2019m really from the streets that\u2019s here. It\u2019s exciting. If you\u2019re from here, you know how crazy the city is when the Knicks are good or when the Knicks are winning. Now, I get to be a part of that, which is crazy. I love it. Not really. Playing in (Madison Square Garden) is crazy. The fans are wild. All the games are crazy in there \u2013 they\u2019re cheering and making noise. You see all the legends sitting courtside. I can\u2019t wait to see what it\u2019s like in the playoffs. I just want to be a part of us doing something special for New York. We\u2019ve got so much talent. I\u2019m excited to see how we come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the his Knicks expectations ahead of the playoffs:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Knicks are going to be a tough team to deal with. We\u2019re gonna fight. We\u2019re gonna do whatever it takes to win. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It feels like the Knicks last played a basketball game five years ago. Turns out that\u2019s not real,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,2964,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-628500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-knicks-news","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116143431621305931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}