Knicks Bulletin: ‘My dream has been always to play in The Garden in the NBA Finals’

You couldn’t have written it any better.

Knicks vs. Spurs.

Smells like 1999 revenge.

On Leon Rose and James Dolan building the Knicks into a Finals team:

“Leon and his staff have done a freakin’ fantastic, fantastic job. I can even take it a step further — it doesn’t happen if Mr. Dolan wants to keep his hands in his pocket and not allow Leon to go do his work.”

Advertisement

On Jay Wright’s influence on the Villanova players and how it benefits the Knicks:

“Man, you can tell Coach Wright has instilled a lot of great qualities in all of these guys. They’re selfless. They all have a competitive spirit. They’re all about the right stuff, and they’re great human beings to be around. So I’m sure it wasn’t just Coach Wright who helped raise them, but to be able to play for him and have that continue at the highest level while competing for championships in college definitely made my job easier. When you have guys like that and those guys are the leaders of your team, we were talking about all of them, and then it rubs off on everybody else, and it just makes for a fantastic environment to be a part of.”

On maintaining composure and connectivity during scoring runs:

“There are maybe times when you’re open during those runs and somebody misses you and you can’t get pissed, because if you get pissed, now your emotions and your energy are someplace else or focused on something else as opposed to what you need to do defensively and all that other stuff.”

Advertisement

On the unpredictability of momentum in games:

“Anything and everything out of the ordinary can happen [during runs], and you gotta rely on those intangibles to make sure you stay locked in.”

On the team’s growth since last season:

“Anytime you’re playing NBA basketball, it’s difficult to win. For us, it’s been a process. When [my] trade happened, obviously things happened quick and success came pretty quick, but it was not the success that we envisioned. I’m glad that this year, we’re seeing ourselves start to mature and round out what the vision was from day one.”

On extending scoring runs during the playoffs: