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SAN ANTONIO — The physicality began about an hour and a half before Friday’s opening tip.
That’s when Mike Brown started flicking himself in the head.
“One of the things that we preach is being present,” the head coach of the New York Knicks explained to reporters during his press conference before Game 2 of the 2026 NBA Finals. “In order to be present, you can’t think about the past, you can’t think about the future. For all of us as humans, that’s hard as heck to do.”
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Sometimes, it requires a reminder.
“I constantly — boom — flick myself in the head,” Brown said, demonstrating. “Tell myself: be present, be present, be present. I obviously mention it to the group, too. With those guys being who they are, they’ve really embraced it, and they’re really trying to live it every single moment during this run.”
Brown’s Knicks couldn’t think about the past. About the 12 straight games they’d won coming into Friday, one of the most remarkable runs in NBA playoff history. About the 12-point hole they’d dug early on in Game 2 against a San Antonio Spurs squad fighting for its season. About the incredible work they’d done in the second and third quarters to climb out of it, taking a 14-point lead of their own on a two-hand OG Anunoby dunk directly in front of Victor Wembanyama midway through the fourth quarter.
Boom. Flick. Be present.
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They couldn’t think about the future. About the sound of the final buzzer, just six minutes away, that would signal that they were halfway home. About extending this miraculous stretch into a seventh week, into a city in the grip of a collective paroxysm of unbridled joy. About the career-defining achievement on the other end of that joy — the proverbial brass ring, the literal golden trophy, just beyond their reach.
Boom. Flick. Be present.
They had more pressing matters to attend to — namely, the final minute of Game 2, which had gone from coronation to coronary for New York in the blink of an eye.
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Facing the nearly…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/nba-finals-things-arent-going-to-be-pretty–knicks-dig-deep-to-survive-game-2-brawl-and-extend-playoff-win-streak-to-13-071308924.html
Author : Dan Devine
Publish date : 2026-06-06 07:13:00
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