If you’re still on cloud nine, that’s alright.
The Knicks won the NBA championship for the first time in 53 years.
It’s fair to say we’re due at least 53 days of floating around the Earth without giving nothing else any care.
Jalen Brunson
On the Knicks championship:
“The further we get away from it, the more real it becomes.”
Jose Alvarado
On his upcoming free agency:
“First of all, I got to go get paid, man. That’s God willing. I want to be in this for a long time. I love this life. I love the NBA life. It feeds my family, and you know, it puts me in rooms where I could never be at.”
On potentially taking less money to stay with the Knicks:
“I got to see what makes sense for everybody. I truly do feel like if it’s a great opportunity to stay home, I stay home.”
Leon Rose
On the gift from Howie Roseman before one of the Finals wins:
“I want to share this with everbody. Howie Roseman, general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles came tonight with his boys and he gave me this gift which is a piece of slate from the city of David in ancient Jerusalem that he got when he was there and he either got it, or it was given to him in 2024. He took it to the Super Bowl and won the super bowl and he gave it to me for good luck tonight before the game. Un-friggen-believable.”
Josh Hart
On the overconfident and cocky Spurs:
“You see that reaction (after they won the WCF and beat OKC) because they think they gon’ win it. They think it’s over.
“And then you look at the reaction after we beat Cleveland, and it was tough to celebrate, because, like, we got four more, right? Obviously, winning the Eastern Conference is an amazing accomplishment, but we all look at that like, this is just a step, this isn’t the destination. And the reaction after Game 4 in Cleveland shows that.”
On Becky Hammon’s comments about Jalen Brunson:
“I’m not naming names: I’m still waiting for somebody… to say they was wrong about someone who led our team to a championship…I know they have media availability so we’ll be waiting for that apology.”
Karl-Anthony Towns
On his role evolving during the playoffs:
“I think for me it’s imperative to make the defense have to shift and make them have to continuously think. It’s not only, as you know, the game is already physically tiring, but if you add the mental component as well and have them thinking the whole game, it makes them even more tired and allows for more opportunities for us to get better looks.”
On ball movement and passing:
“I think what you can do when you do move the ball and allow the IQ to flow and the ball to flow is you allow great shots to happen, especially when you’re touching the paint or having movement on the offense and allowing the defense to make a mistake, instead of us having to make a tough shot or a great shot. I’ve always loved passing, and it’s always one of my greatest joys is getting my teammates an assist and allowing them to see them succeed. It’s truly, for me, better than hitting a great shot, because when you make a shot, only one person is happy, but when you get an assist, two people are happy. I think that’s a recipe for success, when everyone is really feeling good about themselves.”
James Dolan
On admitting being wrong during the dark Knicks times:
“Did I make mistakes? Of course I did. Did I trust people that maybe I shouldn’t have trusted? You go into it as a new owner and if you’re dumb enough, you think you actually know what you’re doing. Believe me, you don’t. And all along, you have everybody whispering in your ear: Do this, do that. You have you guys, the press, telling us where we’re going wrong at every step. And, you can start to feel like a pinball.”
On learning over 25 years at the helm of the Knicks organization:
“The thing is, is to learn. Right? That might be the thing I feel best about is, I felt, I feel, that now after 25 freaking years of doing this, I might actually have learned something.”
On Tom Thibodeau’s run in New York and his firing:
“We loved Thibs, we really did, I held him in high regard. It would not surprise me at all, by the way, if Thibs comes back and coaches a championship team because I think you could still win that way. Thibs was kind of old style. Right? Like Red Holzman, right, everything comes through me, and I’ll guide us through. He’s very good at that, but that sort of obviated the need for all these other people. Mike Brown had a different view. He had a different approach. And you look at our team, in the Finals. Everyone was healthy.”
Stephen A. Smith
On being wrong about the Knicks and Jalen Brunson:
“I’m a grown a** man. I was beyond grown. I apologized to this brother on national television. I’m apologizing to you. I’m apologizing to the entire Knicks organization. Let me be very, very clear — I have never been more happy to be wrong in my life. Let me be very, very clear — I came out of the womb a Knicks fan. I’m 58-years-old. The last time the New York Knicks won a title before last Saturday, I was four.
“In his own way, (Brunson) reminds me of this every time. It’s automatic… national television, I owe this man an apology. I am grateful for what you have done for this city, what y’all have done for this city, and you won’t be hearing any more doubts from me, my brother.”
Brian Windhorst
On Karl-Anthony Towns’ taking a paycut being the key to the Knicks’ contending window:
“In all honesty, that’s the biggest question of the Knicks offseason. So Karl [Anthony] Towns is under contract for next season. He’ll be back. He’ll be the starting center. He’ll be there on ring night. The way he was used in this postseason, it’s hard to not see him as with this team for the majority of the rest of his career.
“But he is in position to get a contract extension that’s going to approach $70 million a year on average. And he has earned it. He has shown that he is an elite center in this league, a championship player. But the Knicks are not going to be able to afford that type of player. They’d re-sign him. But I don’t know if they’d be able to keep the team together.”
On how Jalen Brunson’s sacrifice could impact KAT’s and the Knicks’ future:
“I don’t expect anybody in the history of the NBA to do what Jalen Brunson did. If Karl Towns is willing to take a little bit of a haircut, you know, $7-10 million over the course of multiple seasons and Josh Hart is also extension eligible this summer, if both of them are willing to take a little bit of a haircut, you could see this core staying together for three, four, five years.”
J.R. Smith
On his wild spending throughout his NBA career:
“The first thing that comes to mind? How much money I wasted. Half the shit I bought in the last 10 years, I barely use. Even the watches, buying all these fancy-ass watches and shit, I don’t wear them. I don’t go anywhere to wear them! Why did I spend all of this money on this stuff that I don’t really use? I had seven cars at one point when we were in Cleveland. I’m like, ‘Why did I have seven cars?’”
Jay Williams
On players being compared to Brunson’s contract sacrifice:
“I’ve talked to a couple of different players that could be Supermax this year or next year — they’re starting to feel a little pressure from team owners by saying, ‘Yo, Jalen Brunson left 113 million dollars on the table. What are you going to do?’”
Marc Berman
On being glad he retired before the Knicks won it all:
“Part of me was saying, ‘Oh, I’m glad I retired, I would be panicking.’ I was shaking in the final couple of minutes, just thinking about the enormity of having to write it. And I didn’t have to write it.”
On James Dolan:
“Listen, I wasn’t a big fan of James. He was a pretty good guitar player, but he made a lot of silly mistakes and his media policies were always baffling to me. And I wonder now that they finally have a championship if he’ll open up a little more with the media.”
On New York’s reaction to the Knicks championship:
“You see it in the streets. I mean, everyone is just in almost disbelief. I think it’s surreal to them. I think the next day it finally hit them, but it’s something that they thought may not have ever happened in their lifetime. It’s 53 years, and the team seems to always have gotten a bad break. And every single break went their way since mid-April. I think they’re just joyous, and I think there’s a sense of relief.”
Frank Isola
On Marc Berman’s good ol’ days:
“I think if you said ‘tabloid reporter,’ his picture might be in the dictionary. He kind of embodied all of that. He knew what they wanted at the New York Post. I mean, the Daily News is the same way.
“He’d be lying in wait. Then he’d look at the guy for a second, pause, kind of close his eyes. It very much was like Peter Falk playing Columbo: ‘Doctor, just one more thing.’”
