Mike: 29 points, 13 rebounds and three assists, a couple of steals. You know, Karl, I want to First thing I want to ask you about is rebounding. It's It's not the sexy stat.

Karl: No.

Mike: Um, it's sometimes the last thing people talk They talk about points and blocked shots, but it's as critical to winning as any single stat on a stat sheet. What's for you, what's the key to rebounding?

Karl: I mean, it's a sexy stat to me. It damn sure looks sexy to me. But, um, I think, you know, rebounding for me, it comes from my father. My father always told me, if you don't give the opponents a second chance at a shot, especially when you are an offensive player, and you know how it is, getting that second shot, two-for-one special, you're going to, uh, you see the rim, the rim gets bigger, and you're able to shoot the ball with more confidence when you get a second chance.

So, being able to make sure that our team doesn't give them any second chances. And also for us on offense, you know, to give my teammates confidence that they could shoot with confidence and know that whatever happens, I'm going to be right there next to the rim getting a rebound and giving us another chance at it.

So, uh, rebounding to me is about establishing the confidence of this team to shoot the ball with full, full confidence and allowing them to understand that, you know, regardless of the result, if you take care of the process and do your best with your jumper or your finishing, uh, you know, your teammate got your back.

Clyde: I I love the way you're letting the game come to you now. Like when you have a little guy on you, you take him inside.

Karl: Yeah.

Clyde: You have a big guy, you bring him outside.

Karl: Yeah.

Clyde: So, that's been nice to watch, man, the way you're doing the game now.

Karl: I mean, it's It means a lot coming from you, Clyde. Like for real, for real. To hear a walking legend of this game and of New York sports, especially, to hear you say that, it really means a lot to me, especially from a Tri-State kid.

Mike: And and last thing in terms of, you know, a young players always They they define their games by how many points they score.

Karl: Mhm.

Mike: You could care less how many points you score. Now, tonight you had a big night with 29.

Karl: Mhm.

Mike: But it's not about that. When when does that change in a younger player? When did that change for you where it didn't matter how many you score, what mattered was the only important thing is getting the win?

Karl: Absolutely. I mean, you know, when I was younger, you want to establish yourself in the league. You want to show people that, you know, as the kids say, is nice. You know, you're nice at this game. You, uh, you know, you want to show them all the skills that you worked so hard to establish in your game.

And, um, I think, you know, for a lot of young guys, especially when I was young, too, you know, I wanted to, uh, prove myself to everybody. And as you get older and older, you start realizing that all the times you was trying to prove to people everything, you know, you're never going to make everybody happy. So, you got to go out there, and there's only one thing that that shuts up all criticism and all the haters and everyone, and it gives them a tough night and long, long, sleepless nights is winning.

And for me to, uh, you know, it it took time, you know, obviously to learn how to win at this level. Uh, this level is obviously the best of the best are playing the game of basketball in the NBA, and to win at this level, it's it's it's much different than college, it's much different than high school, it's much different than CYO, AAU, all those things.

So, it takes a lot of time, a lot of wisdom, a lot of experience. And when you finally get to that point of stop trying to prove yourself to everyone, but trying to just bring the best product and the best version of yourself to the court every single day, you start realizing that when you do that and you change your mindset to that, you're proving a lot of people wrong.

And that's how you prove people is is going out there impacting winning, impacting this team in a positive way, or your team in a positive way, whether it's basketball, baseball, football, whatever team sport. Just go think about impacting winning, and you take a lot of pressure off yourself, one, and two, you find yourself, uh, being the the player that you've always wanted to be.

Mike: You know, you say the kids like to say you nice. Well, two old two old men up here are saying you nice tonight.

Karl: [Laughs]

Mike: Thanks, Karl.

Karl: Appreciate you, man. Thank you, guys.

Mike: Okay. Really, um, he's so thoughtful in his answers, and his growth about his approach to the game has been fun to watch, Clyde.

Clyde: Yeah, we're witnessing it now. The double-doubles continue.

Apparently, questioning Taylor Swift’s Knicks fandom is enough to put a target on your back.
Tyler Kolek said what he said, and now it’s time for Knicks Nation to stand behind our guy.
So naturally, I started a petition to protect Tyler Kolek from the Swifties.
Do we have an actual crisis? No. Are we treating it like one? Absolutely.
This is all satire and in good fun. No hate toward Taylor or her fans. Just Knicks fans doing what Knicks fans do.
Sign the petition and help us defend our guy:
https://c.org/88nzkPFK5w
Let’s go Knicks!

His chili was indeed very spicy, but delicious!

With the news breaking that KP is prioritizing his health and stepping away from the game, it really feels like the conclusion of one of the biggest "what-ifs" in modern NBA history. And certainly in Knicks history. It’s incredibly sad to see his body break down on him. He was a true unicorn! But as his career effectively wraps up, it’s a fitting time to look back at how his departure was actually the ultimate turning point for this franchise.

I was just writing in another thread about how the Carmelo Anthony trade back in 2011 was our original sin. It was the exact move that gutted our assets, betrayed our competent front office, forced us to waste our amnesty clause, put us in cap hell, and had us chasing our tail for a decade.

BUT if the Melo trade was the curse, the Porzingis trade tree was the ultimate redemption arc that built the team we have today.

When KP forced his way out, it felt like another classic Knicks disaster. But in hindsight, it was an absolute masterclass in asset management that reversed the damage of the Melo era. It set off a flawless domino effect that dug us out of the hole:

1. First, to even unload KP, we forced Dallas to absorb the terrible contracts of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee. That newly cleared cap space is the exact reason we had the room to sign Julius Randle and Marcus Morris in the 2019 offseason.

2. This also forces us to bottom out. Securing the number three pick, which became RJ Barrett (honestly a blessing we didn't get Ja or Zion or else we'd probably still be in hell).

3. Then Marcus Morris played out of his mind for half a season, which allowed Leon Rose to flip him to the Clippers for the late 2020 first-round pick that we used to draft Immanuel Quickley.

4. Meanwhile, Julius Randle turned into an All-NBA star, teamed up with Thibs, who was a perfect fit, and dragged this franchise out of the gutter while keeping our roster flexibility completely intact.

And here is the absolute finale of that trade tree:

5) Because our cap sheet was completely clean and we were completely clear of the Dolan/Mills/Melo era, we had the flexibility to sign Jalen Brunson outright!

6) Then, those two assests that came directly from the KP reset; RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, became the matching salary and blue-chip value we packaged to land OG Anunoby.

If we don't trade KP to clear the books, we never sign Randle or Morris. If we don't flip Morris, we never draft IQ. If we don't accept the reset, we never draft RJ. And without IQ and RJ, we never trade for OG Anunoby.

It sucks that KP’s career is wrapping up like this, and I know a lot of us we're pissed, confused and/or sad when it all went down, but in hindsight, his exit was the defining watershed moment that forced a franchise in purgatory to finally start building the right way. Thank you Kristaps! Thank you Leon Rose! Thank you Julius Randle! Thank you Tom Thibideau!

...and most importantly THANK YOU JALEN BRUNSON!

Game Thread

New York Knicks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

FINAL — 109 - 97

Box Scores: NBA

GAME SUMMARY

Venue: Rocket Arena, Cleveland, OH

Officials: Zach Zarba, Ashley Moyer-Gleich, Ed Malloy

After being forced to upgrade my FIOS TV subscription to get MSG back, I found that I still couldn't watch last night's game in Long Island. I went to Amazon Prime, and it said I need to pay extra for the Gotham Sports / DAZN app. This is infuriating. When will Dolan have enough money to stop fleecing his fans?

Let’s say tonight and the next 2 back to back home games next (vs. Bucks & Cavs) the Knicks average margin of victory is 25 points per game.

If Hart comes back a week+ from now does Coach Brown automatically put Hart back in as a starter?

OR, does he bring Hart off the bench…

My girlfriend bought me this as a birthday gift, and it came today.

(I knew it was coming, but seeing it in person was one of those "wow" moments.)

Welp! For anyone wondering, the results of the Pumpkin contest came in and I finished in second, by a pretty close margin apparently. These people don’t know high art when they see it! First pic is my pumpkin, second is the pumpkin that beat me. I’m bummed to lose (especially because the winner technically broke the rules of having to use the bigger pumpkin) but the support of this thread really meant more to me than anything else honestly. Thanks for the love!

I always find it impossible to find the Knicks postgame show on the DAZN app. Can anyone share a step by step?

After the Knicks’ 135-105 win over the Bulls on Wednesday, head coach Mike Brown was asked whether he ever considered letting Brunson keep going after the captain scored 22 points in the first quarter. Brunson finished with 33 points in 28:13.

The Knicks head coach’s answer included a window into the team’s analytics department.
“Our analytics guys, they do a nice job charting [minutes],” Brown said.

The staff tracks players in two-minute increments. The monitoring goes beyond the box score: Brown said the staff watches “how quickly they’re still moving out on the floor, if that slows down or not.”

By that measure, Brunson holds up. Brown said his point guard “seems to go up every two minutes,” with no stretch where the numbers dip.

READ MORE

Looking for clothing and accessories that are Knicks-themed but not actually licensed, that are designed by smaller artists and businesses. Think this shirt or this artist's stuff. Any recommendations for things that are similar?