00:00You know, I'm nervous about this talk, and you wouldn't think I would get nervous.
00:06I've stood up in front of 50,000 people and sang love songs with my guitar,
00:12and I'm more nervous now than I was then, because, first off, I've never done this before.
00:22We bought partial ownership of this team in 1994, took over full ownership of the team in 98,
00:30and I took over control of the team in 01.
00:34So I've been at this quite some time, and in all that time, I never did what I'm about to
00:42do with you guys.
00:44But I really felt, I mean, I debated whether to come talk to you,
00:50because owners really shouldn't talk to teams and players, because they don't know shit.
00:57And I don't purport to know a whole ton about basketball, even though I've been doing it for 30 years.
01:03Not like you know, for sure.
01:05But I decided to come talk to you because I didn't want to miss the opportunity.
01:14I believe that this team can go all the way.
01:20And in my 30 years of doing this, I've never felt closer to achieving that goal than right now.
01:31This team can win at ball.
01:35And when I look back at this, after this summer, I look back at this time,
01:41I wanted to say to myself that I didn't hold anything back.
01:47I didn't want to say, oh, I wish I had talked to them right back now, this time.
01:54So, I'm doing it.
01:57I'm going to tell you what I think.
02:00I'm going to tell you how I feel.
02:02And I'm going to be asking of you.
02:07I don't know if you understand what it would mean for you to win a championship this year,
02:15to win the NBA championship.
02:19It would be life-changing for all of us.
02:26It will stick with you the rest of your lives.
02:30And if you don't win, you'll be thinking about it the rest of your lives.
02:39And so will I.
02:43Because I don't know if we're ever going to get this close again.
02:46We might.
02:47It's possible.
02:48Right.
02:49But right now, this time, we're as close as I've ever seen a team be going into the playoffs.
02:58What that would mean to win a championship, to get a ring, to have your, ultimately,
03:06have your numbers up on the rafters.
03:08Right.
03:09You will forever, ever be a part of New York City.
03:13No matter where you go and what you do the rest of your lives, when people introduce you,
03:20even if you become the president of the United States, right, they'll start off with NBA champion
03:302026.
03:30I guarantee you, that will be, that will be, even if you don't want it, you won't be able
03:37to avoid it.
03:38That's what's at stake here.
03:40And we have a rare and unique opportunity to do it.
03:48And it's not just you guys, the players, it's all of us.
03:54When I look back at this season and this last year, there were some significant changes that
04:02we made.
04:04This is the team, though, right now, you guys, and all of you.
04:10This is the team that we wanted, that Leon and I wanted on the floor now.
04:18Now, you know, we made trades, right, that we will be criticized or have been criticized about.
04:27We made a coaching change that shocked the world, right, last year.
04:34And that's all going to be part of this story for the rest of, for this season.
04:39If we win a championship, we'll be geniuses.
04:44If we don't win, we get knocked out in the first round or the second round, we will not
04:49be geniuses.
04:50And we'll be second-guessed forever.
04:56So, just to tell you, and that's true across the board, that this is not just a player thing.
05:01This is a whole team, this whole organization thing.
05:06We all have been through this, and we will be looking back on it ten weeks from now, right,
05:13when we will have determined the outcome, right, whether those trades, whether those coaching
05:20changes, et cetera, were smart or not smart.
05:24Personally, whether, whether, no matter what happens, I believe they were right, but that
05:29isn't necessarily how they'll be viewed.
05:31It's what we do in the next ten weeks that will determine how that will be viewed.
05:43We changed coaches last, at the end of last season, because we believed that, Leon and
05:54I believed that you, the team, and the rest of the organization needed to be heard, needed
06:02to work together more, not just led or dictated to.
06:08And Coach Timbs was a great coach, brilliant, et cetera.
06:13But we thought that you needed a coach, right, that would pull you together, that would have
06:20you play as a team.
06:22And although it's not been perfect, we believed that together, a joint effort, right, would
06:31be better for the team.
06:32That would give us a shot, right, at winning a championship, rather than relying on one person's
06:39opinion.
06:43We believed that, instead of relying on the coach, that you would discipline each other,
06:49that you would talk to each other, that you would figure out how to play together with each
06:55other, and that that was stronger than hearing it through just one voice.
07:07And now, why I'm here is because we have ten weeks, ten weeks in your life, to achieve something
07:16that will stay with you the rest of your life, and the rest of my life.
07:25But you're going to have to give it your all.
07:28You're going to have to give more now than you've ever, ever given before to this team
07:34and to your careers.
07:36And the big word is sacrifice.
07:39You're going to have to sacrifice if you want to achieve this.
07:44You have to have a discussion with yourself about what these next ten weeks are.
07:49Because it's only ten weeks.
07:51It's not a long time.
07:53But if you can now focus yourselves, sacrifice everything around you for these next ten weeks
08:02to win that championship, I believe you can do it.
08:06I've seen you do it this season.
08:09And you've seen yourselves do it.
08:10You know you can do it.
08:12I believe you know you can do it.
08:14But will you do it?
08:22You need sacrifice and you need to eliminate all the distractions around you.
08:30I'm going to tell you now, stop talking to the press.
08:37Instead, talk to each other.
08:41The press doesn't mean anything.
08:43If you want to communicate to your teammates, you want to communicate to the staff, etc., do it.
08:50Just forget the press.
08:52It doesn't matter what the public thinks of you.
08:53I can tell you I've been doing this for 30 years.
08:56Right?
08:57And at the end of this ten weeks, what you achieve is what the public is going to think of
09:01you.
09:01It's not what you say, right, in the press conferences or, etc.
09:07It's what you will have, what the outcome will be in ten weeks.
09:10That's when, that's when what you say will have real meaning.
09:14In the meanwhile, talk to each other.
09:18Give your concerns, your gripes, etc.
09:22Do it with each other.
09:24Make a commitment to that.
09:28I got some other suggestions for you.
09:33You need to start, you need to up your practice.
09:36You need to pay more attention to your diet.
09:38You need to pay, you need to sleep better.
09:42You need to be ready for every game.
09:45And just let me start on that point.
09:48That is not something you start on the first game of the playoffs.
09:52That is something you start right now, today.
09:56You have to practice this, right, for the next, this game and the next four games so that
10:01you've got a rhythm to yourselves when you get it, when you get into the playoffs.
10:10I suggest that you go home and you talk to your families.
10:18You talk to your girlfriends, your wives, etc.
10:21And you tell them about the next ten weeks.
10:26About how you're going to be different the next ten weeks.
10:30And how your families are going to sacrifice for the next ten weeks.
10:36I had this idea that maybe you should give up sex for the next ten weeks.
10:42You don't have to give up sex for the next ten weeks.
10:49But, like Spartans, you know what Spartans are, right, they denied themselves, right, so
10:56that they could have an edge.
10:58Get the edge.
11:00Go home, talk to your wives, tell them, don't tell them you're not going to have sex, don't
11:04tell them it was my idea.
11:06But let them know what this is going to be like, what your commitment is going to be like,
11:11and how they're going to have to sacrifice too.
11:14Those concerns at home, they can't come on the court.
11:17They can't come into the practice.
11:19For the next ten weeks, this has just got to be all about us and about how we play.
11:26It's not who we play, it's how we play.
11:30Because I believe this team can beat anybody in the NBA.
11:34We've already shown that we can.
11:36So it's not who we play, it's how we play.
11:44So when you go home and you talk to your brides and your significant others, I do want you
11:49to tell them one thing that I said.
11:52When we win the championship, right, we will get rings.
11:56And when we get rings, so will they.
12:00I will buy a ring for each one of your significant others because their contribution is going
12:07to be very important to this team winning.
12:12And if you don't have a significant other, mostly you do, find someone that is sharing
12:18this journey with you for the next ten weeks and make that person, I'm with you.
12:23Right.
12:24And we'll give that person a ring.
12:29I talked about the coach.
12:31I talked about Tibbs and how we did it last year, how Tibbs led us last year.
12:37But now, this whole season, you've tried to have more of a team effort, more of a collective
12:44effort, et cetera.
12:46But now I need you to switch gears slightly because your coach has the answers to what
12:52we need to do in order to win.
12:58So you have to take his guidance.
13:00You've got to almost blindly take his guidance and dedicate yourselves to correcting the things
13:08that he has pointed out to you, like first-court focus, defensive pick and rolls, and a rebound.
13:19I know there are others, but I owe you three.
13:22Fix those three.
13:23The next ten days, fix those three things as part of your focus.
13:29Do whatever you have to do personally.
13:31Do whatever you have to do interpersonally, et cetera.
13:34Fix those three things because those are our Achilles heels, right, and they'll stop us
13:40in the playoffs.
13:46You've got to try like you've never tried before.
13:52It's only ten weeks, guys.
13:56You've got to go for it.
13:59Every day for the next ten weeks, you've got to go for it.
14:03You've got to say, I don't normally do that, whatever it is, right?
14:07You've got to say no, right?
14:09You've got to leave nothing on the table.
14:11You must go for it.
14:25That's basically it.
14:27I believe in you guys.
14:29I believe in this whole group.
14:31This is not just a player thing.
14:33This is an entire organization thing.
14:35We've been working at this for years to get ourselves to this point, and now ten weeks.
14:42Can you do?
14:43Can you focus for ten weeks?
14:46Do you do that at the end of the ten weeks?
14:48We're walking out of here with wings, right, and we're walking out of here with a moniker
14:53on ourselves that will never, ever f***ing pull away.
14:57Me too.
14:58Me too.
14:59Me too.
15:04Me too.
15:04Do it.
15:06Commit to it.
15:09Go for it.
15:12Let's go.
15:13Yes, the police.
15:15The police.
15:16OK.
15:17.
15:22.
15:23You
Comments