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00:00Good to see everybody. You guys are excited to see me.
00:04Very good.
00:06Can I start off saying something to you guys?
00:08What we accomplished, first of all, I just want to get this out of the way.
00:11What we accomplished, obviously, was amazing.
00:15It was amazing for our family.
00:17It was amazing for our friends, for the organization,
00:21for the city of New York, and mixed fans all over the world.
00:25So, it's a new season and a new team.
00:31And we're going to face new challenges throughout the course of the year.
00:37We're going to hit adversity, which, you know, I said this last year.
00:42We're going to embrace it.
00:43We're going to hit adversity in an 82-game season
00:47and upholding our commitment to our standard.
00:52That's not going to change.
00:53Our standard of sacrifice, being connected, having a competitive spirit,
01:01having a belief in each other, in the process.
01:05That's our primary focus going into this year.
01:09And regardless of what we accomplished moving forward,
01:15our standard, like I said, our standard and how we approach our process,
01:23it's going to be real critical.
01:26It's going to be really critical for us.
01:28We can't afford to have any slippage in our process.
01:37We can't afford to decline with our focus and our energy
01:43and our daily habits to what our standard is.
01:49Having said that, I'm excited to move forward with this new group.
01:59Mike, how would you kind of describe your time from the day after winning the title
02:04to today, the experience of the last, whatever, couple months?
02:09It was a blur.
02:11I mean, you know, I've been fortunate, less lucky,
02:15all above to have a short off-season more than a few times before.
02:24And, you know, it's no different.
02:27Off-season's quick.
02:29It's great to be in a city like New York,
02:33to feel the energy of the people and the excitement of the people.
02:39A lot of great things happened.
02:41I'll never forget, my wife and I, we walked into a polo bar
02:46and we got to the bottom of the stairs and everybody stood up and clapped.
02:52And I had nowhere to hide.
02:55But, you know, just the energy just is amazing.
02:59It's amazing.
03:00A lot of fun.
03:01Steve.
03:02Kimmy, you've been a part of a staff that repeated as champs.
03:07What is the challenge?
03:09How do you keep the hunger?
03:11How do you keep the same sort of you that they had the first time?
03:14Well, like I said before, you know,
03:16we can't afford any slippage in our process.
03:18We're going to have our ups and downs.
03:22You know, we have to understand that the media scrutiny
03:26and the public scrutiny is going to come.
03:29It is what it is.
03:31And there's going to be a lot of comparisons.
03:33But we have no control over that.
03:35The only thing we can control is, like what I said, what's our daily habits?
03:41Where is our focus, our energy going every day?
03:44When we were in Golden State, when I was in Golden State,
03:47I think that repeat year, we didn't win every series we played against teams.
03:54I think we were 1-3 against Utah.
03:57And one of the games, I think we got beat by 40.
04:00You know, I may not imagine that, getting beat by 40.
04:03You feel like the world's going to cave in.
04:05And that's all people are going to talk about.
04:08But we didn't let it sway us.
04:11You know, we leaned on our standard of what I just said.
04:15And we pushed forward.
04:16Because 82 games, it's a lot.
04:19And you're going to have some ups and downs.
04:21And like I said before, you might get knocked back a few feet.
04:24You hope it's not 20 feet.
04:26But if you get knocked back a few feet, you hope you get back on your horse and keep climbing.
04:32I have three cat questions.
04:34Three cat questions.
04:36Is he allowed three questions already?
04:38This is the first day.
04:39First day.
04:40First question.
04:41The first is, the way you guys entered the season, play with him as the elbow.
04:46Will you expect that to continue with you guys?
04:49Same question as the loop like you drive.
04:50I'm not that smart.
04:52Can I answer that?
04:53Yes.
04:54Okay.
04:54So, yeah, he's, you know, the ironic part about it is, we have an offense.
05:02We started the season with an offense with him at the elbow.
05:06We just did different things when he caught the ball at the elbow.
05:10And he didn't always, the action wasn't always designed to go to him at the elbow.
05:14And so, we have eventually evolved into that.
05:19And, you know, like that happened, we will go with that and evolve into other things, you know, throughout the
05:28course of the year based on where we are as a team.
05:31Mike, go ahead a second.
05:32He looked like he dropped a lot of weight.
05:34Obviously, is that noticeable, and how does that have a better fit in the game?
05:39It was crazy.
05:40I've had people say that to me.
05:43Okay.
05:45I think when I look at my body, I can tell if I dropped weight or not, and I have
05:50it.
05:51So, I'm still a power forward slash center, even though I'm 6'2".
05:55But, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know.
05:59You know, I don't know.
06:00Because, like, I haven't checked his body weight or his body fat or anything like that, you know.
06:05In today's sports world, you always hear about strength and then speed and quickness.
06:11Whatever that means.
06:12So, whatever, wherever his body needs to be to optimize those things, that's what I have no faith our,
06:18Hillman, our performance staff will, will, will do for him.
06:22I just, like, very one of the...
06:24Nah, that's two of us.
06:26That's a good question.
06:29Good, though.
06:29This is not a way to start a cat question.
06:31Okay, okay, okay, 10.
06:33He's up on the extension.
06:35Josh Hart is up on the extension.
06:37You talk about distractions and not letting those things sort of get inside the team.
06:42bubble.
06:43Do you talk to the players?
06:44Do you monitor that?
06:45Like, have you seen situations you've been in, you know,
06:48Golden State with Kevin Durant, had a contract of, and what that can do for a ball club?
06:52Can you lean on that experience, if anything, that you see that you talk to players more
06:55when they had that sort of uncertainty up in the air?
06:59The first thing is, you know, we try to talk about everything.
07:02We don't want to leave any elephants in the room.
07:04But, you know, that's something that Leon and his group, they've been really good at.
07:10And some would argue, the best in the NBA at.
07:14And so I have a lot of faith in them and, you know, the players and the agents, whoever's involved.
07:20I'm not involved in it, but they'll figure it out.
07:22And our group has done a fantastic job of understanding that, you know,
07:26we can only control what we can control.
07:29Fred?
07:30Matt, that course of me here, it would have seemed that, especially with the second half of the season,
07:34obviously, in the biopsies.
07:36So, like, you guys, we didn't even love any terms of this stuff.
07:39So, you said we've seen like what?
07:41You guys can't have reached any level in session three.
07:44Looking back on that, in retrospect, what do you feel like allowed you all to get to that moment
07:50to where they were able to fully just see how to read it here?
07:55You were able to kind of address everything until it's a given year position.
07:59I said this to our group before at the beginning of last season.
08:02You know, a lot of people tend to shy away from adversity.
08:08And especially early on because, you know, you get scrutinized.
08:12And sometimes it can be tough dealing with that.
08:16I actually, I yearn for it.
08:19I yearn for it early because I want to make sure that not only myself, but we as a group
08:27can handle it.
08:28And early on, especially when you have a new group, it's tough to deal with.
08:36It's extremely tough to deal with.
08:39But that will make you better dealing with it earlier as you go along throughout the course of the season
08:45because you have not only examples to lean on, but you still have your standard that, you know,
08:51that's going to be in contract form.
08:53But this year we're adding, you know, all that stuff while holding each other accountable.
08:59But we don't want to have slippage, you know, in our focus and our energy when it comes to our
09:05daily habits
09:06in that area when it comes to the standard.
09:09So leaning on that early and often is going to be huge as well.
09:15And I think that really helped us as time go on deal with it better, especially come playoff time.
09:21And then the last thing I would say is, you know, Leon, I mean, he's great.
09:26I've known him for years.
09:28The way he communicates, how open he is, it's very easy having that partnership with him.
09:36Hey, Mike, you guys decided not to bowl off that second apron in T-South this offseason.
09:44It's two questions.
09:45One, do you know if that's, how far it's stopping next year and the year after that?
09:53And also, obviously, losing Mitchell Robbins.
09:56And what?
09:56Because of that, because your bucks are worth it.
09:59I'm sorry, losing Mitchell Robbins, what was the last part?
10:01Oh, okay.
10:04You know, like I said before, when it comes to the contract and second,
10:11you guys know how much I love my grandkid.
10:13Or my grandkid, like I couldn't, if you ask me to give you three facts or two facts about the
10:20second apron,
10:21I can't do it because I really don't, like I have no interest in that.
10:27I'm not trying to punt, but it is what it is.
10:30I don't follow that.
10:31And again, Leon trusts me with the stuff on the court, and I trust him with that type of stuff.
10:40And so, whatever his thought is or his focus is, I'm all on board with it.
10:48And regarding Mitch, you know, shoot, I, again, being a part of the Warriors,
10:58we had gone back-to-back in 17 and 18.
11:00Then we lose KD.
11:01And everybody's like, you know, losing KD, guys can be in trouble.
11:07Hall of Fame player, first ballot Hall of Fame player.
11:11And, you know, we didn't go out and replace him with a clone.
11:16You can't do that to win it in 22.
11:20We did it by committee.
11:21Everybody just kind of stepped up just a little bit here, a little bit there.
11:25We had an emergence of a young Jordan Poole.
11:28Andrew Wiggins probably had the best of his career.
11:32Otto Porter, who people haven't heard of.
11:35You know, and that's what, you know, Mitch is a great young player.
11:41He's one of the best rebounders, if not the best offensive rebounders in the league.
11:44He protects for him and all that.
11:46We're not going to have one person step up and replace him.
11:49We're going to all have to just do a little bit more on both sides of the floor to get
11:54it done.
11:55All right, we're going to do two more.
11:56Christian and then Bruce.
11:58Think of backing off today.
11:59They're going to so long for him on the session from history.
12:01You're bringing in Andre Drummond.
12:03The things that you mentioned, the offensive rebound and the ability to protect the rim,
12:07you see him as someone that could expect it to that role.
12:09And then that as well, just the continuity,
12:11bringing back so many people from the championship team last year.
12:14How much do you think is he trying to write back this to the rim?
12:17You know, keeping your core is something that is always exciting,
12:22especially when the core has had success.
12:25And so I'm looking forward to getting back out there with our guys,
12:31with the understanding that, you know, like I said before,
12:34it was an amazing thing that we accomplished last year.
12:39A ton of fun.
12:40But we have to understand that this is a new season, a new team.
12:46All of the core is the same, and we're going to face new challenges.
12:52So you want that.
12:53If you can have it, we're fortunate to have it.
12:57And Andre, yeah, you know, you see, watching him in the gym,
13:03you see he's a little quicker than what you thought,
13:05a little more explosive than what you thought, got some size to him,
13:10physicality.
13:11The good thing about it is he's been through this thing a million times.
13:15So his veteran understanding of the officials, the game flow, you know,
13:22the other players, I mean, I go on and on,
13:25there's going to be a positive to what we're trying to do going forward.
13:29And, you know, you look at his size,
13:32and he's a guy that teams aren't going to just switch
13:37or disrespect in the pick-and-roll game,
13:40which is going to help, you know, Jalen, McHale, OG,
13:45and stuff like that, and give us a different look because he's so big.
13:49Like, can you switch, he's going to kill you on the glass
13:52or he's going to sit in the paint.
13:54And then defensively at his size, and like I said, his understanding,
13:58he may not be the shot blocker that Mitch was,
14:03but there are ways that a guy that's that big, that quick,
14:08that has that good of a feel for the game can impact protecting the rim,
14:13and we'll help him.
14:14Last one, Bruce.
14:16Mike, the Knicks universe is more.
14:18The Knicks faithful is everywhere.
14:21So what kind of honor and what kind of responsibility is it
14:24to represent these fans and try to defend this title?
14:29You know, like I said, this is a new team.
14:33It's a new season, and there are new challenges that we're going to face.
14:38I started off saying, you know, what an amazing run this was,
14:43you know, for our family, our friends, and the organization.
14:47And so just, and then the city of New York and Knicks fans all around the world.
14:53So one thing that I left out, and I left it out on purpose,
14:57is what an amazing run it was for us.
15:00I mean, we have a standard that we value at an extremely high level.
15:06We put more pressure on ourselves than the outside world.
15:12So, you know, first and foremost, we have to be able to look in the mirror
15:17and make sure that we're doing what we should be doing
15:22for everybody in that locker room,
15:24for ourselves and everybody else in that locker room.
15:27And if we do that, the Knicks faithful, is that what you call it?
15:32Knicks faithful?
15:33They use that term a lot in football, right?
15:36I hear.
15:36Okay, all the supporters.
15:37In all sports.
15:38Okay.
15:39Well, the Knicks faithful will be taken care of
15:42as long as we take care of ourselves first.