Knicks will get an up-close look at the standard they must now exceed
NY Post
They are professionals. They don’t require the kind of basic motivation college coaches preach to their players. They aren’t susceptible to the emotional manipulation that high school coaches project on their players. They are pros. It’s their job. It’s their lives. It’s their livelihoods.
So Tom Thibodeau knows better than to hammer home that which will be impossible to miss Tuesday night, at the TD Garden. The Celtics will raise an 18th championship banner to the Garden’s already crowded rafters. The Knicks are welcome to watch.
There will be one final ode to the 2023-24 C’s, and it promises to be loud enough and long enough to extend all across New England, so it can be properly shared with an audience far beyond the 19,156 who’ll be packed tightly within the arena walls. The Celtics never did have to tame the Knicks to win that title, but it’ll be the Knicks who’ll fully experience the spoils of what the Celtics did.
How will that affect the Knicks on Tuesday, as they begin their quest to achieve what the Celtics have already earned?
Well, hell, you’ve seen Thibodeau’s basketball floor plans for four years now. You know his greatest hits by heart. How do you think the Knicks will react and respond?
You know how they’ll react and respond.
It feels right that on the day we celebrate Aaron Judge joining an elite pantheon of athlete — the multi-time winner of the Most Valuable Player award — that we take a walk back to the beginning, when Judge was little more than a 6-foot-7, 280-pound curiosity who mostly specialized in striking out.
The NFL has warned its players to take precautions against a “transnational crime ring” that is suspected of orchestrating a number of break-ins of athletes’ homes including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Joel Embiid isn’t pleased with details of the 76ers’ team meeting after Monday’s loss being leaked, telling reporters after Wednesday’s road loss to the Grizzlies, “whoever leaked that is a real piece of s–t.”
PHOENIX — Jalen Brunson didn’t want to comment on the NBA looking into his father’s promotion and contract as a potential salary-cap circumvention, but the point guard certainly had a message to anybody questioning Rick Brunson’s coaching credentials.
PHOENIX — Wednesday brought some cautiously optimistic updates for the Knicks frontcourt.
The Greatest Escape in franchise history was perpetrated by Glen Sather, when the general manager extricated himself and the Rangers from the final five years of Scott Gomez’s contract by moving the $7,357,143-per-year center to Montreal on June 30, 2009 after two years in New York.
The Yankees publicly are on the same page: Hal Steinbrenner, like Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone before him, said that issues with the club’s fundamentals did not hover over the team all season.
The first day of the rest of Daniel Jones’ dwindling time with the Giants arrived Wednesday, with Jones in the building, in the meetings, on the practice field (although not doing very much) and not at all part of the game plan for the next game, relegated to a non-participant role for the remainder of the season.
There will be a little extra magic for Knicks-Spurs on Christmas Day.
The quickest way for the Giants to climb out of quarterback hell is also the quickest way to extend their stay there for at least three more years.