I ain’t gonna lie, after that game, we had practice the next day, and I thought I was just gonna start starting! I’m like,
O.K., I just had 25 points, seven assists and a rebound. I’m clearly
a starter in the NBA. Guess what jersey they handed me?? Hahah. But I thank God for that opportunity because that’s really where my career started, honestly. Had things not gone the way they did in the preseason, who knows if I otherwise would’ve ever got a chance to play that early in my career.
And that taught me something about this game, too. Like yeah, it’s important to take advantage of getting a look like that. You definitely can’t take it for granted. But success isn’t about
one breakout moment, you what I mean? A few games into the regular season, I had another one of those opportunities. We played in Portland, and I put up 31 points, against Dame. In 25 minutes, too. Those moments stick with you. That’s when I was like,
O.K., so I can really be good if I just continue to keep working. I stopped looking at every opportunity as my one and only shot and just played.
I also started looking around me at how other guys moved, who had been in this league longer than me, just having a mindset that I could always be adding to my game. Julius was a big one for me. I remember I got a text from him the night I got traded. He said, “It don’t matter where you at. I got you, man. Anything you need.” With all the craziness of the night, that was really reassuring, but it especially meant something coming from him. He’s another guy that’s been like a brother to me. I’ve learned so much from him. One of the biggest things I think I’ve taken away, especially because he’s been around Kobe, is just his mindset. Sometimes in the gym, anybody can vouch, I’ll just watch him — how he prepares, how he goes about his work and his daily habits. How he goes through his workouts. From time to time, I’d just text him to pick his brain like, “What’s your mindset before a game?” When you’ve been around the best, you know what it takes in a different way, and he’s always willing to share any knowledge he has. That’s my guy, always.
It’s funny thinking about the little “New York” things that just become part of your normal, you know what I mean? When you play here, everybody know the Knicks, which mean everybody know
you. I remember going to the white party. It was a whole bunch of superstars there, and people were coming up to me like, “Yo, Quick!!” Man, 50 Cent grabbed me the other day while I was taking the ball out of bounds hahah. I got so used to seeing Spike, one of the last games I played with the team versus Brooklyn I hit back-to-back threes, fell on the ground, and without even thinking I just go up to Spike, dap him up and hug him. It was the funniest thing to me. Like, what else would you do? And at the time, it was just regular. Now, it means even more. That stuff I’ll remember forever.
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But more than anything, I’ll remember what we built here.
Our team was just so driven to be better. We were never thinking like,
We’re gonna turn things around. Nah, it wasn’t like that at all. We oftentimes didn’t even realize what we were doing. We were just chopping wood, carrying water. Trying to see how we could be better each and every day. It’s funny, when you’re in that mindset, and you’re so focused on the job, you almost don’t even realize when change starts to happen. But more and more, I’d find myself at a restaurant in the city, or a store, and customers or owners or just anybody, if they were a Knicks fan (which they usually are) would come up and be like, “Thank you, we appreciate everything you’ve done.” They’d be like, “I’ve been a fan since Patrick Ewing.” And that’s when it really started to hit me what this meant. It’s pretty cool to know you were part of changing a culture back to winning ways, which just says a lot about the group we had and what we were able to accomplish.
And that’s something that I’m going to take with me to Toronto — chopping wood, carrying water. Continuing to put the work in because that’s how you get better.
It’s been one of the craziest weeks in my life forreal. I won’t lie, when I first heard where I was headed, I was like,
I don’t know if it’s going to work. Who’s gonna be there? Where am I going to live? I just didn’t know anything. I’m literally kind of still in that moment right now, where I just don’t know. The other day I was in Toronto, I was hungry, and I had no idea where to go eat, you know what I’m saying? But I’m learning to embrace the uncertainty. I can see the bigger picture. I see the opportunity for a larger role, which was kind of a reason that it worked out for both teams. The Knicks got what they wanted, and it helped me to be in a position to show what I can do on a night-to-night basis, which I’m really looking forward to.