Knicks turn page on championship summer at…
It’s human nature to chill out. Rest on laurels.
The Knicks spent a summer soaking in the adulation, showing at more occasions and national TV exhibits than any staff in NBA historical past. At least that’s the best way it felt the past three months. They don’t have a Basketball Reference page to monitor these issues.
The gamers — significantly Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jose Alvarado, OG Anunoby, Jordan Clarkson and Josh Hart — didn’t shy from their reputation.
But beginning this week, the main target shifts.
Josh Hart and Jose Alvarado attend the 2026 US Open Tennis Championships in New York, Sunday, September 13, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com
Back to basketball.
“Is it cliché if I say it’s 0-0 again?” Towns said. “That’s kind of the same thing we said every playoff game, and when we won and kept winning it was great. But this season is about us going out there and starting again at 0-0. Bringing that same hungry team, that team that’s hungry to prove everyone wrong. The underdogs.”
Towns was talking Thursday on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” maybe his last national TV look before training camp begins this week. Perhaps not? Brunson also had “Saturday Night Live” to host forward of Monday’s Media Day at the training facility.
None of these appearances are detrimental to basketball. It’s better than partying and consuming for a summer. This assortment of Knicks gamers, as a number of people around the group have explained, are more mature and accountable than any earlier roster incarnation. There was one shaky incident involving Clarkson in July, when he was escorted out of a membership by police, and that was it.
New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson greets followers during the Roommates Show Block Party live podcast at Randalls Island in New York, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
But the quantity of widespread consideration and adulation does beg some questions: Can the Knicks keep away from complacency? Can they keep the sting that pushed them through a historic playoff run?
Brunson, whose profile is larger than any current New York athlete, understands the task.
“We’ve done something that everyone has wanted us to do for 53 years now. And now people are going around saying, You guys are the champs, you guys are the best thing ever. It’s been said to us all summer. God knows how long it’s going to continue,” the purpose guard told The Post last month. “When people say that, can we let that go through one ear and out the other? Can we just focus on what we will do this yr? Because last yr was last yr.
Karl-Anthony Towns talked about life as an NBA champion with NBC late night time host Seth Meyers in June. Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Image
“It’s OK for people to talk to us about it, and say, ‘Oh that was great.’ But we’re moving on. So it cannot be in our mindset. It cannot be our focal point if we want to get better. So I think that’s the question we need to ask. And if we can do that, we’re going to be in good shape to be able to be in a better mindset. If not, then we’re going to be behind the eight ball.”
It’s an overarching theme in training camp, when the progress is meant to start but it’s onerous to discover motivation — particularly for completed vets — because real video games are still weeks away.
One of the self-motivating techniques clearly being carried out by the Knicks is focusing on the doubters. For occasion, they don’t seem to be the betting favorites to win the title (they’re tied for third and below the Thunder and Spurs, according to FanDuel). They have zero gamers in ESPN’s just lately launched top-five rating (Brunson is sixth). They are listening to a lot about the new threats of Philadelphia, Miami, Toronto.
There’s more to show, in other phrases.
“I don’t think we have a big target because I don’t think anyone is picking us to win again,” Hart said on ESPN’s U.S. Open broadcast. “We’re utilizing it as fuel, we’re still the hunters, we’re not happy with one.
Following up on that mindset begins in camp.
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