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      Old Friends. New Team. Same Knicks Championship Dream.

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      Knicks guards Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart were college friends, then took a twisty road to a reunion in the N.B.A.When Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson was asked if Josh Hart had changed much in the eight years they had known each other, he feigned exasperation and quickly said no. Then a little smile crept onto his face.“He’s still a 2-year-old,” Brunson said. “Loves candy. It’s like having — he’s older than me — it’s like having a little brother.”This was all news to Hart, also a Knicks guard, who countered that Brunson, too, has not changed a bit since college.“He’s a child, that’s what he is,” Hart said. “He’s the child. I’m like the parent.”The playful ribbing belies a relationship that was nurtured at Villanova and has remained strong even as the two have taken divergent paths in the N.B.A.Brunson, 26, was a freshman at Villanova in 2015-16 when Hart, 28, was a junior and they won an N.C.A.A. championship together. Hart made it to the N.B.A. a year later as a first-round pick for the Lakers in a draft-day deal with the Jazz. The next year, it was Brunson’s turn: The Mavericks drafted him in the second round. While Brunson spent the next four years in Dallas, Hart played on three different teams.Brunson, second from left, won an N.C.A.A. championship at Villanova in 2016 with Mikal Bridges, left, Darryl Reynolds, center, and Hart, right.Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesThis year, Brunson joined the Knicks in free agency and has blossomed into a star who has helped carry the team to its best record since 2013. Hart arrived in February in a trade from Portland and has brought a tenacity off the bench that has helped the Knicks finish the season with optimism despite working through injuries.Hart and Brunson will have very different but important roles for the Knicks, the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, as they prepare for a first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which starts on Saturday.“I think that they had a mutual respect for each other just because they’re competitive assassins,” said Kyle Neptune, Villanova’s men’s basketball coach, who was an assistant coach on the team from 2013 to 2021. He added: “They have just a sense of humanity and a sense of purpose and being good human beings. But then when you get them both on the floor they’re just absolute killers.”The ways Hart and Brunson have excelled with the Knicks reflect who they were as players in college.Brunson was able to connect well with his teammates back then, too.“His ability to adapt to new people is partially because he’s the son of a player and a coach that moved around like a military family,” said Baker Dunleavy, who was an assistant coach for Villanova from 2010 to 2017.He remembered Brunson having a sense of professionalism early on that was rare for someone his age.But, like he did in his N.B.A. career, Brunson had to wait before he could take ownership of Villanova’s locker room. Jay Wright, the former longtime Villanova head coach, remembered sensing that Brunson was a bit uncomfortable in his first year and that he held back some of his leadership ability because the team already had a point guard — Ryan Arcidiacono, who was a senior at the time. The next year, Brunson seemed more at ease as he took on a leadership role.“A born leader and just a guy that loved having everybody count on him,” Wright said.Brunson was the Knicks’ second-leading scorer this season with 24 points per game, up from 16.3 points per game in his last season with Dallas.Ken Blaze/Usa Today Sports, via Reuters ConHart had been named the most outstanding player of the Big East tournament during his sophomore year, and was a third-team all-American his junior year. He sometimes shocked his coaches with the audacity of the shots he took, but they happily accepted the results.Wright recounted several examples of Hart making big plays in high-pressure situations: regular-season games against top-ranked opponents, pivotal Big East tournament matchups and N.C.A.A. tournament games.“You just kind of knew this guy fears nothing,” Wright said.And he did love candy. Once, during a pause in one of Hart’s high school practices, Dunleavy saw Hart reach into a sock, pull out a bag of sour candy and tilt the bag so a few pieces fell into his mouth as if he was taking a sip of Gatorade.Villanova stressed the importance of good nutrition for their players, Wright said, but he was sure Hart found a way to hide candy in the locker room.“Don’t even get me started,” he said.Wright described Hart as more carefree than Brunson, and Brunson as a little more mature.Brunson spent his first four seasons with the Mavericks. He joined the Knicks as a prized free agent last summer, about a month after the team hired his father, Rick Brunson, who had worked with Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau before as an assistant coach.The Knicks were penalized a second-round draft pick in 2025 for beginning free agent discussions with Brunson before the league allowed.Brunson had been an emerging player in Dallas, playing alongside Luka Doncic, but he has thrived being featured more with the Knicks. His per-game scoring average has risen to 24 this season from 16.3 last season, and he is dishing 6.2 assists per game compared to 4.8 last season.Part of what has made him fit so well with the Knicks is the mixture of humility and confidence with which he plays and leads.“He’s an honest leader,” Knicks center Mitchell Robinson said. “He knows when he’s right and he’s wrong, so he’s not afraid to admit stuff like that. And you kind of need that.”Robinson said Brunson texted him last summer to join him in New York for off-season workouts. He didn’t know Brunson before that, but they quickly developed the rapport of longtime friends.Hart has had an effect on his teams through his versatility on defense and on hustle plays — rebounding, chasing loose balls. He was traded twice before arriving in New York, first to the Pelicans as part of the deal that sent Anthony Davis to the Lakers, and then to Portland.For most of this season, Hart relished Brunson’s success from afar.“I think he kind of exceeded everyone’s expectations but his own,” Hart said, adding: “For me it’s just cool because I’ve seen all the work that he’s put in to get to this level.”On Feb. 8, their paths converged.Brunson was at Villanova for a ceremony to have his college jersey retired. Someone showed him the news on a phone that the Knicks had traded for Hart. Brunson shouted an expletive and then said “YESSS!” as he raised his arms victoriously. The people around him started to clap.“Like his big brother was coming home from college or something,” Wright said. “He was so excited. It was genuine, you know. After he saw, he just still kept walking around like: ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t believe. I can’t believe we have Josh. I’m so pumped we got Josh.’ He didn’t stop the whole night.”Hart has been effective throughout his career on hustle plays, including rebounding and chasing loose balls.Vincent Carchietta/Usa Today Sports, via Reuters ConHart, who had his own jersey retired by Villanova in 2022, had just spoken with Brunson that morning.“Neither of us, obviously, had any idea that was going to happen,” Hart said. “I texted him just about congrats on getting the jersey retirement. And he actually didn’t even say thank you.”In New York, Hart fit in immediately. He is now making better than 50 percent of his 3-point attempts, where in Portland he made only a third. His scoring has gone up, even though his minutes have gone down. The Knicks went on a nine-game winning streak starting with the first game Hart played for them.“I think his game could fit in well anywhere just because of all the things he does,” Thibodeau said. He added: “There’s no agenda other than winning. If you’re open, he hits you. If we need a big shot. He’s what I call a playmaker. Whatever the game needs.”Now, Hart and Brunson often do their postgame interview sessions together, trading off questions if one of them gets stumped. They sit together on the team plane, and, according to Robinson, tell inside jokes that their teammates don’t understand. Together, they will try to help this Knicks team become the first in a decade to win a playoff series. More

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      Willis Reed, Hall of Fame Center for Champion Knicks, Dies at 80

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      He was beloved by New York fans for his willingness to play hurt, as memorably exemplified in the decisive Game 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. finals at Madison Square Garden.Willis Reed, the brawny and inspirational hub of two Knicks championship teams that captivated New York in the early 1970s with a canny, team-oriented style of play, died on Tuesday. He was 80.His death was confirmed by his former teammate Bill Bradley, the former United States senator. He said Reed had congestive heart issues. It was not clear where Reed died, but he had been under treatment at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Bradley said.Reed was notably absent last month, for health reasons, when the Knicks celebrated their 1972-73 championship team during a 50th-anniversary halftime ceremony at Madison Square Garden attended by many former members of that squad, including Bradley, Walt Frazier, Dick Barnett, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas. Reed spoke to the crowd in a prerecorded video.In an era when Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain were the more celebrated big men, Reed was a highly skilled 6-foot-9 center with a resolute physicality that was much admired over a 10-year career, though it was marred by injury and ended at 31.It was Reed’s willingness to play hurt that brought him his greatest measure of respect and fame, and his grittiness was never more exemplified and celebrated than on May 8, 1970, in the decisive game of the National Basketball Association finals.Days earlier, he had torn a right tensor muscle, which originates in the hip and extends to the thigh, while driving to the basket on Chamberlain during the first quarter of Game 5 at Madison Square Garden — a game the Knicks rallied to win without him. Saving whatever he had left for a possible Game 7, he sat out Game 6 in Los Angeles, in which Chamberlain scored 45 points.When the Knicks went out to warm up before the start of Game 7, Reed stayed behind in the trainer’s room for treatment. As everyone in the packed Garden anxiously awaited word on whether he would play, he made his way stiff-legged through the players’ tunnel and emerged to a crescendo of cheers to join his teammates, who were already warming up.“You’re five stories above the ground and I swear you could feel the vibrations,” Reed said in 2009. “I thought, this is what an earthquake must feel like.”Limping noticeably, he hit his first two southpaw jump shots for his only points of the game. Frazier carried the Knicks from there, with 36 points and 19 assists, and the Knicks, with a 113-99 victory, clinched the franchise’s first title.In 1990, around the 20th anniversary of Game 7, Reed told The New York Times: “There isn’t a day in my life that people don’t remind me of that game.”Heroism Under DuressHis threshold for tolerating pain — however much dulled that night by pregame injections of carbocaine, a powerful derivative of novocaine — has for decades been invoked as a standard measure, a “Willis Reed moment,” for athletic heroism under physical duress.“It was the best example of inspiration by an individual in a sporting event I’ve ever seen,” Bradley once said.Reed won the N.B.A.’s Most Valuable Player Award for the 1969-70 season and was named the M.V.P. of the championship series. He won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1965, was voted an All-Star seven times and won another N.B.A. title and finals M.V.P. with the Knicks in 1973. For his career, he averaged 18.7 points and 12.9 rebounds per game.He was chosen by the N.B.A. for its 50th and 75th anniversary teams. In 1996, he was chosen by the N.B.A. as one of its 50 greatest players. His No. 19 uniform jersey — white with blue and orange trim — was the first to be retired by the Knicks, on Oct. 21, 1976. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.After his playing days, Reed was a coach or executive for the Knicks, the New Jersey Nets and the New Orleans Hornets. He was part of the Nets’ front office when the team lost consecutive N.B.A. finals in 2002 and 2003. He also coached at Creighton University from 1981 to 1985, and was an assistant coach in the N.B.A. for the Atlanta Hawks and the Sacramento Kings.Reed, a Louisiana native, was an avid outdoorsman. His hobby fit his playing persona as a rugged, proud man whose patience wore thin with those who challenged or crossed him.The Knicks’ starting five after winning a playoff game against the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970. From left were Dick Barnett, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and Reed. Dan Farrell/New York Daily News Archive, via Getty ImagesOn Oct. 18, 1966, at Madison Square Garden, the Los Angeles Lakers learned the hard way that Reed was no one to fool with. Beginning his third season with the Knicks, Reed was embroiled in a battle with the Lakers’ Rudy LaRusso, a bruising 6-foot-7 forward. Throughout the game, Reed had been complaining to the officials about LaRusso’s tactics, but when his pleas were ignored he acted on his own.Lined up at the free-throw line late in the third quarter, Reed elbowed LaRusso to the side of the head. On the way up court, LaRusso responded with a chopping punch. Reed, in a sudden fury, shook off Darrall Imhoff’s bear hug from behind and floored the 6-foot-10 Imhoff, cutting him near the eye; he broke the nose of John Block, a 6-foot-9 rookie, who had foolishly stepped into his space; and he finally chased LaRusso into the Lakers’ bench, throwing wild punches and sending several of the players fleeing from Reed’s range.A grainy black-and-white film of the melee surfaced in 2014 in an ESPN documentary on the Knicks teams of the early 1970s. In the film, “When the Garden Was Eden,” Reed sheepishly called it “a good fight.”He also recalled being upset that none of his teammates had joined the fray and noted their reticence in the postgame locker room. Barnett later said that he had remarked, “Man, you were winning.”A Gentle GiantOff the court, Reed was a much gentler giant, flashing an easy smile and typically extending a large hand to greet friends and acquaintances. Within the Knicks organization, he was known to be generous with teammates in an era when financial rewards in professional sports were not as substantial as they are today.“Willis would always take the rookies under his wing,” Frazier, a Hall of Fame guard on those championship teams, was quoted as saying in “Garden Glory: An Oral History of the New York Knicks,” written by Dennis D’Agostino and published in 2003. “He would loan you his car or money. That was his personality.”He was also recognized as a natural leader. Shortly after the brawl with the Lakers, he was named team captain — a role he had filled for his high school basketball and football teams and during his junior and senior seasons as a star at the historically Black Grambling College (now Grambling State University). He was just 24.Reed after the Knicks beat the Lakers on May 8, 1970. Off the court, he was a gentle giant, flashing an easy smile and typically extending a large hand to greet friends and acquaintances. Associated Press‘We Made the Best of It’Willis Reed Jr. was born on June 25, 1942, in Hico, La., the only child of Willis and Inell Reed. As a young boy, he lived on a 200-acre farm owned by his grandparents, Baptist teetotalers who preached commitment and hard work.When Reed reached school age, his parents moved about 10 miles away to Bernice, a town of three square miles in north central Louisiana that was then a thriving lumber and agricultural community. His father worked in a sawmill factory, and his mother worked as a domestic.Reed grew up with an acute sense of what Jim Crow law meant: separate but not really equal. “Didn’t have the houses the white folks have, didn’t have a car,” he said in 2009. “But the situation was what it was. We made the best of it in Bernice until it changed.”Still, Reed always maintained, he never harbored ill feelings for white people. He believed that attending an all-Black high school, Westside, a few miles from Bernice, provided role models for him he might not have had in an integrated school.Reed attempted to block a shot by Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics in a mid-1960s game at Madison Square Garden.Ken Regan/NBAE, via Getty ImagesMost prominent was the school’s basketball coach, Lendon Stone, who wore a jacket and tie to school every day and demonstrated to Reed that he could avoid the backbreaking work his father did.Reed majored in physical education at Grambling and planned on being a teacher until he became a dominant player, averaging 26.6 points and 21.3 rebounds per game as a senior. The Knicks drafted him with the first pick of the second round in 1964, after 10 other players had been chosen. With their first-round pick, the Knicks selected another big man, Jim Barnes, who had beaten Reed out for a spot on the 1964 United States Olympic team.Reed believed he was better than Barnes and most of the other first-round picks, and he was determined to prove it. When he was offered his first Knicks contract, for $11,000 with a $3,000 signing bonus, he told Eddie Donovan, the team’s general manager, that he wanted a bigger bonus. Told that the team wanted him to earn it on the court, Reed accepted the challenge and vowed to make Donovan pay him after the season.As team captain, Reed took his leadership responsibilities seriously, and Red Holzman, his coach, relied on him to motivate and police teammates as the Knicks improved dramatically from the middle to the late 1960s.They narrowly missed making the N.B.A. finals in 1969, losing a tough six-game series to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals. With Russell retired by the next season, the Knicks reeled off 17 early-season victories in a row, equaling a record then held by Boston.Reed battled for the ball with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Milwaukee Bucks, then known as Lew Alcindor, in a 1970 Eastern Division playoff game.Associated PressTriumphs and ChallengesThey appeared to be a team of destiny. But along the way to the championship there were significant challenges, one of which was internal and demanded Reed’s exceptional leadership to quell a festering internal conflict.In mid-January of that season, Cazzie Russell, the Knicks’ best offensive substitute, was late to a practice on an off-day in Detroit. Driving out of Ann Arbor, where he was visiting with friends, Russell was pulled over by the police and ordered out of the car at gunpoint. When he produced a driver’s license, the officers apologized and explained that an African American male with a beard had broken out of prison. Russell, who was African American, had a beard.Upon arriving at practice, upset by what he considered to be a case of racial profiling, Russell began throwing elbows at the Knicks’ white players, in particular Bradley, a college rival at Princeton who had joined the Knicks after Russell and who eventually took his starting forward position.Reed halted the scrimmage, approached Russell and asked what he was doing. In “The Open Man,” a diary of the 1969-70 season, the Knicks’ Hall of Fame forward Dave DeBusschere recalled that Russell blurted out, “Be quiet, Uncle Tom.”For Reed, a child of the segregated South, it was deeply offensive to be spoken to in such a way, especially in front of his teammates. Russell quickly realized the risk he had taken. He had made his N.B.A. debut in 1966 on the night Reed brawled with the Lakers.Reed returned to Madison Square Garden in 2010 to join his former teammates in celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Knicks’ first championship.Jason Szenes/The New York TimesBut when Reed was at Grambling in the early 1960s, his team occasionally competed against white teams in the national small-college tournament. His coach, Fred Hobdy, admonished his players about allowing the incendiary issue of race to infect their mental preparation and execution.“He used to say, ‘Listen, you guys are athletes, and you don’t need to be out there demonstrating — the best thing you can do is what you do best,’” Reed said in 2009.On the Knicks, which had Black and white players, Reed intuitively recognized the danger of the team splintering or Russell being emasculated if he overreacted to the insult.Reed stepped forward and issued a blunt warning to Russell: Be quiet, play the right way, or “this Uncle Tom will be kicking some ass.” Given a moment to gather himself, Russell apologized.The Knicks kept winning, and Russell helped them hold off the Baltimore Bullets in the decisive game of a first-round playoff series, on a night when Bradley played poorly and the team needed a fourth-quarter lift.Recalling the incident in 2010 when he was back in New York for a 40th-anniversary celebration, Russell called Reed “an amazing man.”Bradley said the incident with Russell captured the essence of Reed, whom he called “a strong and selfless leader, who was the heart of our team.“Even as the league’s M.V.P.,” Bradley continued, “he knew that the individual was never as important as the team, and that points were transitory, championships were forever.”Reed’s greatest triumphs were the two championships in New York, but his most deflating career moment also came at Madison Square Garden. On Nov. 10, 1978, he was summoned there by Sonny Werblin, the Garden’s president, and fired just 14 games into his second season as Knicks coach, despite having made the playoffs in the previous season.Reed did return to the Knicks in a nominal administrative role around the turn of the century. But he accepted an offer to join the New Orleans front office as vice president of basketball operations in June 2003. His widowed mother’s health was failing, and he relished the opportunity to be closer to the home he had built for her in Bernice.The plan went awry when Inell Reed died four months later.Reed’s survivors include his second wife, Gale Kennedy, and a daughter, Veronica, whom he had with his first wife, Geraldine (Oliver) Reed. A son, Karl, also from his first marriage, died in 2017 at 53. In 2005, the New Orleans franchise was temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Two years later, approaching his 65th birthday, Reed retired from basketball.On a lush, sprawling property not far from Grambling, with oak trees and man-made streams, Reed built a home far from the bright lights of New York, where he could count on being recognized and extolled by baby boomers on sight.Upon his retirement, Reed told The Times, “Call me in Louisiana and my wife will tell you I’ve gone fishing.” More

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      The Knicks Are Moving Forward, if Only by Baby Steps

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      A victory over the Cavaliers showed quiet competence, something the team has been lacking for years.Although the final score was close, and the outcome was in doubt until the game’s last moments, much of what happened at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night could be called mundane.The Knicks won a game in which they were neither perfect nor putrid, against a good but not exceptional Eastern Conference opponent. But in outlasting the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-103, they saw reasons for optimism.“It wasn’t the cleanest, it wasn’t the smoothest, but we found a way to grind it out and get the win,” Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said. “It’s easy to win when everyone’s clicking and the ball’s going in the hoop, but can we win games when things aren’t going our way? This was a good steppingstone for us.”This has been a season in which the Knicks are looking for positive gradations, small signs of progress that they can use to build toward something bigger. Content to let other teams soak up headlines, they are operating mostly out of sight, despite being in an N.B.A. market whose harsh glare can make that nearly impossible, and where slow progress can be made to feel like failure. The Knicks instead are working toward a quiet competence.“Sometimes we fall short, but they’re great workers, they study, they come in they try to do the right thing every day,” Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau said of his players. “When you have those type of guys, they’re going to improve. A big part of learning is trial and error; you have to go through it.”The Knicks (26-23) have the seventh best record in the Eastern Conference. They are one game out of sixth, which would grant them a playoff berth without having to participate in the four-team play-in tournament for the final two spots in each conference.If the Knicks finish with a winning record this season, it will be only the second time in the past decade that has happened. Through years and years of futility, dysfunction was more of a regular occurrence. There was a feud with an alumnus, and a celebrity fan. Before the coronavirus pandemic halted the 2020 season, fans were chanting “sell the team” at Knicks owner James Dolan.They had been shunned by free agents, most pointedly in 2019 when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant chose the Nets instead.But that summer the Knicks began building this roster. They drafted RJ Barrett third overall and signed Julius Randle, who made eight 3-pointers on Tuesday night, to a three-year contract and then an extension.This summer, the Knicks were in the mix to trade for Donovan Mitchell, who was born in Westchester County, but the Cavaliers nabbed him instead, giving up three players, three unprotected first-round picks and two pick swaps.Some thought the Knicks should have traded for Mitchell last summer, and he has played superbly this season. He has averaged a career high 28.4 points a game, and he scored 71 points against the Bulls on Jan. 2. He had missed the previous three games with a groin strain, but returned to play in his home state. On Tuesday night, Mitchell scored 24 points, including six three-pointers.When they needed to, though, the Knicks were able to stop him.Twice in the game’s final minutes, with the Knicks leading 103-100, Mitchell drove toward the basket and had his shot blocked — once by Barrett and once by Isaiah Hartenstein.Mitchell tried again with 4.4 seconds left in the game and the Knicks leading by just 2. He tried to elevate and dunk the ball, he said later, but felt his legs cramp and his groin pull again.“Same as before, I don’t know what comes next,” he said, glumly, after the game, and then sighed.“A big part of learning is trial and error,” Coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You have to go through it.”Frank Franklin II/Associated PressA counterargument to the idea that the Knicks should have traded for Mitchell is that despite his play, the gulf between the Knicks and Cavaliers has not been especially large. Cleveland is in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and just three games better than the Knicks.Brunson was the Knicks’ major addition this summer, signing in free agency after starting his career with the Dallas Mavericks. That move came at a cost, as the N.B.A. determined that the Knicks had begun speaking with Brunson before the free agency window opened and penalized them one second-round draft pick.And while Brunson was a less splashy addition than Mitchell would have been, he has excelled with his new team. Heading into Tuesday’s game, he was averaging 22.5 points and 6.3 assists. In January, he had averaged 28.3 points a game, and scored more than 30 five times, including a 44-point effort in a close loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.“One thing I’ve learned and stayed consistent with is no matter what happens outside those lines, nothing really affects me,” Brunson said. He added, “Obviously playing in New York it’s a bigger stage, eyes always on you, but I just try my best not to worry about that.”With his help, the Knicks won eight consecutive games in December, climbing from 10th place in the East to sixth during that streak.There have been lulls, too. Tuesday’s win snapped a four-game losing streak, and the Knicks are figuring out how to fill a hole left by their injured starting center Mitchell Robinson.It’s all still a work in progress, but Tuesday night they closed out a game, where on other nights they might not have. They fought back after falling behind by 8 points in the third quarter.“How you get the urgency to get that done?” Thibodeau pondered, rhetorically, after the game. “Not to get discouraged, to just get more determined.”As Thibodeau sees it, the answer is a focus on little unglamorous things — securing an offensive rebound, going after a loose ball, deflecting a pass.“Just keep concentrating on the improvement; everyone put the team first,” Thibodeau said. “And we know this is — we’ve got a long way to go.” More

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      NBA Christmas Day Games 2022: What to Know

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      The N.B.A. brings out its stars on Christmas. This year, there will be some new rivalries, too.The N.B.A. showcases its stars on Christmas Day, and this year there will be some big names to watch, like LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid.There will also be a new face in the mix (Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant is playing on the holiday for the first time) and a familiar one missing (Golden State’s Stephen Curry is out injured).In each of the five games, there is something to look forward to, from young players trying to make their mark to older foes avenging playoff losses.Here’s what you need to know.All times are Eastern, and all games will air on ABC and ESPN. The statistics were current entering Friday night’s games.Philadelphia 76ers at Knicks, noonJames Harden missed several games for the Sixers with an injury, but he’s back and helping them stack up wins.Matt Slocum/Associated PressAfter rocky starts, these teams are finally clicking. The Knicks surged up the Eastern Conference standings on the strength of a recent winning streak, while Philadelphia was compiling a streak of its own.They met on Nov. 4, with the Knicks winning, but Philadelphia didn’t have its two best players: center Joel Embiid and guard James Harden. That makes Sunday’s game the teams’ first true matchup. The Knicks have played on Christmas more often than any other team, but this is the first time they will have Jalen Brunson, their big free-agent signing of the off-season.Brunson, a guard who spent his first four seasons in Dallas, leads the Knicks in assists and is the team’s second-best scorer, behind forward Julius Randle. For the first quarter of the season, the Knicks struggled to string together wins. But then December hit, and they found their stride.That’s when fortunes improved for the Sixers, too. Harden had missed more than a dozen games with a foot injury but returned this month to produce several impressive games with double-digit assist totals. The Knicks will, of course, have to watch out for Embiid as well. Last month, in a game against the Utah Jazz, he had this wild stat line: 59 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 blocks.Los Angeles Lakers at Dallas Mavericks, 2:30 p.m.Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic is in his fifth N.B.A. season but has already been named to the All-Star team three times.Emil Lippe/Associated PressFans can seemingly always count on seeing the Lakers on Christmas — this is the 24th year in a row — but nothing else about the team has been that consistent.Even as LeBron James, who will turn 38 on Friday, continues to defy reason with his youthful play, minor injuries keep tugging him to the bench. Then there’s the major injury to center Anthony Davis, who is out indefinitely with a sore right foot. Other ailments have rippled through the roster, and the Lakers’ sub-.500 record reflects that. But it also reflects an aging team that got off to a terrible start (0-5) and hasn’t settled into a high-performing rhythm since then.All of that is to say: The Lakers have been a little bit all over the place.Dallas has been, too. Luka Doncic is playing and scoring more than last season, but the Mavericks are losing to bad teams right after beating good ones. The Lakers could fall into either category on Sunday. At the very least, it should be a fun game, with Doncic and James battling to see who can put on the best show. They are both capable of making even the earliest risers hold off on a midday nap.Milwaukee Bucks at Boston Celtics, 5 p.m.Jayson Tatum led the Celtics to the N.B.A. finals last season and has followed that up with high-scoring play this season.David Butler II/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBoston’s Jayson Tatum has responded to his disappointing appearance in the N.B.A. finals last season in the best way: by playing better than ever before. He’s leading the league in minutes per game (37.2), and he’s putting them to good use, averaging a career-best 30.6 points per game by making about half of his shots.The Celtics will face a Bucks team with a not-so-shabby star of its own in Giannis Antetokounmpo. Last season ended in playoff disappointment for him, too, with Milwaukee falling to Boston in seven games in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Sunday will be his first chance for a little revenge.The Bucks and the Celtics are jockeying for first place in the East, though they are fighting with different strengths. Boston has the league’s second-best offense, while Milwaukee has the third-best defense. The postseason is still a ways off, but it would be a surprise not to see one of these teams in the N.B.A. finals. Their Christmas matchup should help each team see what it needs to work on to make sure it’s the one playing for a title.Memphis Grizzlies at Golden State, 8 p.m.Ja Morant has made the Grizzlies one of the most exciting teams to watch in recent years. Brandon Dill/Associated PressNo one can argue that the Grizzlies haven’t earned this, their Christmas debut.Point guard Ja Morant is the speedy, soaring, confident heart of the team, but Memphis is more than its brightest star — and Morant would be the first to say so. He’s averaging a career-best 7.8 assists per game as he and his teammates keep the Grizzlies near the top of a tightly contested Western Conference.They finished last season as the No. 2 seed in the West and could have made a run to the conference finals if Golden State (and injuries) hadn’t gotten in their way in the second round. Sunday will be the teams’ first meeting since then.Both teams have dealt with their share of injuries this season, but Golden State has an especially big one: Stephen Curry has been out since he hurt his shoulder against Indiana on Dec. 14, and it’s not clear when he will return.Golden State is currently ranked in the bottom half of the West, but the intensity of last season’s playoff series with Memphis should carry over and make Sunday’s game a good contest nonetheless.Phoenix Suns at Denver Nuggets, 10:30 p.m.Denver’s Nikola Jokic won the Most Valuable Player Award the past two seasons.Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe last game on a long day of basketball is easy to overlook. But Denver’s Nikola Jokic is sure to make at least one pass that will make staying up late worth it. That’s kind of his thing: One minute he has the ball, and then the next his teammate on the other side of the court does, and no one is quite sure how it happened. The Suns are a top-10 defensive team, but some things just can’t be stopped.Phoenix is also the league’s best on offense, which could be a challenge for the Nuggets, who are among the N.B.A.’s worst on defense. Suns guard Chris Paul is one of the best ever at getting the ball to his teammates. Paul led the league in assists last season, his fifth time doing so, and is averaging about nine per game this season.If this game’s late start isn’t a deal-breaker, it should be a nice chance to see some excellent passing and skilled shooters making good on the assist. More

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      NBA Season Preview: The Nets and the Lakers Are the Wild Cards

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      Even for a league used to drama and headlines, the N.B.A. had a dizzying off-season.There were trade requests (Kevin Durant) and trade rumors (Russell Westbrook); injuries (Chet Holmgren) and returns (Zion Williamson). The power structure of the Western Conference could be upended by the return of Kawhi Leonard with the Clippers; the power structure of the East is again unclear.And a series of scandals at Boston, Phoenix and Golden State could have lasting implications for the league.In short: A lot is going on.Headline More

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      Jeremy Lin Finally Loves ‘Linsanity’ Just As Much as You Do

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      A star turn with the Knicks in 2012 made Lin a cultural icon. But the focus on his race — Lin is Taiwanese American — made him uncomfortable for years.When he went from mostly anonymous to global celebrity in 2012, Jeremy Lin was overwhelmed by the attention and struggled to tune it out. For many people, he suddenly represented many things — a stereotype breaker, an inspiration — but, well, he just wanted to play basketball.“It was a tornado of emotion because there’s so much that was happening,” Lin, who is Taiwanese American, said in a recent interview. He added, “I didn’t even know what to feel like.”He captivated the sports world that February with star play for the Knicks, a stretch that included a seven-game winning streak and was dubbed “Linsanity.” Lin was uncomfortable with the term — and would be for years — but he was also fearful.“Fear of paparazzi,” he said. “Fear of people chasing down my family members. Fear of people trying to steal from me. Lie to me. Monetize off me. Fear of the people that I love. Fear of not living up to people’s expectations or missing out on opportunities and thinking that I had to take every single one of them off the court.”Lin had 38 points and 7 assists against the Lakers on Feb. 10, 2012. It was the highest-scoring performance of his Linsanity run that month.Andrew Gombert/European Pressphoto AgencyA decade later, Lin has fully embraced the phenomenon that turned him into a cultural icon. Though he never again reached those basketball heights after leaving the Knicks for the Houston Rockets the next season, he still carved out a productive N.B.A. career — even winning a championship as a reserve on the Toronto Raptors in 2019.But the ascendant run in New York remains what he is most known for. It has been memorialized in an HBO short documentary out on Oct. 11 called “38 at the Garden.” The title refers to his 38-point Linsanity performance against the Los Angeles Lakers, whose star guard Kobe Bryant said before the game that he had not known who Lin was. The documentary also explores the persistence of anti-Asian bigotry.Lin spoke to The New York Times recently from China, where he will play for the Chinese Basketball Association. He discussed his evolving feelings on Linsanity and using his influence.This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.When someone comes up to you and says, “Hey, Jeremy, you mean X, Y and Z to me,” how does that make you feel today?Every year, I’ve gotten increasingly more grateful for it. Maybe because words of affirmation are not always my love language, but I’ve always kind of been like a “talk is cheap” type of thing. And so, when everyone is complimenting you constantly everywhere you go, who knows who actually thinks what?And I think now I’m starting to realize: “Oh, no: A lot of these people genuinely mean what they’re saying. I really impacted their lives.”How strange was it, if at all, to watch the documentary and to see that version of yourself from 10 years ago?It’s so crazy because it’s one of those things that I had watched it so many times and I was so aware of it, but I haven’t gone back and watched it in like seven years.I don’t look up those highlights. I don’t go back to them and watch them to make myself feel better or anything. I’m kind of like, I know that existed, and it was such a vivid memory for this stretch of my time. And then for me, like, my life and career moved on.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressI don’t want to call it Linsanity because I know you’ve had a complicated relationship with that word. So, that period of your life in New York, how do you reflect on it now?I’m very comfortable saying, “Oh, yeah, that was Linsanity.” That shows you where I’m at with it.Originally, I was like, I’ll never do anything around Linsanity. I don’t want to do a documentary or any of that stuff, or go back in time.But then, I was like, I have no problem with it. I would actually love to because it was a special moment and also because we need to be talking about it right now. Linsanity has become so much more important and valuable to me.You just mentioned that we need to be talking about this. Why is that?That was a moment that was so special for Asian Americans and minorities. It’s because there are so few of those moments. It’s because in general, society does not typically celebrate those type of moments. And because we don’t see that type of success from people who don’t look the part.What is the biggest misconception about that period of your life?The way that I left New York and the attacks on my character. I don’t mind getting criticism for my game. Or if I look a certain way. If I play a certain way or whatever. But when you talk about my character, that hits differently to me personally.My recollection is that the vast, vast majority of fans were not upset with you for joining the Rockets. They were upset at the Knicks for not keeping you.Yes and no. There was definitely a lot who were upset with me, but the narrative that came out was first that I went to the Rockets to ask for more money and that I was purposely putting New York in a tough position. That’s the narrative that was spun onto me and being called, like, you know, certain things or chasing the money.The real story is, I actually went to my agent and told him, “Can we go back to the Rockets and ask for a less lucrative offer? Because I actually want to go back to New York, and I want to go back to New York badly. And I don’t want there to be a poison pill.” That’s the true story. But that’s not the story that was thrown out there.“Saturday Night Live” did a sketch parodying the coverage of you at the time, a significant portion of which featured racist tropes. What did you think of that sketch?To be honest, I don’t even know if I ever watched it.The crux of the sketch was that headline writers and sports reporters couldn’t stop leaning into tropes when discussing you. How much did you notice that at all, if at all, during that period?That’s why this whole thing with Linsanity is complex. My whole life, I tried to run from being Asian, and when I was on the basketball court and the ball was tipped off, race did not matter. It was my safe space to be myself without having to be the token Asian. By the time that Linsanity came around and I got worldwide recognition, the only thing people really wanted to talk about was my ethnicity and my race and oftentimes in very demeaning and condescending and just racist ways.It was like the thing where I was like, I just don’t want you guys to talk about me being Asian. I just want you to appreciate what I’m doing on the court. I’m an artist, and you’re missing out on the art.I had to grow up in the sense of why am I, 10 years later, willing to go back in time? It’s because I didn’t use that time and that influence the way that I wish I did. I wish I’d talked so much more about me being Asian but talked about it in better ways versus trying to run from it.What is your hope of playing in the N.B.A. again?I’ve always had that hope. But that door seems to be pretty shut, and I feel like that was confirmed and double confirmed after what I had done in the G League and how well I had played and seeing that all the top scorers and all the top assist leaders all got contracts except for me. So, at that point, it was kind of like, there’s nothing else I could do.I’ve accepted all the challenges of all the front offices to go back and to show you guys that I can do this. And I did, and it wasn’t enough. I’ll always want to play in the N.B.A. I mean, I loved my time there. I love competing in that league, but I just don’t think that’s in the cards anymore. More

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      The Knicks Stumbled Last Season. Here’s How They Can Recover.

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      With free agency beginning, the Knicks have several options to build on what’s working and to move on from what is not.Good news for Knicks fans: The franchise has lured one of the best free agents, a rare occurrence for the team this century.The bad news: It’s a weak free-agent class, and this top free agent — the 25-year-old point guard Jalen Brunson — has never made an All-Star team. He has agreed to sign with the Knicks for $104 million over four seasons, his agents Aaron Mintz and Sam Rose told ESPN. Rose is the son of the team’s president, Leon Rose.That’s a hefty investment to make in a player who, in his best of four seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, averaged 16.3 points and 4.8 assists per game. He has been a full-time starter for just one season. But Brunson represents a significant upgrade at point guard, a position where the Knicks have long struggled to find playmakers. In the last two decades, Knicks starting point guards have included Chris Duhon, Toney Douglas, Trey Burke and Pablo Prigioni. Brunson has an excellent floater game in the paint, he’s a reliable shooter and he can break down a defense and put pressure at the rim.Brunson’s father, Rick, who briefly played for the team in the late-1990s, also is expected to be an assistant coach on the team next season. The Knicks have not announced his hiring, but in early June multiple reports said they were nearing a deal. The team did not respond to a request for comment.With the younger Brunson running the floor, the Knicks could be a dangerous playoff team, like they were in 2020-21, or one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference, like they were last season. That’s how much variance there is with the roster as free agency signings begin Wednesday.Jalen Brunson started 61 games for the Dallas Mavericks last season, averaging 16.3 points per game for the season, the most in his career.Jed Jacobsohn/Associated PressThe conundrum facing the Knicks is that their rotation players are talented but flawed. Brunson, in essence, embodies this. He can score in bunches, but he isn’t a quality defender. He’s almost assuredly not good enough to be the best player on a contending team, and it’s not certain that his ceiling is much higher than what he showed last season.The 22-year-old RJ Barrett, who is entering his fourth season, has not shown enough consistency to be a cornerstone. He’s good at getting to the rim but not at finishing, and his jumper needs work. The other young hopes, including power forward Obi Toppin, 24, and point guard Immanuel Quickley, 23, have alternated between being solid contributors and being liabilities. Toppin cuts and runs the floor well, but he is a below-average shooter and struggles defensively. Quickley was better at running the offense during his second season in 2021-22, but he is an inefficient scorer and his size makes him an easy target on defense.Last season was — charitably — a step back for the Knicks. They seemed to be finally finding their way out of the darkness with their 2021 postseason run. They signed Julius Randle to a pricey contract extension and gave new deals to the veterans Derrick Rose, Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel. Then, they missed the playoffs last season, and the weight of those new deals felt heavier. Randle struggled last season, and the veterans didn’t play well enough to merit being part of the team long term.Mitchell Robinson, the 24-year-old center, is another good example of the team’s talented-but-flawed issue. He is an excellent rim protector and lob threat around the rim, but he has no offensive range to speak of and hasn’t improved much in four seasons. Still, the Knicks have agreed to bring him back on a four-year, $60 million deal, his agents Thad Foucher and Joe Smith told ESPN.The Knicks will need to make salary-cap space to sign Brunson, and that likely means moving on from some of the ill-fitting veterans. But beyond that, the Knicks need to add players who can help them rise out of mediocrity — the worst place to be in the N.B.A. They aren’t bad enough to receive high draft picks but aren’t not good enough to justify their biggest contracts.Quality veterans looking to chase a ring most likely would not take a pay cut to join them because the Knicks don’t have a roster that can realistically contend for a championship at the moment. If a star becomes available, say a Kevin Durant or a Kyrie Irving, the Knicks probably won’t have the best package to offer: not the best young prospects, not the highest draft picks, just a mishmash of middling pieces. It’s hard to see the ceiling for this team as anything higher than a low seed in the playoffs.But the N.B.A. is an increasingly fluid league, and there is a real reason to believe the Knicks can overcome their deficiencies and surpass expectations.The Knicks likely will start the season with Brunson, Randle and Barrett as the primary ballhandlers. Even with their weaknesses, that’s a better-than-average group of playmakers in today’s N.B.A. Brunson’s ability to penetrate will take pressure off Randle, who could use more time not being the primary attack point on the offense. Brunson’s shooting will create more space for him and Randle to operate around the basket. If Randle has some of that pressure relieved, he can put more energy toward his other strengths, such as rebounding and passing. Maybe the Knicks will get the All-Star version of Randle back.And Brunson’s arrival should also make life easier for Barrett. He had a bigger role in the offense after the All-Star break last season and averaged 24.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. He shot only 40.1 percent from the field in those games — talented but flawed! — but he showed potential as the No. 1 option. If Barrett can bring a passable efficiency to the game, he becomes a borderline All-Star alongside Randle.To complement that core, the Knicks need consistent shooting around them. They already have someone who can help with that in Evan Fournier, who shot 38.9 percent from deep last year. Quickley didn’t shoot well last year, but in his rookie year, he also shot 38.9 percent from 3.Rose, who was injured for much of last season, also should be able to help. With the Knicks, Rose has been a surprisingly good shooter and another body to help break down defenses. At 33, and with a lengthy injury history, he likely can’t be the sixth man off the bench, but his return will be a welcome sight for the team. There is a world in which a closing lineup of Randle, Barrett, Brunson, Fournier and Rose is extremely difficult to defend.There is some light beyond this year — some being the operative word. The Knicks have a pile of first-round draft picks in coming years, including picks from Dallas, Washington and Detroit. Next year, the Knicks could have four first-round picks. Several of the picks have conditions, which lowers their value. And if the Knicks keep being OK but not great, their own draft picks most likely would fall in the mid-to-late first round, which also reduces their value.But having a stockpile of picks is better than having none, and the Knicks could use some of them in a trade instead of holding them to select intriguing prospects. The agreement to sign Brunson to a major deal suggests the Knicks are trying to win now. Leon Rose rarely speaks publicly, so the Knicks’ broader strategy is unclear.The Knicks were one of the worst teams in the league for years, but they still have the core pieces that helped them secure home-court advantage in the playoffs just two seasons ago. The Knicks are not a superteam, but in today’s N.B.A., that might be OK. More