A pair of Timberland boots. A construction helmet. An orange vest. And, of course, a walk-out song.
That’s how Mike Brown’s coaching staff celebrates the Knicks’ defensive player of the game after each win this season.
New York entered Sunday’s 6 p.m. matchup against the Brooklyn Nets (1-8) at 5-3, meaning five players have already worn the full “lockdown” outfit: OG Anunoby has earned the honor twice, while Josh Hart, Miles McBride and Jordan Clarkson have each claimed it once.
“It’s extremely important. One of our values is joy. One of our principles or rules is to have fun,” Brown said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown facility on Saturday. “If you’re gonna preach something or say something, you gotta be about it.
“We try to find different ways to find that joy or to try to help our players have fun, because the season can be long and it can be monotonous. Sometimes when it’s that way, it can get boring.”
Mikal Bridges hasn’t yet earned the defensive award, but he says the tradition keeps morale high — especially for players whose defensive effort doesn’t always show up in the box score.
“It’s dope, man,” Bridges said Saturday. “I think sometimes because it’s a defensive thing, and you can be upset with yourself on the offensive end, but you play a helluva job on defense and your coaches are going to reward you with that.
“I think it’s a thing that helps with the mental. We all want to contribute on both ends. To have that for coaches to showcase and put the light on you — there’s games where things might not be going your way offensively but at least you are doing all the right things defensively.”
Here’s how it works: after each win, Brown calls a name and an assistant hits the player’s walk-out song. Mitchell Robinson gets country. Anunoby gets Afrobeats. If Brown were to win the honor, his walk-out would either be country or old-school rap. The chosen player then throws on the vest and hard hat, drapes the Timbs around his neck like a chain, and poses with teammates for a team photo posted to social media.
“They’re human, they’re not superhuman,” Brown said. “Even though we all think they should be because of the money they get paid and we put them on a pedestal. But they wanna have fun — it’s a kids’ game. Any way we can help bring that out of them, we try to do it. That’s one of the ways we thought of.”
The idea also shines a light on the players who impact winning without filling up the traditional stat sheet.
“You’re gonna recognize who scored 30 or who had 15 assists or 15 rebounds,” Brown said. “Sometimes, it’s about ‘OK, who came in and changed the game defensively? Who guarded the ball well? Who got a ton of deflections that you guys might not be charting? Who challenged shots better than anyone else or who took two charges that game?’
“We wanna give those guys some recognition because we want people to understand it’s not just about the guy that scored 30 or had 15 assists. There are other guys contributing in other ways that we all need to take a look at. So we just try to shine a light a little extra brighter to help everyone understand it’s a team game.”
PROTECTING HOME COURT
The Knicks are 5-0 at Madison Square Garden — tied with Denver and Chicago for the most home wins among teams still undefeated in their own building.
For All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, that stat means something.
“It means everything. That’s why you fight for home-court advantage in the playoffs,” Towns said. “You want to be the best in front of your fans and you want to protect home at all costs. So for us to start 5-0 is great, but we’ve got a lot more work to do. There’s 82 games in a season, so we’re not satisfied with the five wins.”
RARE CHANCE TO RECHARGE
The Knicks are also benefitting from a rare break in an otherwise jam-packed schedule: three full days off between games, with back-to-back practices leading up to Sunday’s tip.
Towns said the time off is as much about recovery as reflection.
“We just get some rest, see family, recharge, just get your priorities and everything straight and take care of your family,” he said. “People have kids and lives outside of basketball, obviously, so just get to regroup a little bit.”
Brown said his staff used the extra practice time to tighten execution and revisit fundamentals that slipped early in the season.
“You don’t get practice time like this, so you try to take advantage of it as best as possible,” he said. “There’s a lot we still need to clean up and get better at, and we’re trying to introduce things slowly.
“A lot of it I didn’t do during the preseason. We just played out of our foundation so that they could start understanding how to play the game on both sides of the floor — not rely on any tricks or anything like that.”
