New York Knicks‘ Michael Beasley gives a revealing interview while ex-player and current executive Allan Houston is high on Tim Hardaway Jr.
Michael Beasley is confident about the 2017-18 season. The former No. 2 overall pick believes that playing for the New York Knicks “will bring the best out of [him].”
Beasley tells Marc Berman of The New York Post he’s a “walking bucket” who’s “always done well with pressure.” The 28-year-old says that it’s a matter of getting more playing time.
“I’ll bring what they saw in college,’’ Beasley told The Post in a robust phone interview Friday from his home in Washington D.C. “I just need the opportunity to show that. Look at my nine-year career, I’ve always been close to a point a minute. I’ve always been a walking bucket. Nobody can stop me, hasn’t stopped me my last nine years. Every time I’ve touched the ball, the defender’s scared. I’m at the point of my career I’m just tired of not getting the acknowledgement of being who I am.
Beasley tells the Post that he wants his respect. Knicks assistant coach Kurt Rambis —Beasley’s head coach in Minnesota — apparently had that respect for Beasley.
Per Berman, Rambis reached out to Beasley in July about his former player coming to New York. Now he’s here and ready to put up numbers.
Allan Houston is one of the best shooting guards in Knicks franchise history. His great relationship with owner James Dolan has helped him obtain a job as an executive after his playing career ended.
Houston spoke to Thomas Lipe of The New York Post about new Knicks shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. Houston was at Hofstra University for a youth program he founded called FISLL.
Via Lipe:
“I’m excited for [Hardaway],” Houston told The Post. “When you’re 20 years old and you’re coming into this environment, everybody has to grow and everybody has to mature. He’s developed all the way around and he’s prepared himself for this. So he’s prepared for it.”
Houston reminisced about his infamous $100 million contract which ended in disaster due to his many injuries.
“The mindset I took is: you come in, you put your work in, you treat your whole being, your whole life, like you want to make the most out of it,” Houston said. “You want to be valuable, not in terms of money, but you want to be valuable to your family, your community, to the franchise. That’s where [Hardaway’s] mindset is.”