FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Breece Hall watched from a suite in San Antonio’s Frost Bank Center as the New York Knicks celebrated their NBA championship last Saturday night with hugs, high-fives and plenty of joyful tears.
The New York Jets running back was thrilled, especially for some of the Knicks players he calls friends. He and Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, who was among those Hall was with, were able to make their way through the postgame mayhem and congratulate the champs in person.
“I was just talking to some of my boys and I was like, it gives you, like, positive jealousy,” a smiling Hall said Tuesday after the first day of minicamp practice. “It’s like, damn.”
The Knicks won their first championship since 1973 by beating the Spurs in five games in the NBA Finals, capping a dominant run through the playoffs that featured a 29-point rally in Game 4 and seemingly turning the New York City area into one big — and still ongoing — basketball party.
“To see the energy and just how devoted the fans are to the team and to the city, it gives us something to … a little bit of added motivation,” quarterback Geno Smith said. “We’re motivated already, but, man, watching those guys win their championship, it’s got to do something to you as a competitor.”
The Jets are mired in a 15-year playoff drought, the longest active skid in the NFL, and have not won a Super Bowl since their one and only appearance during the glory days of Joe Namath in January 1969. So their oldest and most devoted fans can certainly appreciate the jubilation and relief that longtime Knicks fans are experiencing.
“It’s been nuts,” guard Joe Tippmann said with a laugh. “I didn’t go into the city. Looked a little scary for my taste. But to see the way they’re celebrating, that makes me even more want to bring a championship back to New York.”
Aaron Glenn, a former Jets cornerback who is entering his second season as the head coach, admired the tenacity and perseverance of the Knicks, who routinely rebounded from first-half deficits to beat the Spurs.
“Here’s the thing that was so beautiful about the way it operated,” Glenn said. “You think about how they operated in that first quarter and second quarter, and then that third quarter, man, it was a totally different team. You’ve probably heard me say this somewhere before, but ‘competitive stamina’ — that is something that those men showed throughout that whole series.
“That’s a real thing and it’s something that I’ve talked to our guys about. … Once we come to training camp, you can bet your ass that we’re going to work on competitive stamina because those Knicks, those guys showed it.”
While New York gears up for the Knicks’ ticker-tape parade Thursday through the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan, the Jets and their fans can only imagine: What if we win it all, too, someday?
Hall said he was in the city with Knicks backup point guard Tyler Kolek and some friends a few days ago watching UFC fights and eating chicken wings — and seeing the buzz still going for the NBA champions.
“I congratulated them and I was just like, I can’t wait to have that feeling,” Hall said. “So, definitely positive jealousy because it’s like, damn, I want my team to be able to do that as well. It was definitely very cool to see.”
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