New Knicks big man Taj Gibson signed a two-year, $20M contract with his hometown team this summer. Though there has been plenty of drama for the Knicks already in the 2019-20 season, the 6’9″, 34-year-old Gibson has been a stabilizing old-school post presence, pulling down 6.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in just 15.9 minutes a night.
In a far-reaching conversation with Steve Serby of the New York Post, the Fort Greene, Brooklyn native reflects on his tough childhood, his proudest basketball moment, the upside of his young Knicks teammates, his time at USC, his favorite movie, and much more.
The whole article is well worth your time, but here are some highlights from Serby’s chat with the 11-year vet.
On his childhood in Brooklyn:
“Fort Greene Ingersoll Houses has always been tough. It was a lot of murders, a lot of killings. To this day, I thank my dad personally for some days making me stay in the house, ’cause there was a lot of stuff going on outside. I lost a lot of friends that were just … young, and never got a chance to grow. I think my parents deserve most of the credit for just knowing when to keep me inside and keep me locked in.”
On his proudest basketball achievement:
“[G]oing to the [2011] Eastern Conference finals [with the Bulls]. Just knowing how hard it is to win basketball games in the NBA, but when you’re locked in with a group [of] guys, to have a bond and you’re in the heat of the battle each and every night, especially going against everybody’s opinion on you, telling you you can’t do something, you can’t do this and you overachieve in it, that’s the best feeling in the world.”
On the Knicks’ young pieces:
“Frank [Ntilikina] is eager to learn, he’s eager to get better. I think he’s taking the next step, which is understanding what he has to do to become a good professional basketball player in this league. He’s only scratched the surface… [Mitchell Robinson] can be All-World if he wants. He works extremely hard every morning with me, and he’s extremely competitive. And he listens. And you can’t teach those things… [RJ Barrett is] super-competitive, eager to learn, always willing to listen. He has a grown man frame already.”
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