Marcus Camby, who controlled the Garden paint for the Knicks in their last Finals appearance in 1999, posts up for some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What message would you want to give to these Knicks?
A: I would tell the Knicks right now to enjoy the moment, play for your brothers, and leave everything out there on the basketball court because it’s not promised that we will get to this position again.
Q: Why do you believe the Knicks can win the championship?
A: I just think they’re playing their best basketball right now. They’ve been scoring at a high clip, shooting the ball at a high percentage, everything just seems to be clicking right now. … I think if guys can stay healthy during this Finals run, I think we’ll have a real good shot at bringing the title home to New York.
Q: What problems do the Spurs and Wemby present?
A: Wemby’s just like a freak of nature, a guy being 7-[foot]-4, 7-5, the ballhandling ability, the Steph Curry range, and just being a big, physical presence down there in the paint. You get to see when opponents go into the lane they’re constantly looking for him and he’ll be just blocking shots. He does a good job of altering a shot because the opposition has to shoot the shot so high. So he’s definitely a force to mess with.
Q: What makes Jalen Brunson great?
A: He’s been around pro athletes his whole life with his dad (Rick), a former teammate of mine, and a great coach, and he’s just been well-schooled from when he was a young guy. … What makes Jalen unique is for a guy his size, he can pretty much do it all. He can shoot it, he can drive it to the basket, he has a great, great low-post game for a guy his size and the body that he has, and he’s left-handed. I think that gives him an advantage as well. So he’s very awkward on offense and he’s able to get to a spot anytime he wants to on the basketball court.
Q: Give me an anecdote about his father.
A: We didn’t like each other at first because of the UMass-Temple rivalries we used to have back in college, I know everyone’s seen the video of [then-Temple coach John] Chaney going at [then-UMass] Coach [John] Calipari in a press conference, so we have a lot of history. Then we came together in New York, we pretty much just clicked. We were familiar with each other and that just increased our brotherhood once we got to be teammates, especially that run that we had in ’99 we went to the Finals, so that was a magical run that we had. … A 50-game season, back-to-back-to-back games, it was a grueling, tough season, so we bonded over that a lot. He’s a guy who’s a student of the game, he’s learned a lot from Coach John Chaney during his time there at Temple, and I think Rick is gonna be a great, great head coach someday in this league.
Q: Karl-Anthony Towns?
A: KAT is one of the prototype bigs that we have in the NBA right now. He’s an inside-outside guy, outside-inside guy, he can step out to the Steph Curry range and knock down 3s, he’s been really aggressive giving us that presence down low that we need. He’s a hybrid. I have a very high appreciation for his game.
Q: He became the hub for the offense.
A: It just expanded his game.
Q: OG Anunoby?
A: OG is one of the brightest two-way players that we have in this league. He doesn’t really say too much, doesn’t speak a lot, but his game speaks big. We’re gonna need OG to be playing at a high level.
Q: Why is Josh Hart such a fan favorite?
A: By his last name — he plays with a lot of heart. He’s the guy who goes out there and does all the dirty work that goes unnoticed that every night doesn’t show up in the stat sheet. He’s really truly the heart and soul of the team.
Q: Can you help Mitchell Robinson with his free-throw shooting?
A: I can’t do anything for him (laugh). I wasn’t a great free-throw shooter myself, so I’m not one to talk. Once he gets his confidence and gets into a rhythm, I think he’s gonna knock down some shots.
Q: The bench?
A: Landry [Shamet] has been coming in, knocking down key 3s, provides a spark, energy that we need.
Q: What has impressed you most about the job that Mike Brown has done?
A: Mike Brown has been great all season long. It’s tough to come here in New York and have success. Early in the season, halfway through the season, everyone was probably questioning if he was the right guy to get things done for us. He’s bringing that championship DNA from the Warriors and all the great players that he’s coached, and he’s put these guys in the position to win basketball games, so I think a lot of credit has to go to Coach Brown.
Q: Your 1999 Finals runners-up team?
A: We didn’t bring the championship, and definitely we didn’t have Patrick Ewing to give us some help down there with [David] Robinson and [Tim] Duncan. Us having to be the 8 seed just to get into the playoffs and make that run that we had, I think that was the most fun year that I probably had in my NBA career.
Q: If Patrick had been healthy, do you play the What-If game?
A: (Laugh) I’ve been doing that for 25, 26 years. It just sucked that he got hurt and we had to go out there without our leader.
Q: Latrell Sprewell?
A: Spree was great … just coming off the off-the-court stuff that had went on before him coming to New York and getting a breath of fresh air and rejuvenating his career. He brought so much intensity … Spree came off the bench when he first came to New York, then eventually he became a starter and one of our go-to guys out there and to see how he revitalized his career in New York and the great things he ended up doing for the organization, I’m definitely, definitely proud of him and definitely happy to call him my brother.
Q: Playing with LJ (Larry Johnson)?
A: Playing with LJ I want to say was like a lifelong dream because I grew up watching UNLV basketball. Me being on the East Coast I used to stay up late hours, like 11:30 and 12 to catch those UNLV games … watching him and watching Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony and those guys. I always tell people he has been my favorite teammate to ever play with, just the way the guys gravitate to him, the information that he gives, the work ethic that he exudes every day. He was somebody who I really looked up to.
Q: LJ’s four-point play?
A: LJ’s four-point play was probably the most iconic play that I’ve seen in the Garden itself. Just to see, like, the video from afar when he hits the shot and the Garden just erupting … it’s kinda like nostalgia, it gives me chills just thinking about it.
Q: Where were you when he hit that shot?
A: I was on the bench. We thought Indiana had us that day and LJ came up with a big play and he knocked down the free throw, which was key, and that momentum that we had after that shot propelled us to go on to the Finals.
Q: Have you ever heard the Garden louder?
A: Ne-ver. Ne-ver. That place was like Ohmigod, I thought the roof was about to come down, it was so much excitement, so much joy in the Garden.
Q: Playing with Allan Houston?
A: We used to call him Easy because he was just so smooth and effortless, he had the prettiest jump shot, I think I felt, that was in the NBA at that time. He was just a quiet, nonchalant leader out there on the basketball court. He’s probably one of the best shooters that I ever played with.
Q: Jeff Van Gundy?
A: The Jeff over the years that we saw on TV and the Jeff that was a coach, it’s like night and day (laugh). We got to see his personality a lot with him being an announcer, being on TV, but when he was a coach, he was tough. He demanded a lot from us but what I respect the most about him was how he prepared. This guy was always watching film, he was always in the gym, he took his job very, very seriously. He was probably the one coach that I had throughout my whole life outside of Coach Calipari who I felt that I learned the most from. I learned about preparation, I learned about being on time, I learned about being accountable … I learned a lot of things from Jeff Van Gundy, he was a very underrated coach and hopefully he gets a shot again in this league at some point.
Q: Your fight with Danny Ferry when you accidentally headbutted Van Gundy?
A: (Laugh) He caught me with a shot, and I saw the blood, and when you see blood you pretty much turn red and pretty much I acted out of character, per se, of how I am now. I lost my composure at the wrong time. Definitely something I regret ’cause there were so many kids and so many people watching during that game, but that’s definitely something I wish I could have taken back. But it happened, and I have to live with it.
Q: You headbutted Van Gundy.
A: Yeah, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time (laugh). I felt bad because for the next couple of weeks he had to wear like a big Band-Aid on his eye that I had to see every day that reminded me of the incident. I definitely apologized to him, of course.
Q: Your reaction when you were traded to the Knicks (for Charles Oakley)?
A: I was excited. I’m from Connecticut, so I’m right there and I knew about the Knicks lore and the legacy and the organization growing up. Me being in Toronto during that time … everyone knows that that’s a hockey country and it took ’em a while to gravitate to the game of basketball, per se, and we weren’t really that good. But to be traded from Toronto to New York was like night and day. I had a chance to be around a first-class organization surrounded by great, talented players, future Hall of Famers.
Q: How about when you were traded away from the Knicks?
A: Man, I didn’t want to leave. No NBA player wants to get traded or have to [uproot] their family and kids switching schools and everything that comes with being an NBA player. It was tough, but I got traded to a situation in Denver where we had a chance to draft a young kid by the name of Carmelo Anthony, and that pretty much changed the trajectory of the Denver Nuggets organization. It was rough at first being away from home, not having my family there every day to see me play, but I think it worked out for myself a little bit in Denver.
Q: Returning to play your final season with the Knicks?
A: Going back to New York was almost like coming full circle, with that team that we had, surrounded by the great veterans that we had with the nucleus of players that we had with Carmelo and J.R. [Smith] and [Jason] Kidd and Tyson Chandler, Rasheed Wallace, and having a chance to come back home to New York and reunite with Kurt Thomas, a guy who I played many a years with.
Q: How would you sum up your 17-year career?
A: There were highs and lows, but me being born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, coming up out of there, having an opportunity to go to college and get my college degree and have a chance to make it to the NBA and changing the life of my family, that’s all I can take from it despite all the individual success … the little individual success I had … from that aspect I think it was a success.
Q: Losing in the Final Four?
A: Losing in the Final Four was definitely tough. But just the journey that we had to get there, no one really expected the University of Massachusetts to be in that position. So I think we broke a lot of barriers. I think we were the first New England No. 1 team in a long time. I wish it could’ve went further, but Kentucky had a stacked team that year with like four or five NBA players on that team, and very well coached by Coach [Rick] Pitino. It was definitely sad considering that we had beaten Kentucky the first game of the season that season, but they got us when it counted.
Q: John Calipari?
A: He’s like a father figure to me. A lot of people ask me, “How often do you talk to Coach Cal?” I’m like, “Every day.” He’s a guy who’s always been in my corner. He gave me an opportunity, he taught me so much about the game of basketball, and he put me in the position to change my family’s life. We’re always gonna be locked in forever.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: The Notorious B.I.G.; Michael Jackson: Dr. J.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: Shawshank Redemption.
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Eddie Murphy.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Halle Berry.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Jay-Z.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Seafood … crab legs in particular.
Q: Why does the city love the New York Knicks the way it does?
A: (Laugh) I just think in New York City we have the most passionate fans in all of sports. They’re so thirsty for championships and for teams to win in the city, and especially with the Knicks.
Q: What has this ride been like for you and your fellow Knicks alums?
A: It’s great to actually be a part of it. I was around during the last time we went to the Finals and it’s kinda similar, especially with the energy in the city. The fans have been great, the videos I’ve been seeing on social media after the dubs and the watch parties have been hilarious, funny, slightly a little bit dangerous, but I like the energy … the excitement in the Garden has been electric. I’m just so happy and thankful that I can be a part of it.
