Netflix and will: Rookie Kevin Knox binges shows like a TV critic but isn't intimidated by New York's bright lights

On June 21, 2018, forward Kevin Knox II experienced what only an athlete in New York can. Drafted No. 9 overall out of Kentucky by the Knicks, he walked the stage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn while the peanut gallery broke into a faint, “We want Porter! We want Porter” chant, referencing Missouri’s Michael Porter Jr., another spindly wing and a close friend of Knox’s.

A Knicks cap secured onto his head, Knox shook commissioner Adam Silver’s hand, drifted off the stage and walked into an entirely new life: from Kentucky to New York, with a multimillion dollar contract waiting. His phone piled up with texts from people he hadn’t heard from in years, some of them just congratulating him, others sending well-wishes under the pretense of asking for a favor.

But he also got a call from Kristaps Porzingis, an athlete who is beloved in a manner few outside of New York are. “He told me just be ready to work when he got back, it’s gonna be a long season. People booed him, too. People booed me. So they’ll boo anyone we draft. It don’t really matter. You just gotta keep focusing on you.”

Unlike a slew of young Knicks who have eschewed Westchester County, Knox lives in White Plains, a 10-minute drive from the Knicks’ practice facility, where he scarfs down Netflix recommendations — “You”, “Bird Box”, “Blacklist”, “Narcos” — like a TV critic, and runs errands without the risk of a mob forming around him. During a phone interview the day before he scored a career-high 31 points against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, jab-stepping and driving through the final steps of the flaming-hot stone bed of Knickerbocker scrutiny, Knox told Yahoo Sports, “I stay at the crib.”

Regardless of his nature, the rookie wanted to be prepared for the spotlight. It’s one of the reasons he went to Kentucky. “It’s one of the biggest basketball schools in college history, so it definitely helped me out a lot as far as coming to New York and being in this big city as far as basketball-wise, and with publicity and media and stuff.”

The ability to shut out the outside world came in handy in November, when he made a habit of racking up single-digit performances and getting outmuscled in the paint for easy post-ups and offensive rebounds.

Knox’s dad, Kevin Knox Sr., a former college football star, is a driven taskmaster, outgoing and aggressive. But Knox’s game is imbued with a removed stoicism. “My mom is a little bit more like me,” Knox said. “She’s calm, cool, collected.” The self-proclaimed mama’s boy considers himself a “mixture of both.” After spending a chunk of his rookie season learning when to be reserved and when to channel his aggression, he is now playing like he belongs under the bright lights, taking home Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month honors in December and revealing a ceiling that ranges from Otto Porter Jr. to Paul George.

Superman, Knox explained, is his favorite hero, because “he just pretty much can do everything. I like that just because he’s very versatile. It kinda reminds me of myself. He can fly, he’s strong, he’s got Superman vision, he pretty much can do anything.” The only difference? “He’s got Kryptonite and I don’t,” Knox quipped.

Ask, however, and Knox will give you the book on Knox. “Everybody probably knows I can put the ball in the basket, but I wanna make the right passes, be able to rebound a little more and I think defense is something I gotta get a lot better at.”

In the past few months, Knox has held up better merely by shirking timidity. Through the first month of the season, he drove like he didn’t believe in his first step and treated opposing defenders like stop signs, pulling back and dribbling into awkward jumpers or swinging the ball away. He wasn’t physical enough in the post, allowing defenders to back him down and hoping to effectively contest shots from 3 feet. On Nov. 16 against New Orleans, his second career start after working himself back from an ankle injury, Knox was burnt by several Pelicans: an easy back-down and hook by Julius Randle, outmuscled for a second-chance bucket by Nikola Mirotic, a backdoor lob cut by Anthony Davis. He was pulled from the game in each instance. Two games later, he was coming off the bench again.

From there, he slowly found his way, forgoing the path of least resistance. His forays into the paint stopped being so easy to stymie at the 9-foot mark, with pump-fakes sprinkled into his straight-line drives. He started diving to save balls and crashing the glass more consistently — on both ends — repackaging his college acumen for the pro game. The rest of his game started coming easier when he started hitting the floor, culminating Dec. 9, when he exploded for 26 points and 15 rebounds against the Charlotte Hornets.

“[My] confidence got a little higher. I was just training a little better, focusing more on being aggressive, getting to the basket,” Knox said. “Everyone’s gonna have ups and downs and stuff like that. Fans, they’re gonna turn on you real quick when something bad happens and try to be on your side when it’s something good. It just shows you a lot. I just stayed the course, just kept working hard, knowing my time will come.”

Knicks head coach David Fizdale inserted him back into the starting lineup the next game and Knox hasn’t looked back, averaging 17.2 points and 4.7 rebounds on 37.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc in his last 15 games.

On Wednesday, with the Knicks trekking overseas for a London game, Knox, a Puma Basketball ambassador, will debut a London-inspired sneaker, the Clyde Court Disrupt PE, at a local Foot Locker before donning the shoe against the Washington Wizards on Thursday at The O2 arena.

“I know a lot of people out there are really excited for the Puma shoes,” Knox said. The London model is red, featuring a black sketch of a lion, a symbol of strength in Britain. “It’ll be pretty cool to go out there and see different fans of Puma and different fans of myself.”

Knox signed with the company in September. “It’s their first year [back] in basketball. This is my first year in the league, so there’s some resemblance there. I just wanted to try something new. I looked at the shoe, I really liked it. The different colorways, all different lifestyle stuff, I fell In love with all that stuff.” Puma’s pitch — Come and start something new — appealed to him. “I’m a rookie in the league, I’m new to New York.”

For as long as 19-year-old Knox has been alive, the Garden has only been Eden for opposing stars, who’ve made a ritual of wowing the fawning home crowd at the home team’s expense. Knox watched as stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and his idol, Kevin Durant, ran roughshod over the Knicks.

Until that Jan. 13 game against the 76ers, when he scored a career-high 31 points. Knox cut backdoor, overpowered smaller defenders like J.J. Redick and Landry Shamet, utilized a deft hesitation move to rev up a straight-line drive against Ben Simmons, and then jab-stepped one way and dribbled the other to confound Joel Embiid. He cast the glimmers of a potential second star, highlighting the idea that the modern NBA defense is far more susceptible to deception than it is to brute force, finally combining all the elements: the son of an aggressive linebacker and a reserved listener.

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