Jennings talked about the New York Knicks passing on him at No. 8 on draft day, about losing out on the chance to resurrect one of the league’s glamour franchises, to make Madison Square Garden his own.

"I feel like I understand why teams like the Knicks passed on me, because I didn’t put up big numbers in Italy last year," he said. "But you needed to see me in the practices, and the workouts, to see how I was coming along there. Hey, I’m a gym rat. You had to know that about me."