Notes from Knicks Media Day

Just got home from Knicks Media Day, y'all. It was the usual cheerful (at least once they'd batted down all the Lin questions), mostly meaningless exercise, which I tried to sum up over at The Sports Section. Instead of the traditional set-up with each player sitting at his own table, they decided to have Mike Woodson and Glen Grunwald lead off with a press conference, followed by all of the main players coming out one or two at a time to do little press conference of their own. Really, nobody said anything important, but here are a few other things that I didn't mention in my Sports Section post.

- Jason Kidd took questions alongside Kurt Thomas, and the two of them shared like a ten-second-long chuckle about the idea of Amar'e Stoudemire shooting threes. I guess it was an inside joke, but I still suspect it wasn't that funny.

- J.R. Smith, asked about the notion that he's never met a shot he didn't like: "There's not too many shots I don't like." He went on to mutter something about not shooting when he's double-teamed or cornered, but made it pretty clear that he loves to shoot shots. I love Earl.

- Carmelo Anthony, on the other hand, made a point of saying he was "done trying to score 30, 35, 40 points" a night. He followed that up later with "don't take that out of context. I'm still gonna try to score the ball".

- When discussing the team's age ("experienced, not old"), Mike Woodson (and some others) made a lot of references to the 2011 Mavericks. Kidd also compared the Knicks to the mid-2000s Nets and Marcus Camby tossed in the '99 Knicks. He name-dropped Chris Dudley in the process, too.

- Iman Shumpert has an eraser on his head. Also, maybe I was just seeing things, but I thought he looked a little more cut in the armz region.

- Woodson kept calling training camp "veteran camp".

- Steve Novak said he knows he needs to defend to stay on the court. Also, discussing moves he'd been working on to help him depend on his guards less for open looks: "use my shot fake more, be able to put it on the floor. One dribbles, two dribbles. Nothing crazy."

- Raymond Felton came right out and said he was "out of shape" and "complacent" heading into last year with the Blazers because he didn't think there was going to be a season. He even said "I'm gonna come right out and say it". The chip on Ray's shoulder, incidentally, is still very large.

- Ronnie Brewer is just great. He sounded very confident that he'd be ready for opening day and described his timetable as "two and a half to three weeks" before he'd be cleared. He wasn't wearing a brace or limping or anything.

- Oh, and Shump called Brewer "a go-getter" and somebody guys hate to play against. Lots o' mutual admiration there.

- The training center had muffins for breakfast, then sandwiches, wraps, salad, and cookies for lunch. Maybe some other stuff. The sandwiches were pretty good, guys!

- Woodson specifically mentioned offensive and defensive efficiency and called himself a "stats-driven guy", which is kinda cool.

- Someone asked Shump a rambling, two- or three-part question about his rehab, to which Shump replied "Man, that's too long a question." He answered it, though.

- Tyson Chandler mentioned that he'd been working on "being able to knock down a short jump shot" this summer, and hinted that he'd be willing to work that into his game this year if called upon.

- Steve Novak, sitting next to J.R. Smith, went out of his way to talk about how J.R. is underrated as a passer, which is like...yeah, of course Steve Novak thinks that.

- I listened in on a few of Pablo Prigioni's one-on-one interviews (the guys that didn't sit up front did some interviews on the side). He sure does speak Spanish!

A couple quick links:

- Amar'e on Olajuwon, via Marc Berman.

- Woodson on Rasheed Wallace (who wasn't at Media Day, but should be signed and ready for camp by tomorrow), also via Marc Berman. I hadn't even considered the possibility of Wallace not getting a guaranteed contract and being more of a training camp competitor, but that's sort of how it was framed this afternoon.

- Here's Jonah Ballow interviewing Kidd and Melo talking to Tina Cervasio. I think KnicksNow is gonna have a bunch more video later in the day.

So yeah, aside from the quick Lin-dismissing session, it was a typical Media Day. Lots of bold proclamations, lots of cliches, lots of positivity. Training camp starts tomorrow, and I'll be there (and as many days as possible thereafter) to let you know what the Knicks are up to. <3