The Knox Files, Vol. 2: Woe is my ankle

Preface: Kevin Knox, rookie for the New York Knicks, reached out to Posting & Toasting to have Drew Steele help pen his journal entries as an exclusive series. You can find the previous journal entry here. These are the Knox Files, written by Kevin Knox and totally not made up by Drew.

Journal Entry Two. Star Date Supplemental. Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was sleeping. And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains of me twisting my ankle over and over again within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I drive alone in transition at home; underneath the halo of the Garden lamp

I turned my ankle to the cold and damp. When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light that split the night, and touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people, maybe more. People talking without speaking and people hearing without listening. People writing songs that voices never share.

No one dared disturb the sound of silence.

”Fools” said I, “You do not know how much the pain grows. Hear my words that I might teach you take my arms that I might reach you” — (because I’ve fallen and I can’t get up). But my words like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed to the blue and orange god they made. And the sign flashed out its warning in the words that it was forming. And the sign said, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls.”

And whispered in the sounds of silence.

Journal Entry Two B: Star Date 304197.37 BJK. Sorry for that first part, guys. I was in a dark place after I hurt my ankle. The only thing I could think of is that “Hello Darkness My Old Friend” meme. I looked into it and I saw that the meme is based on a song from 1964 by a duo called Simon and Garfunkel. Man, those guys are pretty great. Garfunkel sings like an angel. “Cecilia, you’re breaking my heart; You’re shaking my confidence daily.” Ron Baker and I want to recreate all the album covers, especially Bookends.

I don’t really have much to reflect on with my performance in the Celtics game since I played for only four minutes. The team scrapped it out again, which is great to see. Jayson Tatum made some really tough shots. No knock on Timmy but I’m locking down that Melo wannabe, making those inefficient, fadeaway mid-range jumpers even more difficult. And man, I really felt for Trey at the end of the game. Missing that first free throw killed him. He really wanted to win that game.

The game I can talk about is Friday’s against the Nets. SIGH… That was a tough loss. We were soooooooooo close! Caris had a really good game and managed to get to his right on Timmy for the game winning shot. Is this some sort of trend? I certainly hope not.

It’s a faux pas to give yourself a nickname, but you guys are gonna have to call me Knoxtradamus given how good at am at seeing the future:

(Drew takes editorial control and inserts this):

Next game is Friday at Brooklyn, so I’m gonna pen that in as a win.

No, not that part, this one:

I’m really hoping to see the ball go in the basket more. Not gonna lie, I could use seeing that net swish. Also hoping that Coach puts me in situations to get me some easy looks, like some catch-and-shoot shots to get things rolling. From there I can attack some closeouts and drive to the hoop in rhythm.

OK, maybe that’s not necessarily a prediction, but that’s exactly what happened that night. You know who rebounded with a 17-point, 60.7 true shooting percentage performance after struggling in the home opener? This guy! Like I said before, my jumper is too pretty for me not to drain buckets on the regular.

You know damn well I was gonna keep that wrist snapped. The moment the ball hit my hands after Trey did an excellent job drawing the defenders into the paint and kicking it out, I knew that the ball was going into the hoop. I just felt it. This is a shot I really should master. I went 2–2 against the Nets, but missed my only attempted against the Hawks. Over the past five full NBA seasons, the average shooting percentage from the corners is 38.7, which comes out to 1.16 points per shot. Guys like Trevor Ariza and Joe Ingles are deadly from the corners, shooting over 40 percent (in the case of Jingles, well over 40 percent). If I can take well over 100 corner attempts throughout the season and shoot over 40 percent, that adds a dimension to this Knicks offense they haven’t seen since Steve Novak, the GOAT.

Despite finally finishing a layup, I still need to work on fighting through the contact and going into the body of the shot blocker. Though this does somewhat look like an excuse, Allen was in really good position to block the shot and it would have been difficult for me to even get into his body; but should I be looking to draw contact in a situation like that instead of trying to get a difficult shot off? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. No matter the specificities, I just need to get better at finishing around the rim, because I get there with ease. Did you see how I just blew by Allen Crabbe? That $71 million contract that Sean Marks totally didn’t offer must be weighing him down (or I’m just that good).

In all, this is the type of game I want to have on a consistent basis once I get back from my injury. Not sure how much journaling I am going to be able to do as I rehab. I may be able to catch up on some of my shows. Unfortunately, both My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan are on break and I’m all caught up, so what am I gonna watch? Maybe I don’t watch anything and I double down on Fortnite. No matter the case, there won’t be much journaling until I get back on the court, because now many times can I talk about the rehab process and connect them to Knicks games?

Hopefully I will be in better spirits soon because this isn’t the way I wanted to start my NBA career. I want to be out there playing and helping my teammates try to win basketball games. As much as I want to rush this rehab process, the smart decision is to take my time to ensure that my ankle is 100 percent. I certainly don’t want to have those early-career Steph Curry ankles.

Knoxtradamus out.