Stephon Castle Is Not Playing Like a 21-Year-Old

Wembayama was the big story because he's always the big story.

He's the centerpiece of the team.

He's very tall, very tall, coming out at MSG, winner, not go home game, basically winner die type of game.

Um, so he's the big story.

But to me, Stefan Cassel is why they're in this position right now.

Excuse me, this kid at 21 years old has ice water in his veins.

It's a kid that won, what, he won the national championship at UConn.

Um, and plays like a 10-year veteran.

Has the mindset of a 10-year veteran.

Has the body of a 10-year veteran.

Has the, the defensive discipline of a 10-year veteran.

The only way area, he's a 2nd-year player is occasionally shot selection and turnovers.

Those those are where you see, you're reminded that, hey, some rough turnovers, yeah, but this is where you're reminded that he's, he's a 2nd-year player in those, those aspects.

Every other place he is a, a just an experienced asset.

For this team.

And you saw him get going early on.

Like he was making shots, he was getting to the rim, he was playing through contact.

And then, like, let's talk about that final possession for a moment here.

Because I'm watching that final possession develop.

And for starters, it was the worst inbound play I've ever seen where they throw, they throw the ball to De'Aaron Fox, who's on the move.

Now De'Aaron Fox is the guy you want to have the ball.

He's a great frequent, former clutch player of the Year.

That's who you want to have the ball in your hands.

But De'Aaron Fox has such momentum going to the ball that he's about to cross the half-court line.

He winds up lobbing a pass that felt like it was in the air for like 10 seconds.

Could have been grabbed.

Could have been grabbed.

Castle winds up grabbing it.

Castle kind of holds on to it, has this frozen look for a split second.

They follow him.

He goes to the line.

I'm sitting there thinking like the Knicks, they're down 2.

They're gonna get 1 out of this.

Like the, the second-year guy who shot like 75% from the line during the regular season is not making both, but he steps to the line and knocks down 2 and doesn't look like he.

Breaks a sweat doing it.

It was incredible.

Like.

Harper is a big part of this as well.

He's got some of the same characteristics, but Steph Cassel was like born to play in these types of situations.

I, I, I have been knocked over impressed by him, and he is just as much to your point of the reason why these young kids, and they are so young, could actually come out and win this thing as uphill a battle as it still is.

Victor's 22.

Steph is 21.

Dylan's 20.

Do I have all those ages correct?

That's insane.

And even Darren's not that old, right?

He's 26, 27, might be a little bit older, OK, but I mean, again, that's not nothing to have the presence of mind to do some of the things he did in that building.

I will say in terms of the building, it was a great crowd, and MSG in the NBA Finals is always gonna be great.

It didn't have the energy that I have seen in that building over different periods of the Knicks run.

I think it is a result of the ticket prices, and I, I do wonder if there is some way, and I know, look, this is not a solvable problem right now .

The, the mechanisms, whether it's the legal mechanisms or the second market mechanisms or whatever, aren't there because we've seen artists from Pearl Jam to Taylor Swift try to solve it.

We've seen teams try to solve it, but there, there really has to be a way.

Because the NBA is not making money off of this.

When a ticket goes for $30,000 for one ticket, the NBA is not making money.

Ticket brokers are making money.

Sometimes very rich individuals are making money.

And also sometimes like not so rich individuals that are selling their tickets.

Anyone who has season tickets to the Knicks is of a certain income level.

True, I'm sorry, but there are people, and I, I've read, there were a lot of stories, good stories written over this last couple of days.

Like there are people that paid like $6000 for their season ticket in the upper level, and if they're offered $1,000,000 for one night, I don't blame them for taking it.

I get it.

I'm, I'm not mad at any fan.

I, I just It, it's not , look, we see it in the All-Star Game every year.

I think it, I, you know, I think it's the reason that we have crappy All-Star games.

I think if there were an arena full of fans screaming, if you think they're that, that, you know, 19 year old guys from Brooklyn screaming , you know, hey, get your head out of your ass and play some defense during the All-Star Game , wouldn't get some of these guys to pride up and And play well it would and I thought that the, the vibe in there was a very rich person, and I would have loved to have seen, and look, a lot of people in the city have money and have been lifelong Knicks fans.

It's not like they were posers, but I just, I think some of the energy wasn't quite what it was.

Took some hits the last 24 hours.

And what do you mean?

Well, I was Uh, attention has been drawn to how many celebrities were not in their seats for the first few minutes of the 3rd quarter.

Oh, I looked down there and I was like, Oh, that's not a good look.

That's not a good look.

We also had like, and look, all the eyeballs are on each one of these celebrities.

There was the, um, DJ Khaled on his phone stuff the entire game.

I love shout out Ben Stiller who is fast becoming my favorite Knicks fan who like is like owning a lot of this stuff.

Like he's on social media like, listen, that's a bad look for us.

We know celebrities, we're not calling himself a celebrity, but the first row has to be there.

Uh, and, and be visible right when the game starts or 3rd quarter.

People who don't know what happens is like just a few seconds before halftime, everyone gets spirited to a back room, so they're not just standing there on the court to have spirits and to mingle and elbow to elbow.

With each other, the only place it happens.

Oh, no, no, the Lakers, absolutely not the only place at all.

I'm just saying that's where they went, and, right, right.

They're not stuck in the bathroom line is my point.

Oh, there's a room in the you don't think there's a room in Boston.

I worked with Paul Pierce long enough to know there is a room.

That you get spirited away to if you're sitting next to Paul Cortez.

Boston fans are always in their seats.

Uh-huh.

Anyway, uh-huh, um, by the way, your accent came out again today.

I love it.

In the back of the room.

I hear in one of these press conferences, you just come out the presser.

Oh my God, you are, you're like on.

90% luck and then 10% of the time it's just full Boston Southie.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, we ran into AJ Debana today and I was having a brief conversation with him, by the way, you were trying to let the Boston out a little bit there.

I noticed that.

Uh, well, when you start naming Boston towns like he's from Brockton.

Um, my family's from Dorchester, grew up in Quincy, Dorchester.

Like Dorchester is a, a Boston word, so we were kind of talking now.

Yes, it did come out a little bit more.

It, it, it flows naturally when I'm in front of someone from Massachusetts.

Yes, yes, but anyway, yes, no, they need to be in their seats better.

I thought it was interesting, um, that , uh, some of the longtime Knicks celebrity fans didn't make it.

Who didn't we see?

We saw, um, Eddie Falco didn't make it.

I didn't know if that was by her choice or maybe didn't make the cut.

I should have read it.

I, I expected to see her.

I appreciated that Ben Stiller, obviously full attention on the game the whole time and his wife.

Well, he's been incredible.

I mean, the, the practice the other day, the, I talked to him a little bit after the game, uh, the, the work he has been doing as, by the way, I mean, he directs Severance.

He, he is not only just an actor.

Uh, but, but, and documentary maker, but he is an excellent, excellent director and has been shooting such amazing stuff courtside.

I can't wait to see what he's going to do at the end of all of this, but got to be a documentary, I would think so, yes, but, um, you know, his wife Christine has been there.

Yes, his wife Christine there has been there every step of the way, so I love seeing her there.

I thought it was interesting .

I didn't see Kylie Jenner there.

Did you?

I really wasn't looking.

Um, my thing about Kylie Jenner this whole time is I'm sure she's lovely.

I all, all the best to her and all of her fans.

I'm sure there's a Kylie Hive.

Perhaps I'm, I'm saluting you.

Um, I don't know, but, um, no, I am.

I think, you know, look, anybody who can make themselves a billion dollars, I'm all for it.

This girl has definitely done her thing.

However, she is not a longtime Knicks fan.

So whether it was by her choice that she wasn't there, maybe she was there and sitting somewhere different, or maybe she was right next to him, and I didn't see him, uh, next to Timothy Chalamet, but I appreciated that it was like more longtime Knicks fans in those seats.

Larry David, um, you know, obviously.

The SVU crew, Mariska Hargitay and Chris Wright.

I saw that.

By the way, I'm not going to repeat the joke that kept circling with them, but if you want, if you wanna check on social media, I'm gonna leave you all to it.

It's worth looking up.

Um, uh, but yeah, I thought, you know, look, I thought Celebrity showed out and, and that was great, and I bet they'll be in their seats.

They be in their seats you are going to be at the NBA Finals in the.

Tickets that any New Yorker could ask for.

People would trade their firstborn son.

They would give up prima nocta.

They would do whatever they have to do to get that.

I'm, I'm actually borrowing that.

I'm borrowing that from a, a one of these videos that I saw of people that said what they would do for Jalen Brunson.

Like I, like I saw one of those clips.

So, if you haven't seen the, the Mariska Harkady, Christopher Maloney, Donald Trump joke, please go look that up.

And then if you haven't.

Don't know what rimata is, which sadly I do, so I get that joke.

I, I implore you to please come join me in my pain and look that up so that we can laugh at Chris .

But, um, facts, but like New Yorkers would want those seats.

You've got to be in those seats.

You got to be in those seats.

Can I, can I say one sappy thing about being in the building and all of that?

So you and I both lived here for a long time.

Neither one of us are native New Yorkers, as we just discussed your, your Boston allegiance.

I grew up in the Washington DC.

Area, um, but you, you and I both lived here for a long time.

I lived here for almost 20 years, and every single year that I lived here, I covered the Knicks in one fashion or another.

It wasn't as an everyday beat writer, but for whatever outlet I worked for, the Knicks were my responsibility because I worked for national outlets and you and I both, and the Knicks, you know, you live in New York, OK, you, you, you have the Knicks.

And so the amount of ups and downs and rises and falls and times I can pull out of my head.

That I walked into that building for different stories.

I remember standing outside MSG for 12 straight hours doing reports for SportsCenter when I knew the Knicks weren't getting LeBron James when he was gonna do the decision, and yet the fever in the streets was so much that it was kind of like some of these post MSG parties.

We had to have barricades around to like keep the Knicks fans were like LeBron's coming to New York and had to tell them that they were getting Amar'e Stoudemire instead.

The Carmelo years, the Jeremy Linn Carmelo years, the up, I, I just, there's been so many, the Dolan Oakley, there's just been so many things Isaiah Thomas, a lot of a part two court cases.

I mean, it's just the amount of days that I walked into that building where it felt like, you know, dedicated but sad fans who didn't have a lot of hope for their team doing what they were so desperate for them to do.

And it made me very happy to be walking in there for a game 3, for an NBA Finals game, to walk on that court and win or lose, and you know, we don't have a side.

I know people think we do, but we don't.

Um, but just I watched, uh, you know, I walked into the building and every security guard there said hi to me and I said hi to all of them by name because you just spend time with these people and I was so happy.

For them getting to see an NBA Finals game.

New York deserves this, and I'm, I'm very psyched for them.

And I was, I was telling our fine producer here, he was like, tough game last night.

I'm like, I don't care.

That's not nice.

I, I, I don't care who wins or loses.

Like I don't, I don't.

I want it to be a fundamental.

I don't care who wins or loses.

My, my goal is to get home to my son as fast as possible.

Like that's my.

See, I'm, you and I, you and I have talked about this.

Like, by the time we get to the NBA Finals, you put in the work, Chris.

You spent all year putting in the travel, putting in the work.

I want to see every Finals go 7 games.

I want to see both teams give us these memorable performances.

You want us to be on the road till January 19th.

I just, I think we've already done the suffering part.

I want to have the good part.