Love in the Air
Ntilikina reveres MJ advice to have passion for hoops
Frank Ntilikina, the Knicks’ rookie point guard, thanked Michael Jordan for advice before he played in the Jordan Brand Classic at Barclays Center a few years ago — words he’ll treasure forever. In an essay posted on The Players’ Tribune, Ntilikina said Jordan paid a visit to the high school event, for which Ntilikina traveled from France to play. While noticing how much older Jordan looked than in his playing days, the Frenchman got up the courage to ask him a question as he shook hands with all the high schoolers. “But I’m so shy. No — more than shy. What’s the word in English? I’m pétrifé. I was shaking a little bit, and I had a little voice,’’ Ntilikina wrote of his encounter. “I said, ‘Hello, Michael. Can I ask you, what is the key to all your success?’ ” Ntilikina said he idolized Jordan in France, watching highlights on YouTube.
“What you have to do is love basketball,’’ the Knicks lottery pick said Jordan told him. “You can’t be great unless you really love the game. Once you love basketball more than anyone else in the world, then you’re willing to sacrifice. You’re willing to wake up early. You’re willing to do what it takes to be the best. But first, you have to really love it.”
Ntil i ki na, 1 9, wrote about the impact the words had on his then-16year-old self.
“It sounds simple, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense in my life,’’ Ntilikina wrote. “A lot of people are asking, ‘ How good do you think you can be? What is your ceiling?’ I don’t know the answer. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the NBA. But I do know that I really love the game more than anything. … This is why he is the legend. I have been thinking about what he said for the past three years.’’
In t he piece, Ntilikina revealed on draft night after the Knicks selected him eighth, he “was good until I got backstage with my family. Then I cried.’’
Ntilikina said he told his agent and family not to tell him if it leaked on the internet that the Knicks were going to pick him. He wanted to hear it first from NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
After the Bulls picked seventh, Ntil i ki na knew s o mething had been reported.
“I had my phone in my pocket. Didn’t want to look,” he wrote. “All of a sudden, my phone is blowing up with text messages. It’s shaking in my pocket. I’m looking straight ahead, and I’m telling my family, ‘Shut up! Don’t say anything!’ ”
The Knicks had i ndeed taken the Frenchman, and on Wednesday, the second day of training-camp practices, his mentor, Ramon Sessions, said he already reminds him of a young Kyrie Irving. Ntilikina said it was “a blessing” to hear such praise.