This New York Knicks season may not have gone the way fans had hoped, but along the way, there’s been a very important development occurring that should outweigh any sort of short-term success.
Through muddy waters, cloudy skies, and the everlasting pessimism that is attached to the Knicks franchise, the organization has finally found a homegrown player who is up for the challenge of changing the course of the team. That player is RJ Barrett.
RJ Barrett is “that guy” for the New York Knicks
I truly don’t know if I’ve encountered a player who has had such a constant belittling from the national media than Barrett.
Like any New York fan, I’ve consumed an unhealthy amount of Barrett content over the last three years. I become a braindead procrastinator when it comes to my taxes but when it comes to Barrett, I become an analytical scientist detective film buff defender of his game.
While I’ve always remained optimistic of Barrett, it’s really been his year three leap that’s been eye-opening as to what he can be in the NBA.
And yet, even in his extremely young age and all of the visible developments and dominating performances, it feels as though there’s still more highlighted about the minuscule negative components as opposed to the remarkably encouraging positives.
Now here we are in his third year, at 21 years old, and the way you hear opposing players, teammates, coaches, trainers talk about Barrett… the comments that come from people who matter in the basketball world — it seems fairly clear that he is on a path to stardom.
How did that path start and how confident can we be that he’s truly the one that can save the Knicks?
With all of the “instant stars” that come into the league and dominate as rookies, Barrett’s slower progression is surely a major cause of his lack of unanimous recognition. Makes no mistake, he’s the type of player New York has been yearning for.