NBA

Serby’s Sunday Q & A with … Raymond Felton

The Post’s Steve Serby chatted with the 26-year-old point guard who is averaging 18.6 points per game in his first season as with the Knicks.

Q: Does Amar’e (Stoudemire) get a look in his eye on the court when he’s ready to explode?

A: It ain’t a look. He just comes to me and says, “Let’s go Ray.” I already know what it is when he does that. Most of the time it’s in the fourth quarter. Give me that look in my eyes, “Let’s go Ray.” (I say) “All right, let’s go.” (Chuckles).

Q: Does he have a swag?

A: He’s supposed to (chuckles). It’s not about him having a swag — I mean, a swag is a good thing, so yeah, he has a swag. But he has a killer instinct. He’s gonna get you. He’s going at you. It’s like little piranha fishes, but I ain’t gonna say a shark. Somebody gets a cut in the water, he can be miles and miles away, he smells it, he’s coming for it. And that’s how Amar’e is, he’s coming for you, he’s coming right at you like he smells blood. He’s coming at you.

Q: Are you at all that way?

A: Yeah. I definitely can get that way . . . a lot (chuckles). Especially when a person starts running their mouth. I love it then. I love it.

Q: Describe your on-court mentality.

A: I’m aggressive. Over the years, I’ve become more of an aggressive leader vocally — speaking out to my teammates and stuff; staying on top of people. But if you stay on top of people, you gotta lead by example, so I’ve always been big on that. But I’ve always been a person who played hard, who brings it every night — I don’t care if I go 0-for-12, I’m gonna have some type of impact on that game because I’m gonna play hard, I’m gonna dive on the floor for loose balls, I’m gonna play defense to the best of my ability. If you’re gonna be a leader, if you’re gonna demand stuff from your teammates, then you gotta show it yourself.

Q: What drives you to be like that?

A: Just my desire to win, man. You can’t win without your teammates. Michael Jordan would say that to this day — if he didn’t have the Scottie Pippens, the Steve Kerrs, the Horace Grants, Dennis Rodman — he couldn’t have won those championships.

Q: Wilson Chandler?

A: Silent Assassin. Will doesn’t show no emotions. He don’t say anything. I’ve seen him dunk on somebody like nasty, and has no emotions, just run down the court like he ain’t do nuthin’.

Q: Danilo Gallinari?

A: Mr. Excitement (chuckles). You look at Gallo, he’s 6-(foot)-10, 6-11, can shoot the ball well, but he has a swag. He’s a guy that, he puts the ball on the floor, he has crossover moves, he has in-and-outs, behind-the-back moves . . . he has that swagger to his game.

Q: Ronny Turiaf?

A: I call him The Stopper. He blocks shots that I never think he can get to — or anybody can get to.

Q: Toney Douglas?

A: Call him Energy Man. He’s always moving, no matter what.

Q: Landry Fields?

A: Young, energetic, exciting He’s gonna be a great player in this league. He’s not a person that does anything great, (but) he does everything well.

Q: Mike D’Antoni — what do you call him?

A: I call him The Wizard. I’ve seen him draw up plays . . . he’s a matchup coach. He knows how to do mismatches, no question.

Q: Would LeBron James have enjoyed playing for him?

A: I think anybody would have, no question.

Q: Early in the season when you heard all that talk about Chris Paul and Steve Nash, did it tick you off?

A: It didn’t. It’s a motivation thing. Some people gotta earn their stripes a little tougher than others. I’ve learned to deal with that, I’ve learned to understand that. It’s all good. Stuff like that don’t make me mad, and it shouldn’t do that to nobody. That would be my advice to any of the young kids that’s coming up into this league, or even growing up. Sometimes it takes a person another route to earn that respect, and I had to do it my whole life. It don’t make me mad, it don’t make me sad, don’t make me upset with nobody, it just gives me motivation to go out there to do even better, so it’s all good.

Q: Were you doubted as a young kid?

A: Not necessarily doubted, but being from a small town, a lot of people didn’t think I was gonna get this far — being a top recruit, winning the Naismith Award, going to Carolina (chuckles). (They said) that I was gonna go to Carolina and was gonna get lost in the shuffle . . . that didn’t happen. Had a great career there, won a national title, moved on to the NBA. I come from a town of 2,000 people, maybe. Had to prove a lot of people wrong.

Q: Do you think you play with a swagger?

A: It’s not about having a swag, it’s all about having confidence in yourself. A person will come up to me and say, “You got a little cockiness with your game.” I stop ’em right there, say, “Don’t ever say that to me! Don’t ever call me cocky. Don’t use my name and the word cocky at all.” ‘Cause I’m not cocky, I’m confident. I’m just confident at what I do, I’m confident in my game ’cause I work hard, and I prepared myself. So if you want to say swag, that’s a little bit better word than cocky.

Q: Why are you so opposed to the word cocky?

A: I just don’t like it. A lot of people get called cocky, and it’s never in a good way.

Q: Were you surprised LeBron didn’t come to the Knicks?

A: I thought he was coming here.

Q: Why?

A: If he was gonna leave Cleveland, I thought he woulda came here, I didn’t think he was gonna go to Miami, but hey, he made his decision, man. I ain’t mad at him.

Q: Spike Lee?

A: That’s my guy right there (chuckles). I always used to talk to Spike even when I played with the Bobcats. I always talked to him before the game on the sideline.

Q: Why is it so much fun playing point guard?

A: It takes a lot of — not pressure — a lot of responsibility. So I’m a type of person, I’m cool with that. I’m cool with that pressure, I’m cool with that responsibility. It’s basically like being a quarterback. You have to know all the plays, and know each and every position. If there’s a man out of place, you gotta put him in the right place.

Q: Where do you see yourself among point guards around the league?

A: I see myself as one of the elite point guards, but I would never go out and just publicly say that.

Q: You just did.

A: That’s my opinion. I’d be crazy to say that I don’t think I am.

Q: Scouting report on yourself?

A: I look to get my teammates a shot before I shoot, but I will shoot it, I will score.

Q: Your clutch 3 at the end of the 2005 national championship game against Illinois.

A: Shot clock was going down. Got the ball in my hand, and before I put that pressure on any of my teammates, I took it upon myself to take that shot. It was deep — it was way out there. And Coach (Roy Williams) was like, “Nooooooo . . . Yes!”

Q: How did that shot compare to your game-winner against the Raptors (Tuesday night)?

A: It’s tough to compare both shots, but I will tell you this: I got the same feeling as they went in!

Q: Roy Williams?

A: He knows the game of basketball, he loves the game of basketball.

Q: Larry Brown?

A: Another Hall of Famer coach. He loved to teach. Sometimes you think you’re still in college playing for Coach Brown, just the way he teaches the game, the way he always stops and explains each and every play, each and every possession — what this option could have been, what you could have done better, what you could have done instead of what you did.

Q: You enjoyed playing for him (in Charlotte)?

A: I loved it, man. A lot of people say it’s frustrating — and sometimes it does get frustrating. And Coach Brown knows I would say that to his face. But at the same time, he was a great coach and he taught me a lot. He taught me to really think the game. He made me a better point guard.

Q: The difference between Sellers, S.C. and New York City?

A: (Laughs). Man! We had no stop lights. We had a train track that separated two sides of the town — call one of ’em Uptown, you call the other one Paradise. Only thing really was there was a softball field, basketball court, two churches, a convenience store in the middle of the town, post office . . . that’s it, no stop lights, no nuthin’.

Q: Do you know your away around NYC now?

A: Sometimes you gotta get lost to understand your way around. I definitely got lost a couple of times, but I pretty much got it now.

Q: First time you stepped on the Garden court in the McDonald’s game.

A: A lot of great things happened in this building, so just to be there as a young kid like that and to step on that floor, man, it was fun.

Q: Knicks fans?

A: Knick fans are great. Knick fans can be on you, you can get booed (chuckles) . . . I can’t be mad at ’em, ’cause they’re just a city and fans that love Knicks basketball and they just . . . they want to win. When we were going through that losing streak and we were getting booed and stuff, I just told the guys, “Don’t worry about it. Just stay together. It’ll all come around now.” Now look at it. When boos goes to cheers and yells and screams, it makes the guys feel good . . . makes me feel good.

Q: When can Knicks fans expect a winner?

A: You got a winning team now. It’s a long season. We ain’t gonna win every game. We ain’t gonna win every game in the Garden. We’re trying to. We want to. Sometimes we might stink the gym up. It happens. We’re human. But at the same time, we’re gonna play hard, we’re gonna bring it every night, that’s the type of team that the city of New York has, that the fans have now, they have a team that’s gonna fight hard, no matter what. I’m gonna make sure of that.

Q: What’s a realistic goal for this team?

A: A realistic goal is playoffs, no question. We’re trying to take it one step at a time. I’m not even thinking about the playoffs right now. I’m thinking about this next game that we have.

Q: Did playing (mostly option) quarterback in high school help you be a point guard?

A: Yeah, it did. I won’t say that just helped me being a point guard. Just about being a leader and being a person that’s not afraid of. . . . anything. I’m not afraid of taking any shot.

Q: Did you get offers?

A: As a safety.

Q: Boyhood idol?

A: My dad.

Q: Why?

A: Really my parents, but my dad because he was a basketball player himself. Everybody knew him as this great basketball player back where I was from. My dad was like The Man around there. I just always used to love to watch him. Ever since a kid, I’d just see my daddy go score 60 in a game earlier that afternoon, then go play that night and go 60, 70 again.

Q: Biggest influences other than your parents.

A: I gotta start off by saying God, for one. Then on top of that, all my basketball coaches from Coach Gerald, who was my childhood AAU coach and basically my mentor even to this day; you got my high school coach, Steve Smith; got my AAU coach, Coach (Dan D’Antoni); my pastor, Michael Blue.

Q: The difference between Dan D’Antoni and Mike D’Antoni?

A: (Chuckles) Two of the same people, man. Coach Dan is a little more of a talker. Coach Mike is a little more laidback, I think.

Q: Your 1-year-old son Corbin?

A: The whole time I’m talking to him (Wednesday) on the phone, he’s just laughing. He’s a happy kid. I’m glad. I love him to death.

Q: Does he motivate you in any way?

A: No question. Especially when I was in the Charlotte game, just to see him on the floor, my mom and dad, he was just looking at me like “Daddeee.” I’m like, “I can’t sit here and lose In front of my son — not for the first time he saw me play.”

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Bob Cousy; Barack Obama; Halle Berry.

Q: What would you ask Cousy?

A: Every question a point guard should ask: How did you do it? What does it take? Even to this day, I’m still asking those same questions as if I was a 5-year-old kid at a basketball camp.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: “Big Trouble in Little China.”

Q: Favorite actor?

A: Denzel.

Q: Favorite actress?

A: Sandra Bullock.

Q: Favorite entertainer?

A: Drake.

Q: Favorite meal?

A: A soul food dinner — fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, potato salad.