(
)
Soon it will be time for chapel. And NBA TV. And apple juice. And Froot Loops.
Nicki Minaj’s “Moment 4 Life” is blaring on the Madison Square Garden PA system as Landry Fields walks out of the locker-room tunnel at 4:50 on Wednesday afternoon. Clad in a blue Knicks T-shirt, blue Knicks adidas shorts, black Nike sneakers and black socks, Fields’ pregame shooting routine is about to begin.
He opens with short baseline jumpers from the right side, launching them from in front of the Knicks bench as assistant coach Dan D’Antoni, coach Mike D’Antoni’s brother, feeds him passes. The only other Knick on the court is Timofey Mozgov, working with assistant coach Phil Weber. And the Knicks City Dancers also are practicing.
Soon, Shawne Williams will emerge onto the floor, along with assistant coach Herb Williams. They’re all getting early work. Tip-off against the Hawks is not until 7:30. When Fields was at Stanford, he wasn’t showing up three hours before the game, as he did Wednesday. At Stanford, it was more like 90 minutes before. Maybe 75.
“I’d just get dressed, go out on the court and shoot a little bit, stretch, the coaches would talk,” he says. “By that time, it’s like 30 minutes left.”
Fields is shooting better from 3-point range in the pros (40 percent) than he did any year in college at the shorter distance. Now he backs up, shooting 3-pointers from the right corner. Then he moves over to just beyond the elbow’s orange paint, hoisting short jumpers. He backs up farther there, too, putting up 3s from the wing. Fields essentially is playing the old game Around The World, shooting from all over.
Fields doesn’t have a set number of shots he takes from each spot. “It’s once I feel comfortable,” he says.
Straightaway shots are next. Then the left wing in front of celebrity row. Then the left baseline. As he is shooting, the Knicks’ pregame video intro plays on the scoreboard, the one that ends with Amar’e Stoudemire screaming “Now!” Then the video ends. And it’s quiet.
Fields takes jumpers now as if he’s coming off a curl. Then D’Antoni wants him to go “up and down,” so he shoots a corner 3, then moves to a wing 3. Now he’s catching the ball, taking one dribble, moving up and shooting from the left side and the top of the key. Then the right wing. Right corner. He cracks up when the “Soul Glo” bit from the movie “Coming to America” is played on the scoreboard.
Now Fields is working with Dan D’Antoni, who is being physical while guarding the 23-year-old. D’Antoni is banging Fields, forcing him to dribble away and shoot. Fields then practices driving baseline jumpers. He takes a step-back 3. He does pull-ups. He does crossovers. It’s 5:12, and it looks as if Fields is sweating. He goes back to taking shots from the right side. Then it’s free throws, which he does by himself. He works on driving layups.
“[The routine] might get toned down a little bit on back-to-backs,” he says. “But what I just went through right there is the full one.”
FIELDS arguably is the best rookie in New York sports in 2010-11, and the best the Knicks have had since Mark Jackson 23 years ago (before Fields was even born). A day in his life is a combination of kid and adult, of unrestricted youth and professional polish.
Fields took The Post through his Wednesday. It was a day that included cooking himself breakfast (and dancing while he cooked), watching a movie, driving in to the Garden with fellow rookie Andy Rautins, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans upon his MSG arrival, going to chapel, scarfing down a pregame meal and delivering a typical performance of 11 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals in a 102-90 win over the Hawks to close the first half of the season.
FIELDS wakes up around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and while he’s in bed, he tweets, “Hookin’ up breakfast! Fire Department has been moved to speed dial.” Fields, you see, doesn’t cook all the time. But he learned at Stanford.
“In college, it was either that or Jack In The Box,” he says. “Jack In The Box only goes so far.”
Fields doesn’t just defrost pancakes, either. He makes scrambled eggs with toast, bacon and sausage. He multi-tasks — he’s got music playing while he cooks, which prompts him to dance. Or as he puts it, “whipping it up to rhythm.”
Breakfast over in his White Plains apartment, Fields finds that the movie “Passengers” is beginning on TV, so he watches that (he doesn’t love it, calling it “all right”). He relaxes, hops in the shower, then he and Andy Rautins (his best friend on the team) head to the Garden. The two live what Fields calls “about 100 feet” from each other and alternate driving in. Today Fields is behind the wheel.
Rautins says his buddy sings along to “anything that’s on the radio” with Trey Songz getting featured quite a bit. “I think he’s used to that passive-aggressive Cali-style of driving. He’s a little over-aggressive sometimes, getting used to these New York type of drivers,” Rautins says. “But always bopping and singing to something. And to be honest with you, his singing is kind of annoying. But it’s all good fun.”
At 4:30, Fields and Rautins arrive at the 31st Street Park N Lock, where fans meet them. Fields takes pictures and signs autographs, then heads in to 4 Penn Plaza and steps into the elevator to go to the locker room. The elevator stops at the fifth floor, Fields walks through a loading dock, strolls across the Garden court and heads down the hallway.
At 4:45, Fields is in the trainer’s room, getting his ankles taped by head athletic trainer Roger Hinds. Fields does this every game. “By Roger’s orders,” he says. He munches on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Five minutes later, Fields is ready for his pregame shooting routine. When that’s done, he chats with The Post and takes some pictures for 10 minutes, then heads back to the locker room area and chows down on a combination of prime rib sliders, Froot Loops (apparently there were enough because Fields cracks that sometimes Amar’e Stoudemire’s kid gobbles them all up), apple juice and spicy pretzels.
He watches some of an NBA TV feature on the best moments in All-Star history, then heads to chapel, finishing that up 45 minutes before gametime. Fields then changes, undergoes a stretching routine with a trainer and re-enters the locker room to listen to Mike D’Antoni talk to the team. The Knicks then head to the court for warm-up layups.
Before the game starts, Stoudemire and Fields address the MSG fans, this being the final game before the All-Star break. Stoudemire thanks the crowd, then Fields improvises, joking that he’s going to sing the national anthem. He finishes by saying, “Go Knicks!”
NINETY-eight seconds into the game, Fields drives and drops a pass off to Mozgov for an easy layup and a 4-2 Knicks lead. During the first quarter, a fan behind reporters says, “They better not trade Fields, man. I don’t want to lose him.” Spike Lee is wearing his Fields No. 6 jersey.
Fields misses his first shot, a jumper, then makes a nice cut for a layup off a Raymond Felton assist for a 12-11 lead. During the course of the game, Fields will guard, at various times, Marvin Williams, Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford, Mike Bibby and Maurice Evans.
Fields will grab six rebounds in the first quarter alone, and at halftime he has two points (on those two shot attempts), two assists, seven boards and no turnovers with the Knicks up seven.
Three minutes into the third quarter, Fields has not taken a shot since his layup in the first quarter. But with 9:01 to go in the third, he goes behind a Mozgov screen and hits a 3 from the wing. Less than two minutes later, Fields backs Bibby down, then banks in a turnaround jumper to push the Knicks’ lead to 14.
Then with 6:05 to go in the third, Fields finds himself wide open from the 3-point wing and drills another, his final shot from the field in the game.
Two early shots in the first quarter, three shots within a three-minute span during the third. That’s it. And Fields hits four of the five attempts.
“I’m not really a volume shooter,” Fields says. “I just take shots that are open.” This season he is at 52 percent.
AT 10:14 p.m. after the victory, Fields is out of th e shower and at his locker, getting dressed. He chats with the media. Then he says he and Rautins will head to dinner, ending a business day in the life of a Knick rookie.
mark.hale@nypost.com