NBA

Serby’s Q&A with Knicks’ Prigioni

The Post’s Steve Serby sat down with Pablo Prigioni, the soon-to-be 36-year-old rookie point guard from Argentina, who in his best broken English describes what it’s like to be part this Knicks’ title bid .

Q: A Pablo Prigioni scouting report?

A: I think unselfish player … good defender … play with the heart … and play with the head.

Q: Raymond Felton describes you as a Quiet Assassin on the court … a killer.

A: (Smiles) I don’t know … I just jump on the court to try to play basketball. For me, take the advantage that the game give to you. For me, not to jump on the court with something in the head like, “OK, today I will take 15 shots. No matter what.” No. I’m totally opposite. I jump on the court, and maybe I take one shot, maybe I take 10 shots. It depends if the game give me shots, you know what I mean? You must play with the head. I jump on the court to play basketball, I don’t care (about) stats, I just play basketball. I try to play smart.

Q: Do you play angry, do you play calm?

A: Sometimes you get mad, and you do two, three good things and that helps you to have a good game. Sometimes you are quiet and you read everything, and everything goes in a good way, you know? Sometimes you’re lazy, everything goes wrong.

Q: You’re never lazy.

A: No, no … no matter what happens on the court, I will fight all the time.

Q: What do you like best about this team?

A: We have so many options on this team. We have a good defender, good rebounder, good shooters, good one-on-one players, players who can pass the ball … we have a good mix. Everybody can give something to the team.

Q: Sum up what it’s been like playing with Carmelo.

A: He is one of the top three scorers in the world. And this year, he’s doing much more than that. He did one more step up in his game. He’s more complete now than before.

Q: J.R. Smith?

A: I think he deserved to win the Sixth Man trophy, and he’s so athletic, he can make some unbelievable plays.

Q: He’s not shooting well.

A: This sometimes happens. He was so many months on the top, but I’m completely sure he gonna be back on the level soon.

Q: Does he seem like he’s focused?

A: Yes, yes, definitely, definitely. I think when he have this incident with (Jason) Terry in the first round, maybe that make him lose the focus for a couple of games, but I think he’s ready to go back on his level.

Q: Tyson Chandler?

A: Tyson gives us so many things that sometime you can’t see on the stats. He’s all the time on the paint, protecting the paint, he play defense aggressive. When he sets the screen, he sets the screen in the right way with the right timing. He have experience. He’s a leader out of the court, on the court.

Q: Iman Shumpert?

A: He started to feel better after he recover 100 percent his knee. He started to be more confident, started to be more aggressive in defense, he started to shoot better.

Q: What did you think of his dunk?

A: He practiced that situation here all the time. One that we throw the ball and he jump and find the ball in the air and try to dunk so I’m not surprised what he did because he’s every day doing that.

Q: Kenyon Martin?

A: Oh, he come at the right time for us, because the injury with Stat (Amar’e Stoudemire), with his problem on the knee, Kenyon come and did a great job, from the first game until now.

Q: What is he like on the court?

A: He fight, he fight. He play with the heart all the time. He play defense, he’s ready to support you when you get beat for another player … he know how to play basketball, he have experience, and he give everything he have every game on the court.

Q: Whom do you like to watch play?

A: I like how Raymond Felton plays. He’s different, opposite to me, but I like his game. I must say just one or …

Q: No, you can say as many as you want.

A: I like (the Spurs’ Manu) Ginobili.

Q: What do you like about him?

A: Everything. His head. Everything.

Q: In what way is Felton opposite of you?

A: He’s more aggressive. Unbelievable ball handling, unbelievable finish with both hands. He surprise me in a good way.

Q: And how about Jason Kidd?

A: Jason is more similar to me, play more with the head now. We get older, we start to play more with the head, instead of the body.

Q: Describe Coach Mike Woodson.

A: I think he’s a great defensive coach, and he’s really smart during the game to react and to make quick adjustments. He knows exactly how he has to manage the team. The relationship with the players, he’s great. He show you he’s all the time there if you need him. He take care about you, no matter what if you play two minutes or if you play 35 minutes, he always be there to support you.

Q: Playing in New York?

A: New York is maybe one of the best cities in the world, you know? And the Knicks is one of the sports teams, I don’t say only basketball, more famous in the world, maybe with the Lakers, with the Celtics, with Manchester United of soccer, Real Madrid … maybe it’s in the top, I don’t know, top 8 team sport in the world. This is really big. But when you start to practice, when you start to play, I think I forget this. I just focus every day what I have to do to help the team and I think after one month, two months here, I forget that it’s one of the best team sport in the world. I just focus on the team and try to play the best I can.

Q: Knicks fans?

A: It’s amazing, because not only here in the Garden, one of the things surprise me that wherever we go to play, we have Knick fans. We can go New Orleans, we can go San Francisco, we can go to L.A, no matter what court we go to play … when we have every game at home, it’s amazing. The Garden is full every game.

Q: They like you now.

A: (Smiles) They know, they watch that I, all the time I’m on the court, I fight. Sometimes I give good things, sometimes no, but I think they’re completely sure that when I’m on the court I will run and I will give all I have to try to win, you know?

Q: Did you used to watch Steve Nash, or John Stockton, or Magic Johnson?

A: Yeah, yeah, when I was young, I watched all the guys. I don’t have really one guy that just have everything that I like. I take pieces for one guy, for another guy, for another guy. I all the time try to watch maybe guys from over the seas. If you are open to keep learning, you can add to your game all the time small things, you know?

Q: Do you like playing defense?

A: Of course. You’re always gonna have a chance to win the game if you play good defense.

Q: Favorite Olympic memory?

A: When they put the bronze medal in Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. We go back to the Village to take a shower to change and go back to receive the medal, these two hours until we get the medal was my favorite memory.

Q: How did 2008 differ from 2012?

A: In 2012, we were really close, but we lost in the last second.

Q: Who’d you lose to?

A: Russia.

Q: Was that heartbreaking?

A: Yeah it was painful. We were crying like 20 minutes in the locker room.

Q: Your daughter (Alessandra) is 7 and your son (Nicolas) is 4. Are they basketball fans?

A: (Smiles) More the little boy. He watch every game, he know the names of my teammates, he know everything. He’s crazy about basketball.

Q: What is your daughter like?

A: She like more dance, like girl things.

Q: Does your wife (Raquel) like New York?

A: She like New York, was tough for her the first four or five months because it’s the first time she leave Spain. I’m from Argentina, I live in Spain 13 years, so for me no matter. It was a big change for her. This first year was tough to adjust to a new life. She don’t speak English, she tried to learn English. But she did a great job. For the players, if your girl, if your wife, do the correct things, do the good job with the kids, try to fix all about home, and to make you have the head only about basketball, that helps a lot.

Q: Do you want to come back here and play next year?

A: (Chuckles) I just can say I feel really good now in the end of the season. I’m happy I can help the team with my game. I’m focused on finish the season and playing my best basketball and try to do all I can to push the team to win, When the season’s finished, I have time to think what I want to do next year. I don’t want to think about now because I will lose my focus.

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Jordan; Messi; Federer.

Q: Favorite movie?

A: “El Secreto de Sus Ojos.”

Q: Favorite meal?

A: Melinesa Napolitano. Meats covered with bread, ham and cheese. . . Same like chicken parmigiana? Like that?

Q: Boyhood dream?

A: When I was a boy, I think to play Argentina League, that’s it. When I get it, then I think to play Europe. So I tried to go step by step all the time.

Q: Can you imagine what New York City would be like if the Knicks won an NBA championship?

A: No, I don’t think about that. I think all small things like that we put in our head right now is gonna make us distracted.

Q: Is this team confident?

A: Yeah of course, of course. If you don’t have confidence and you don’t think you can win, you’re never gonna win.

Q: Did you like having your name chanted at Madison Square Garden?

A: That was really nice, nice moment for me. But that made me more happy because I was really happy because we won the game.