Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert let down his guard for a Q&A session with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: If you guys make the playoffs, you’re not in yet …
A: We’re gonna make the playoffs.
Q: You might have the Heat in the first round.
A: That’s fine. I think we can take the Heat. … We can take anybody in this league. I don’t feel like there’s anybody that’s a million times better than us. Now it just comes down to when it comes down to when it comes down to those last couple of possessions, can we pull it out?
Q: Why do you think you’re made for the New York market?
A: When I got drafted to New York. I just went back and watched all the old New York tapes, like when the Knicks were like at their peak. … Bad boys, hard fouls, talkin’ trash … just that old gritty basketball. And I’ve always liked ’90s basketball more than basketball now.I feel like now it’s real watered down, and you get techs for looking at people. … When I was growing up, when I used to watch Jordan, when he dunked on somebody, there was a lot going on after that play. … Ewing used to dunk on people, used to look at ’em crazy, he’d stick his tongue out, then he’d run down the court like this (arms extended) … so when I was growing up in my backyard, that’s how we played. If I went to the basket hard and hit a layup and you fell, I was in your face about it. … So I think just my passion for it, I’m gonna entertain the crowd — I’m gonna do that — and then, I’m gonna play both sides of the ball hard. I can have a bad game, I can have a good game, but I don’t ever want anybody to be able to say, “He didn’t play hard today.”
Q; Would you have loved to play on those teams?
A: Just to play in that era with that type of aggression — I feel like I wouldn’t get a foul. It was like blatant fouls, but because of what was at stake, and like the crowd was crazy, it was like the type of energy that was in there, if you were a ref and you called that foul, the fans probably woulda threw stuff on the court, like, “That’s not a foul!”
Q: When you watch John Starks play, do you see yourself?
A: He’s got a highlight video, and it’s the Anthony Hamilton “Comin’ From Where I’m From.” I watch it before every game. Kinda like gets me in my mood.
Q: You’ve met Starks.
A: Yeah that’s my dude. That’s mt guy. The thing was with Starks, with me being a Bulls fan growing up — Reggie Miller and them tried, but it was like I think Jordan really had a problem with Starks. Starks would really get into you, really get in your face, and I’m the same way. I have respect for everybody in the league. … There are certain guys that are obviously a lot more talented than myself and a lot of the other players in the league but … once you gotta play against me, all that’s out the window. And I feel like Starks [had] that same mindset.
Q: How would you describe your game face?
A: Mean. Not for TV.
Q: What is going on inside you when that face appears?
A: Just don’t want to lose.
Q: Define “swag” for me.
A: Oh, I’m off swag. I say “sway” now. I kept saying swag, swag. Instead of saying bye on the phone I would say swag. I was saying it all the time and being funny, and then like I wasn’t even trying to be funny anymore and I couldn’t stop saying it. Then I changed s-w-a-g to s-c-h-w-a-g just so I could sorta have my own thing. But then it was just so many people saying it that I just got so sick of hearing it. … Kanye says it’s cray instead of crazy in one of his songs, so I said, “My swag is cray, so I’m gonna call it sway.” So now I sway. You don’t walk in the room swagging, I walk in swaying.
Q: Define sway on the court.
A: The way I see it, if you put music behind while I’m playing, it’s gonna look good. That’s how I would define a swagger. If you put music behind somebody that’s like passionate … real confident … they got a killer instinct … they play with an attitude … if you put music behind it, it looks good. Some guys play so straight, and that may be their thing, like a lot of guys are good playing like that. I can’t play like that. I have to flair out, I have to yell, I gotta scream, I gotta talk trash — that’s how I get myself going.
Q: You had that killer instinct on the playground?
A: Always, because I had older brothers, and when they won they let you know about it. So it was like once I finally beat them, I felt like nobody could beat me. So that’s how I would play. I would you let you know about every bucket. I would let you know about every steal. I’m gonna let you know about every block.
Q: You retweeted a “Natural Born Killers” poster of you and Carmelo Anthony that had someone sent you.
A: As far as just learning, and seeing the game from a different perspective, Melo’s always just been in my ear all year, just trying to help me, ’cause he says a lot of times that I act like he acted, and he’s like, “I’m trying to help you grow up quicker, if I can advance you a couple of years and we can get a championship together.” He doesn’t expect me to be as professional as him and Amar’e [Stoudemire] are … but he’s like, “the sooner you figure it out, the more rings you’re gonna get,” if you can get one, ’cause it’s damn near impossible in this league.
Q: Are you a Natural Born Killer on the court?
A: I think so (smile). Think I got some ice in my veins.
Q: You never feel pressure?
A: I invite it. I feel like it makes me play better. For me, the problem I’ve always had is during a game [if] we’re blowing somebody out … I’m terrible. If we’re up 15, I’m fine, but it’s like if we get up by 30 and the other team gets sloppy, it’s like somehow it makes me sloppy. I need that pressure. I need to feel like somebody’s like on my back. That brings the best out of me.
Q: Being a rookie, are some of the veterans around the league offended by …
A: Sometimes I think so. I think a lot of ’em try to hush me. But, I just keep coming. You might score on me, but only thing it does is it [ticks] me off even more and makes me go harder the next time.
Q: What are some of the things you hear from some of the veterans?
A: “All right, that’s enough rook. … Who is this kid?” I remember Paul Pierce saying, “Why is he talkin’ to me?”
Q: Who did he say that to?
A: He was saying it like out loud, and then he looked at Melo, it was like, “Who is he talkin’ to? He can’t talk to me …” He was like baffled, like, “Is he really talking?” And then I remember KG saying, “I smell blood, I’m feeling like a shark today,” or something like that, whatever.
Q: Did you say something to him?
A: I just dunked it on him and got a tech.
Q: You’ve guarded Derrick Rose … Dwayne Wade …
A: A little bit.
Q: And Kobe Bryant. Which one was the toughest?
A: I think it’s between Kobe and Rose. I think with D-Wade having [Chris] Bosh and LeBron [James] with him, he can pick his spots a little bit more, and the tough thing about him is he’s gonna get out in transition, it’s a totally different cover. He’s not gonna play around with the ball or anything like that. He’s gonna make a move, if he don’t have it, he gets off it, and they sorta just get theirs within playing off of each other. With Derrick Rose and Kobe, it’s like you know they have the ball, you know it’s a clearout, and you just gotta stop ’em, so it’s harder. It’s way worse on your body guarding D-Rose, because it’s gonna be a ton of ball screens, he’s extremely fast, and he’s just gonna run all game. Kobe, it’s just unbelievable footwork the whole game. The best footwork I’ve ever guarded.
Q: Did Kobe say anything to you?
A: I think in the fourth quarter when we played ’em here, he was, “All right, that’s enough rook,” and he just went off.
Q: What do you like to say on the court to get in guys’ heads?
A: I’d rather hold that back (smile). It’s really not for the newspapers or for TV.
Q: Do you have a game plan though?
A: To tell you the truth, I don’t really know what I’m gonna say. … Maybe I was growing up watching you play and you did something that just made me mad back then? I might say, “You made me lose a bet when I was in seventh grade. I still don’t like you!”
Q: Why do you like defense so much?
A: When I was coming up, I’m the best player on this team. Whoever the best player on that team, even if he’s got three or four inches on me, I gotta guard him, just because that’s what the people came to see.
Q: Would you like to guard LeBron?
A: I could care less. Whoever Coach Woody [Mike Woodson] wants me to guard, I’m guarding.
Q: Well could you …?
A: I would love to guard LeBron.
Q: Why?
A: ’Cause I’ve seen him go off on people, and I just want to know if I could stop him. I like taking that challenge. A lot of people don’t like taking that challenge. A lot of people don’t want to be on that island at the end of the game, clock winding down. … They don’t like being on that side of the ball at that moment. I don’t have a problem with it.
Q: But he’s 6-8, right?
A: That’s fine. I’m 6-6.
Q: What drives you?
A: Ever since I was little, I wanted to win the NBA championship. I saw how good Michael Jordan and them felt when they won it … had the cigars with their fathers. … I’ve always dreamed of that.
Q: What do you think New York City would be like if the Knicks won a championship?
A: Man … that’d probably be the only time that I would say I’ll be in love with New York more than Chicago.
Q: Linsanity … and when can we expect Shumpsanity?
A: I don’t know if there’s gonna be any Shumpsanity going on (smile), but Linsanity, that was an incredible experience. It was actually a humbling experience, because when you saw how Jeremy took it, it was like they played him all day on “SportsCenter,” and if he came in, he made us turn it off. He was trying to like block it out. He was like so selfless. He did not want us to feel like he was caught up in that. He was like! “Let’s just win, I don’t care.” He tried to duck and dodge the media even though he couldn’t (chuckle). We tried to go to the movies on the road — we all had to wear hoodies, we couldn’t give it up where we were at. If somebody saw Landry, they knew Jeremy was close around. Landry got spotted at the theater, everybody goes crazy. I walk in late, everybody’s just starting to put the pieces together so they followed me to the theater to see what theater we’re in. It was ridiculous, we had to leave the movie early.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: President Obama; Michael Jordan; Oprah Winfrey. I’m gonna learn something. They’re gonna learn something from me, too.
Q: What would they learn from you?
A: I don’t know yet. Now you just gotta put me in the room and I gotta start talking (laugh).
Q: You’re going to be doing the talking, not the listening?
A: I’m gonna start off the conversation.
Q: How would you start it off?
A: I don’t know. … I would ask a lot of the questions, then once they relay their answers and I learn a little bit and I sit back, I’d definitely give some insight on whatever I can, or give them a different perspective from where I’m coming from, and how I think.
Q: With all due respect, what insight could you give Michael Jordan?
A: Jordan played the game on both ends of the floor, but people always praise his offense. And I play hard on both ends of the floor and people praise my defense. … I don’t have six rings and all those MVP awards and everything like that … hopefully down the line I’ll have some Defensive Player of the Year awards, some championships, and I could always hang it over his head that he’s lucky I don’t have to guard him. He would always be able to go at me and say, “You wouldn’t be able to guard me,” and I could say, “Well you’re lucky I didn’t have to guard you.”
Q: You think you could have guarded him?
A: There’s only so much you can do when somebody hits jumpshots with three people’s hands in his face … but I probably would have denied him better than anybody else. As far as just not letting him the touch the ball, I probably just wouldn’t let him touch it. Even though that’s hard enough, I think I could have kept him uncomfortable. I wouldn’t have backed down, it’d been me and John Starks in his face if I had been on the Knicks back then.
Q: Describe Coach Woodson.
A: Me and him have a relationship where we know it’s nothing personal. He’s gonna come at me crazy, and at times he comes so crazy that I might respond back, but it’s only gonna make me go two times harder the next play.
Q: Would this team like to see him back next season?
A; Love to see him back.
Q: You’re going to the Yankees game [today] — on Jackie Robinson Day.
A: I steal basketballs, he steals bases (smile).
Q: Ever watch clips of Clyde Frazier?
A: When these games come on like ESPN Classic, my father used to yell, “Iman!” I used to be all the way upstairs and I used to have go downstairs, so I used to have go downstairs and watch him.
Q: What did you think when you did watch him?
A: He goes hard, every single play. But when I used to watch all those games, it seemed to me like everybody went hard. It seemed like the blood thirst for a championship was way different back then.
Q: But you have that now?
A: I’m always gonna have it.
Q: Favorite college memory at Georgia Tech?
A: Probably scoring 30 on North Carolina. The first time was at their place, the second time was at our place, but the reason why it was so sweet at our place was because we were having an up-and-down year at this point … come out there for warmups, and like kids that go to the school, little kids that were at every one of our games had Georgia Tech jerseys on — I just remember seeing all blue. And I was looking around at all the Carolina blue and I could swear that this was ThrillaDome. I just remember being so angry, I don’t think I shot one jumpshot in warmups, I just dunked the ball every time extremely hard. The ref had to tell me, “Get off the rim or it’s gonna be a tech,” so I wouldn’t grab the rim but I was still just flushing it hard. And I just remember smacking everybody’s hand hard, and we came out there and we just blew ’em out. It felt like somebody spit on me, you know what I mean?
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: My father. It would have been weird to see my family try and run without him. In my head, that’s part of being a man, being able to do everything, every obstacle that you face, being able to try and fix it and not have an excuse for it. That’s how I learned what a man is.
Q: Favorite childhood memory?
A: My Aunt Carolyn took me to a Bulls game, I was really young, like fourth, fifth grade, something like that, and we sat courtside to watch them play the Celtics, and the Bulls beat the Celtics. Usually I’d sit in the nosebleeds at the Bulls games. … The players were coming off and everybody would just smack my hand. And I just remember that feeling — “Man, I want to be in the NBA so bad!”
Q: Ideal mate?
A: I always stare at what people wear. I got a little bit of a shopping problem.
Q: A shopping problem?
A: I’m always taking mental notes of people’s outfits. Some people like clothes, but they don’t like actually shopping. I like actually going in the store and trying to put stuff together.
Q: Favorite place to shop?
A: Soho.
Q: What would Knicks fans be surprised to learn about you?
A: That I was rapping at a young age. I did poetry coming up and everything.
Q: Favorite movies?
A: “Harlem Nights,” “Remember the Titans.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Denzel [Washington].
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Tacos.
Q: You’re a Taco Bell guy.
A: I like Taco Bell. They get it done, but I like homemade tacos more than anything. The best taco in Chicago is probably my best friend’s grandmother.
Q: Since you’re a bachelor, we should put in the want ad that any lady candidates have to make tacos.
A: They have to be … a taco-making maniac.
Q: Message to Knicks fans?
A: Just thank you. When I got drafted, I got booed, but the cool thing about New York is like the level off honesty that they give you. I’ve had, I don’t know how many fans come to me and say, “Man, I’m so sorry for booing you. I love the way you play. I love how hard to play. I love what you bring to New York. I hope you’re a Knick for life.”