Inside the Knicks: Cam Payne won’t ‘go back overseas,’ Miles McBride on ‘Deuce!’ chants and more

Writer’s note: This “Inside the Knicks” series will run periodically throughout the year as a collection of smaller stories turned into one bigger story. It consists of conversations Knicks writer James L. Edwards III has accumulated while in the team’s locker room up to certain points in the season. The first installment features Cameron Payne, Miles McBride and a Q&A with rookie guard Tyler Kolek.

Cameron Payne doesn’t want to go back overseas

The next time you get to a Knicks game, and you’re at your seat early, watch Payne. Watch him, and him only. For the 15 minutes the Knicks take the floor as a team, all the way until the buzzer sounds for the national anthem, the veteran guard is dancing. Nonstop. He looks like a kid on a sugar rush. No matter the song, Payne is dancing. He gyrates around his teammates, he gets them involved.

He’s Cam Payne.

“He has that energy in everything he does, and in life,” teammate Josh Hart said. “He approaches each day with joy and gratitude. That’s what you guys see out there … a kid who is happy playing basketball. He’s happy being around friends and family. When you have that mindset, the energy is contagious. Every time we have adversity, lose a game or two here and there, you need guys like that to keep the vibe up and ship afloat.”

The energy Payne has in warmups carries all the way through when the ball is tossed in there. He plays fast. He’s not afraid to shoot. Defensively, he irritates offensive players with his long arms and constant stream of energy. He dives for loose balls. He’s a key rotation piece for a team with championship aspirations.

This wasn’t always who Payne was. Halfway through his professional basketball career, which started in 2015 when he was the No. 14 pick by the Oklahoma City Thunder, his mindset changed, along with his appreciation for the game and the life he had.

“The biggest experience was me getting waived and going overseas,” Payne said. “I was just like, ‘I will not ever go back overseas.’ I credit the little things like getting on the floor, the things people don’t do. I take that to the game every night. I don’t want to go back overseas. That’s my identity. I’m going to play my heart out and do whatever I have to do to help the team win.”

From the time he was drafted to 2019, Payne split most of his time between the Thunder and Chicago Bulls, as well as their respective G League affiliates, and had a brief stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. By 2019, when the former lottery pick was just 24 years old, Payne was out of the NBA and playing in China for Shanxi Loongs.

“You take little things for granted,” Payne said. “(In China,) you have to take your own jersey to the game, your shoes. You fly commercial. It’s cool to be back in the league and knowing things can get taken away from you. It was a humbling experience and got me back here, and I know what it takes to stay here.”

Payne came back from China and spent some time in the G League before he rejoined an old coach in Phoenix, Monty Williams, who was an assistant in Oklahoma City during Payne’s rookie year. With the Suns, Payne re-established himself in the NBA, playing major minutes off the bench for a team that reached the NBA Finals in 2021.

It was that run in Phoenix for Payne that changed the trajectory of his professional career, going from a fringe NBA player to a guy other teams saw as someone with real value.

“He came back and found his way in Phoenix and played at a really high level,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It was one of the things we liked about him — that he had adversity, found a way to get through that, rise above it and had a role on a significant team that went to the finals, as did Landry. And, of course, Mikal was a part of that. But those three guys, the fact that they played in big games together was important to us.”

In New York, Payne is a regular fixture in Thibodeau’s tight rotation. He’s shooting the 3-ball (43.9 percent) better than he has before. His turnovers (0.6) are the lowest they’ve ever been. Payne has been a positive for the Knicks on the court, but, to this team, his presence has been much more than that.

“Cam has been more valuable than people think,” Jalen Brunson said. “To have him as a teammate has been an honor.

“There are only a certain amount of ‘stars.’ There are a lot of people who need to fill a role. I’ve always learned playing basketball that you have to be a superstar in your role. No matter what role it is, you have to be the best you can be in your role. … The most important thing I know is that whatever your team needs you to do to win, you do. And with Cam, and a lot of other players on our team, have filled that role and are striving to be the best at it. Most importantly, the way he’s come in and been a great teammate and brought nonstop energy has been infectious.”

Miles McBride on the “Deuce!” chants

It’s the chant heard around the world: “Deuce!”

Whenever McBride shoots a jumper, Knicks fans, in unison, blurt out the nickname of the beloved 24-year-old Knicks guard. It happens in Madison Square Garden, with a pulsating volume. It happens on the road, too, where Knicks fans, by the hundreds, infiltrate every single arena around the NBA.

McBride can’t escape it.

“It feels like it came out of nowhere,” McBride said. “It just started and I don’t think it’ll ever stop.”

McBride said the chant has never distracted him while shooting. He’s always been locked in when on the court, able to tune out everything other than what is happening in front of him. And now, after being a major contributor for the last few seasons, he expects the crowd’s love will come as he simultaneously releases the ball from his fingertips. It’s as much a part of his jump shot at this point as making sure his feet are square to the basket.

New York fans love their young players, whether they are sure they can actually play or not. The mystique of what a player might be sometimes creates false hope. That wasn’t the case for McBride. Knicks fans became intrigued with the 2021 second-round pick immediately upon his arrival in the NBA. McBride didn’t play a ton his first 1.5 seasons but he turned heads in his limited opportunities. He spent a lot of time with New York’s G League affiliate early on in his career and the results always came back positive.

In December 2023, the Knicks traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, opening up an avenue for McBride to be in Thibodeau’s rotation. The franchise was confident in what McBride would become and signed him to a three-year, $13 million extension without him really showing much on the big stage to that point. In no time, McBride established himself as not only a legitimate NBA player but the case could be made that he has the most team-friendly deal in basketball.

The fans were vindicated.

“In all honesty, I feel like the first day I got to New York, I saw someone walking around in my West Virginia jersey,” McBride said. “I feel like I had a lot of love as a rookie, but, obviously, I wasn’t playing as much. The love just continued to grow the more I played and the more we won.”

Q&A with Tyler Kolek

What was your pre-draft process like? Where did you workout in preparation before the draft?

I’m with Priority Sports, so I worked out in Chicago. For the pre-draft process, you’re bouncing around and traveling to different teams.

Do you remember how many teams you worked out for?

Yeah, I think it was eight teams.

I always ask rookies how they prepare to play in the NBA when they’ve never played in the NBA before? Do you lean on anyone?

I know my game better than anyone else. In the summertime, what I’m working on is whatever I think I need to get better at. I feel like every summer I’ve improved, going back to college and even high school. Even during this year, I’m still learning. I’m just trying to gain the trust of my teammates and trust of my coaches and pull as much as I can from. I’m still working. It doesn’t just happen in the summertime.

Your family grew up Celtics fans, right?

Yeah, yeah.

What was it like initially for them when you were drafted by the Knicks?

We weren’t like diehard fans. Growing up, I feel like the league as a whole is more player-driven than team-driven. People are more fans of players. My dad got away from the Celtics as I got older. He likes specific guys around the NBA. It wasn’t like, “Oh my God! The Celtics!” We were just in that area. They won championships.

You got drafted, went through NBA Summer League, training camp and played in games. At what point does your head stop spinning? Has it?

It’s really when you get into a flow and routine, like any job, any new school. Once you find that routine, you can actually get settled into it and start working toward something, instead of figuring things out on the go.

Who was your favorite player growing up?

My favorite player? When I was really young, probably Paul Pierce. When I started growing up, Damian Lillard was my favorite player.

Have you met either one of them?

Yeah, I met Dame. I went to his camp. A lot of the guys do elite camps in the summer … it wasn’t this past summer. I was supposed to go again but it didn’t line up with being here and the draft. Last summer, I went out there for a week and worked out with him and his trainer.

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(Top photo of Payne: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)