Knicks Guard Addresses Viral Moment

A New York Knicks reserve had no issue going the extra mile for a rookie teammate.

Miles “Deuce” McBride went viral in NBA circles thanks to mic’d up segments that aired during the broadcast of last Friday’s showdown against the Indiana Pacers. As the Knicks placed finishing touches on a 123-98 victory, McBride offered advice to rookie Ariel Hukporti as the benches were emptied, counseling the rookie through some of his first professional minutes.

“Don’t throw these minutes away,” McBride said in the video, shared by the NBA’s official accounts. “That’s how I earned minutes. You know what I’m saying? That’s how I earned it and, this little time, that’s how [head coach Tom Thibodeau] builds trust.”

McBride got a chance to comment on his viral fame as the Knicks prepared for a Wednesday night showdown against the Miami Heat (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).

“That got picked up by the mics and stuff, but I feel like anything I’m seeing out there, anything that can help someone else on my team especially, I want them to be successful,” McBride said, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “Overall, it’s going to push the team forward.”

In less than a season, McBride has gone from 12th man to an undeniable part of the Knicks rotation, and he’s making a strong case to be the extraordinarily premature Sixth Man of the Year favorite: through three games, he is averaging 14.7 points on over 61 percent shooting from three-point range.

That doesn’t seem to matter to McBride, who would rather leave an impact on the Knicks’ win column in the standings.

“It’s never really my goal going into a season looking at awards,” McBride said in Winfield’s report. “My only goal is to win.”

For what it’s worth, Hukporti appears to have heeded McBride’s advice: the No. 58 and final pick of last summer’s draft earned two blocks in just under six minutes in Friday’s win over the Pacers, and he later earned a role in the primary Knicks rotation on Monday against Cleveland as the top spell option behind Karl-Anthony Towns in the interior.

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