Episode 48: Leadership Lessons from the Knicks: Grit, Humility, and the Long Game

**Scott Rechler** (0:00)
$150 million, what's more priceless than hugging your father at the end of that game, the way that they hugged and the family and what's going to be the rest of his life now for New Yorkers and what he's done for this city and himself?

**Charlie Harary** (0:12)
This is Crossing the Chasm, your front row seat to how leaders think in real time. My name is Charlie Harary, RXR's Chief People and Organizational Strategy Officer. And I'm joined with RXR's CEO and leader Scott Rechler. Join us as we break down what's happening in the world and we pull out the leadership lessons behind the headlines. Scott, thanks for taking the time.

**Scott Rechler** (0:29)
It's great to be here.

**Charlie Harary** (0:30)
We're sitting here in New York City. I could still feel the vibes. You walk the streets, people are buying things and still cheering and slapping five. It's like this weird energy of astonishment, surprise, unbelievableness.
Tell me, and I know you're doing this because I've known you for many years of my life. When you're looking at a Knicks victory, you're looking at it from multiple dimensions. So tell me what's in your mind as you celebrate the Knicks win.

**Scott Rechler** (0:55)
Well, first, incredibly exciting. And as you said, you feel the energy in New York City. And when you look at the Knicks whole player front, right, it was true New York, right? It was about grit. It was coming up from behind. It was, we're not going to lose. It's not going to be easy. We're not LA. We're just not going to sweep, right? It's going to be a fight to the end. If you look at the Knicks team, while we have incredible players, it was a team effort that brought that together. Jalen Brunson, obviously the captain of this team, but Humble, a person that recognizes that we're not going to win without others, right? Two years ago, gave up over almost $115 million of earning power, personal earning power, so the team can go out and recruit other players that could be his teammates. And you saw that sense of commitment amongst them all going through it. And even Game 5, even though he scored 45 points, that's like a Superman thing to do from someone that's really not Superman short, right? He's a hard working guy. And even when they were at the end collecting the trophy, it wasn't like they were putting him up like you would see with some of these MVPs. It was him surrounded by three or four other players, even though he had scored 45 points, almost half the points in the game, that he willed this to success, but the team willed it to success. So I think you got that sense of grit. I think you got that sense of teamwork. I think you got that sense of humility, a sense of character, that when you think about this New York Knicks team, from an organizational standpoint, it's a model of what you want to be. It's the type of people you want on the court with you. It's the type of emotional mindset you want to have, going in to get something done. It's not easy. That's the whole point. We always talk about that. If you want to do great things, it doesn't come easy.
Jim Dolan has owned this team almost three decades and been booed out of town many times before, but he persevered through this process. And I don't know if people saw, but like ten weeks ago, right before the playoff started, he gave this incredible speech to the entire team. And he sat him down. And he's not like a motivational speaker, per se, but this was, you could see, emotionally charged of saying, it's only ten weeks. Guys, we can change our lives, change the destiny of this franchise, the destiny of your life by dedicating yourself, committing yourself, sacrificing yourself for this next ten weeks.
And if we do that, we will be the world champions. I've never seen a team as good as this. So as whether can we do it, because we could beat anyone, it's will we do it? Will we come out to play? Will we sacrifice what needs to be sacrificed? Will we do what needs to be done to ultimately rise to that next level? And knowing that if we commit ourselves to that much, to that ten weeks, on the other side of that hill, you're going to be that world champion. And what's that mean, right? One of the things I thought was cute that I did was, when you're being a world champion, it's going to change your life, it's going to change my life, and you get a ring.