NBA Champion Jose Alvarado Joins the Show

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
Speaking of Madison Square Garden, from Brooklyn, Mr. Jose Alvarado. What's up, kid? How you been? Good to see you. Pleasure to have you see you right here.
New York Knick Champion, local kid makes good, re-signs with the Knickerbockers. I know you're swamped. They appreciate a few minutes of your time.

**Jose Alvarado** (0:18)
Nah, I appreciate you.

**Craig Carton** (0:18)
Craig, that's Chris.

**Jose Alvarado** (0:20)
Pleasure to meet you. I know who y'all are.

**Craig Carton** (0:22)
I know you. That's my guy right there. Congratulations.

**Jose Alvarado** (0:26)
Nah, I appreciate it, man.

**Craig Carton** (0:27)
Can you even put into words the extra specialness because you're born and raised, went to one of the legendary high school programs here, didn't get drafted, and now look at this.

**Jose Alvarado** (0:38)
I know, man. It's something that you really can't, like you say, you can't really put in words. It's just a blessing. Like as a kid growing up playing in the park and just staying in New York the whole time outside of college, it was hard for me to go leave because I just love this place so much.

**Craig Carton** (0:52)
Did you go to G-Tech because Kenny Anderson went there or no?

**Jose Alvarado** (0:55)
It was crazy. I didn't know the back story of all that. What a coincidence. It was a New York guard school.

**Craig Carton** (1:00)
One of the best guards of all time.

**Jose Alvarado** (1:02)
Yeah.

**Craig Carton** (1:04)
Yeah.

**Jose Alvarado** (1:04)
I know. I was in left rack too. I had a few, Hami Diwalo, that he grew up there. Like I said, I was from Brooklyn, born and raised there. Then I moved to Queens and it was just all over from there.

**Craig Carton** (1:15)
Yeah. It's awesome. Like you're a legitimate five borough kid.

**Jose Alvarado** (1:18)
I know. I try to tell you about that. Winning the championship is amazing, especially no matter where you're at. But obviously winning with the Knicks, playing for the Knicks is a blessing and a big thing.
But I'm a kid from here, so it's a little different.

**Craig Carton** (1:32)
You had to grow up a Knick fan.

**Jose Alvarado** (1:33)
No, of course. I was in the Linsanity era, mellowing them. So just seeing that and me being part of something that's, not only just being part of the Knicks, but me being part of this.

**Craig Carton** (1:45)
Let me ask you a question. It's funny you brought up Jeremy Lin, who had the greatest three week run any dudes ever had that wasn't a blue chip prospect, right? Yeah, yeah. There was three weeks. You can make an argument, he was the best player in basketball.

**Jose Alvarado** (1:56)
No, for sure. Dropped 30 at the card against Kobe. It was who he was doing against and then how he was doing it. It was efficient, it was loud, and it was a consistent basis.

**Craig Carton** (2:06)
We know it shows you also, Jose, for me, it shows you when you get a little taste of confidence, like the top of the three, the key three against Toronto, where he waved everybody off, you know, beating Kobe and the Lakers at the card on Friday night.

**Jose Alvarado** (2:19)
When you beat part of this game, you're gonna understand that, you know, like I'm not trying to say this and be cliché, and I understand what everybody's saying, like the NBA is really hard to make, but once you get that confident in your mind, and you need to have a little delusional.
I'm a crazy guy, but I'm in the good way. You play crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I just try to keep that right mindset and really believe in my craft, you know, and go out there and just be who I am.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:43)
How hard is it, though, to have that confidence while you're sitting on the bench? Because part of the story of this team is the guys who came in, didn't play in one series and suddenly playing huge minutes in the fourth quarter. What is it like sitting there knowing you're going through this incredible run and at any moment you could be someone who's called upon to do your job? How difficult is that to sit there and do?

**Jose Alvarado** (3:00)
It's difficult, but that's being a pro. I mean, you know, we had a, we got a great team that understood that. And that's why we're in the situation we're in. We won a championship because, you know, every guy was happy and grateful for everything they was going for. Obviously, when you when you sit on a bench, don't think we're happy about it. Don't think it's something that we're not thinking about, but it's something that we can't, you know, st-stut along because at the end of the day, it's not going to hurt. It's not, it's going to hurt us, not nobody else. And we knew we needed each other. So at the end of the day, we just try to.