No Knicks player since Jeremy Lin has so immediately and all-encompassingly captured the imagination of the sad sack that is the modern Knicks fan than rookie point guard Immanuel Quickley. (Trust me: I’m absolutely one of those sad sack Knicks fans.) Considered by some draft experts as a reach at the end of the first round of last year’s NBA Draft, Quickley wasted no time in establishing himself as not just the best guard on the team, but one of the best rookies in the entire NBA. And more to the point: He has provided a beacon of light for a fanbase that has lived and mostly died with their stupid team for several decades now. He is hope in shorts.
He’s also a 21-year-old kid who had only been to two NBA games in his life before playing in one, prefers the quiet of White Plains to the big city and whose favorite recreational activity is “go to the mall.” He’s Immanuel Quickley, and he’s here to save the Knicks. After a “tough” practice and his daily COVID test, he talked to GQ’s Will Leitch.
GQ: In the span of, like, a month, you’ve become the most popular Knick since … Carmelo? Porzingis? Jeremy Lin? Has this been a surprise to you?
Immanuel Quickley: I pride myself on hard work, so it's not a surprise completely. But it is fast how this all happened. I feel like I was just in high school, like, two, three years ago. I feel like it went by in a flash, like it’s happening in a video. To go from high school to being a vocal, huge part of the Knicks team is really cool. It’s definitely happening fast though.
Have you had a “holy shit I’m playing against that guy” moment yet?
Steph Curry. I saw him in warmups, and it was wild, because he’s just like he is in NBA2K: He never misses. He never misses in the video game and he never misses in real life. I didn’t get to talk to him, though I think I did foul him. My player development coach used to be his player development coach, so I had him send him a message saying, “Next time I’ll get to introduce myself.”
Knicks fans have poured way, way too much of their hopes and dreams into you already. I would say I see your name in ALL CAPS on Twitter roughly 15 times every Knicks game. Even though there are no fans at the Garden, can you sense that?
A little bit. You try not to get too high or too low, because I feel like a lot of people told me, "It's a long season, you have good games, bad games." The Knicks fans, they just want a team that's going to come in and win, that's what we've been trying to do. That's just been our main focus. I try to stay away from social media as much as I can. It’s everywhere now, but I just try to just monitor how much I’m on there. It can get crazy.
Usually players can’t wait to come to New York for games, but because of the pandemic, you haven’t gotten to do anything. Have you seen New York City at all?
Nope, it's been straight from the hotel to the games. Before I got drafted, I was working out in New York, so I got to eat at a couple of pretty good restaurants. Jue Lan was my favorite Chinese spot in the city, but now it’s just to the practice facility to Madison Square Garden, then back to my house. I’m not even in the city. I’m in White Plains. This is probably best for me, all told. I’m a basketball rat, and all I want to do is play and practice. And that’s all we’re able to do anyway. I’m low-key, anyway; before the pandemic, I was really already in a bubble. I go to the gym, go home, and worry about my business, so honestly this is not too much different for me. I’m definitely more of a White Plains person than a New York City person. The going out in the city stuff doesn’t appeal to me.
So what’s the first thing you will do when the pandemic is over and you can go wherever you want?
The mall. I like going to the mall.
The mall? There are many, many better things to do in New York City than go to the mall.
I like going to the mall! What else would I do? I don't even know. Honestly, I feel like I don't even remember what life was like before COVID. I don't remember. I really don't remember! I was in college in the time before COVID, so I went to school, that was about it. My pre-COVID thing was class. This is better. I just hoop and play video games. That’s enough for me.
So wait: Have you ever even been to an NBA game with fans before?
Once. Maybe twice? I’m from outside Baltimore, so when I was a little kid I saw Derrick Rose play against the Wizards. And when I was being recruited by Kentucky, they took me to a Wizards-Kings game. But that’s it.
It is very weird for me to be talking to an NBA player and realize all I want to do is tell you how exciting it is to watch a game in an NBA arena full of fans. It's really fun, I promise.
I can only imagine. I can’t wait for it.
I saw a draft report about you that said, "He lacks a certain cockiness or alpha maleness." Do you think that's an accurate statement?
During my interview with the Knicks, Scott Perry asked me, "What do people misconstrue about you? What do people not really know?" I said, "I'm a nice guy off the floor, but on the floor, I'll do anything to win, and I got that dog." I feel like you really can't see it unless you play on the floor with me or play against me. I'm a competitor and I'll do anything to win.
I saw that when you played Lou Williams, you said he was your favorite player as a kid. Usually kids’ favorite players are LeBron, or Steph. Why Lou Williams?
I love how he drew fouls. I got that from Lou Williams. Everybody asks where I got all this drawing fouls stuff from. You can ask any of my college teammates, high school teammates, we'll literally play one-on-one and I’ll just try to draw fouls over and over.
That sounds annoying.
It is annoying! They'll be like, "I’m not playing anymore." But I got that from him, as well as the floater and just his smoothness on the offensive end. That’s something I try to carry with me.
Was he surprised he was your favorite player?
The conversation started because I had scored back-to-back buckets, and he was like, "Oh, you are a killer, huh?" I was like, "A little bit," and then I followed up and said, "You were one of my favorite players growing up," and he just dapped me up and said, "Respect." He’s one of the best bench scorers ever.
Would you be OK with being an off-the-bench player your whole career?
The only thing I can control is getting better each and every day. I was coming off the bench at Kentucky pretty much three-fifths of the season, and people ended up asking me if I was going to win SEC Player of the Year and the Sixth Man of the Year because I was still coming off the bench. I never went to Coach Cal and said, "Why am I not starting?" or anything like that. I’m cool with whatever happens.
Was it a clash being an offense-first player and then being coached by Tom Thibodeau, famously one of the most defensive-minded coaches ever?
I’m not an offensive-first player! I try to be a defensive-first player. It may not show as much, but I’m still learning a lot on the defensive end. I got really lucky as far as getting Coach Thibs as my first NBA coach. In a rookie year, it's great to have somebody who's defensive-minded--he's really a lot like Coach Calipari. Me and Derrick Rose were talking a little bit about that today because we both played for Cal first, and then both had Thibs our rookie years, so we were talking a lot how they're really similar: If you don't defend, you're not going to get on the floor. If you're not tough, you're not going to get on the floor. In that way, they're really similar.
Had you met Rose before he came to the Knicks? You two played surprisingly well together in his first game.
I don’t think so. I’ve watched him play so much, I feel like I know him, but I probably didn’t. I just met him. We were at dinner, and it was just me and [fellow rookie Obi Toppin] at the table and he came to us and he was like, "Look, I’m not here to try to take over anything, I’m just here to play hard and help you guys get better." Then in the game the next day, he was like, "If you get it, don't be looking for me. Just go up and do your thing; and the same thing, if I get it, I’ll go up and do my thing, we'll just play off each other and things like that." When you're playing with somebody like that that has that open mindset, who knows how to play, it makes the game really easy.
When you were at Kentucky, your grandmother and aunt were famous for screaming “WHOOP! WHOOP!” at odd times during games. Have they been to a game? Do you even get to see your family under NBA protocols?
I get to see them, but they haven’t been to a game yet. My aunt and my grandmother, they act like I scored 30 every game, so it’s just like college. But my mom is more the subtle one, she's like, "You still stink if you go and play basketball, so you still need to shower," or whatever. She’s like, "You ain't nobody," basically. My mom's kind of the one that keeps me grinding. But yeah, my grandmother and aunt, if they let family in, there's no question you're going to hear them. And if there's only 2000 people there, all you're going to hear is my family. It’s their worldwide trademark. We’ll end up playing the Lakers, and LeBron will probably be like, "Who is that making all that noise?"
Does this feel real yet?
It's funny you ask that. All the time, I’ll just be standing in the Garden and I’ll just look around and I’ll be like, "Wow, I’m in the NBA. Huh.” It’s still crazy. I mean, I do that all the time.
Many players get juice and motivation from being drafted lower than they thought they should have. Are you that type of player? Are you like Michael Jordan, “I took that personally?”
I screenshotted a lot of the stuff when people are saying I was drafted too high. I was probably drafted too low, to be honest. I’m glad the Knicks took me, though, so it was a great situation. But yeah, I took all that stuff, screenshotted it and took it to my workouts. But I don’t feel like I’ve done anything yet. I don’t know if I ever will.
I literally just had this conversation with myself. I said, "I could be an all-star or an MVP, and I’ll never feel like I made it." I mean, GQ is kind of like a big thing. They told me "it's GQ," and I’m like, "They want me? I didn't even do anything yet." And then like I thought to myself, "Man, I could probably be an all-star MVP and I just will never feel like I've made it." My mind is just weird like that; I just never will feel like I made it.
This is the sort of thing I like to hear as a Knicks fan.
Believe it.