Exclusive | The pre-playoff James Dolan speech delivered to the Knicks — ‘I know you can do it. . .You know you can do it’
Mike Brown sat to the right of James Dolan, Knicks players seated in front of them at the club’s practice facility.
Read more Exclusive | Inside look at Knicks celebrating championship at private Manhattan club
It was before the April 3 shootaround when Dolan gave an impassioned 15-minute speech, recorded on video, that implored his Knicks to sacrifice everything with an unyielding commitment across the next 10 weeks of the playoffs to compete a mission years in the making — and 53 years in all — that would make every one of them champions and kings of New York with rings for one and all for the rest of their lives.
10 Weeks to Glory.
10 Weeks that would change their lives and the lives of their loved ones forever.
The Future Was Now.
And the owner believed.
“I don’t know if you understand what it would mean to win the NBA championship,” Dolan told his Knicks. “It would be life-changing… It will stick with you the rest of your lives. And if you don’t win, you’ll be thinking about it the rest of your lives.”
And if you do win, this team will belong up in the rafters with the 1970 Knicks and the 1973 Knicks.
“You will forever ever be important to New York City,” Dolan said. “No matter where you go and what you do the rest of your lives, when people introduce you, even if you become the president of the United States, they’ll start off with ‘NBA champion, 2026.’ … That’s what’s at stake here.”
So seize the moment.
“The big word is sacrifice. You’re going to have to sacrifice if you want to achieve this,” Dolan said.
“It’s only 10 weeks, it’s not a long time. . . Sacrifice everything you got these next 10 weeks to win that championship.
“I know you can do it… You know you can do it. I believe you know you can do it.
“Will you do it?”
He offered suggestions:
He implored his Knicks to eliminate distractions and bind together even tighter.
“At the end of this 10 weeks, what you achieve is what the public’s gonna think of you — not what you say in the press conferences, etcetera,” Dolan told them.
He offered other suggestions:
“You need to bump your practice. You need to pay more attention to your diet. You need to sleep better. You need to be ready for every game… That’s not something you start on the first game of the playoffs. That is something you start right now, today!”
And one that was intended as a joke …sort of.
“I had this idea that maybe you should give up sex for the next 10 weeks — you don’t have to give up sex for the next 10 weeks — BUT — like the Spartans, you know what Spartans are? They denied themselves, right? So that they can have an edge. Get the edge.
“Go home, talk to your wives and tell them — don’t tell them you’re not gonna have sex, don’t tell ‘em it was my idea — but let them know what this is gonna be like, what your commitment is gonna be like, and how they’re gonna have to sacrifice too. Those concerns at home, they can’t come on the court. It’s not who we play, it’s how we play.
“Because I believe this team can beat anybody in the NBA.”
The Post could not immediately confirm how many of any of the players lived that Spartan existence but the Knicks sure proceeded to play with that edge across those magical 10 weeks.
“It’s a pretty serious mood going into the playoffs,” Brown told The Post. “When he said that, I was like, ‘Mike, hold yourself together. Do not fall out. Focus on his words. Focus on his words. Try to keep this as serious as you can. And let’s see how it plays out with the players.’”
“But there was no way that I could get that done,” he added with a laugh.
Dolan went on:
“When we win the championship, we will get rings. And when we get rings, so will they. I will buy a ring for each one of your significant others, because their contribution is gonna be very important to this team winning.”
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He emphasized first-quarter focus and defensive pick-and-rolls and rebounding. “The next 10 days, fix those three things as part of your focus,” Dolan said, “because those are our Achilles heels, and they’ll stop us in the playoffs.
“You gotta try like you’ve never tried before.
“It’s only 10 weeks guys.
“You gotta go for it.
“You gotta leave nothing on the table.
“You must go for it.
“Do it. Commit to it. Go for it.”
Applause filled the room.
“His speech was effective ‘cause it was powerful,” Brown told The Post. “It was impactful, and it added to what messaging we’ve been giving our guys from Day 1, from the Opening Night dinner going into training camp, it added to it. And it added to it on another level because now you have the top guy, the ultimate leader, the guy that owns the team, that writes the checks, saying how he feels in a deep-felt message.
“They took it very seriously. We had shirts made up with 2026 playoffs, and on the back we had 10 Weeks. And we even had the slogan 10 Weeks on the wall in the locker room, and as time went on, guys would say, ‘Hey — we got 3 weeks left, 3 weeks, let’s lock in.’
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“If you can break it down to where hey, this is 10 weeks of your life. . .10 weeks of your life to reach the mountaintop.”
Dolan had lauded Brown for a collaborative approach with the players that he and Rose felt was missing under Tom Thibodeau’s sole voice. It heartened Brown.
“One hundred percent this man has my back and we’re aligned,” Brown said. “And that’s what I needed to hear. Our business, it’s a tough business, there’s too many different opinions that everybody can see and feel that can create separation or divide amongst a group. And I felt when he said those words, especially about me, that our players and everybody that was around during that speech, knew that we were truly aligned, vertically and horizontally, and it was a strong bond.”
Brown was heading for an appearance with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.”
A parade awaits on Thursday.
“You can’t go anywhere without people hugging you and telling you how long they’ve been waiting,” Brown said. “You see grandpas saying, ‘When I was twenty-something-years-old that happened.’ Then you see parents saying ‘When I was a little kid and my parents used to take me,’ then you see their kids saying, ‘This is great!’ They don’t understand how long 54 years is ‘cause they’re 10 years old (laugh).’ You can feel how passionate and how truthful and how much pain they had over this team not winning all those years.”
The owner’s 10 Weeks To Glory speech changed everything.
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