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NYKniCksFan87
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In The Paint with Qyntel Woods
This Kid Can Play
by Tom Kertes
New York, January 23, 2006 -- During the announcement of the lineups before the Knicks-Mavericks game, little Nate Robinson bounded onto the court with a not much littler child draped over his back. “That’s Nate,” forward Qyntel Woods says. “Always makes you laugh. Always the entertainer.” Then the smiling Woods gets suddenly serious. “That kid was the Knicks Honorary Ball-kid that day,” he says. “Do you know how thrilled he was? I guarantee you, he will never forget that day for the rest of his life.”
And that’s Qyntel. A nearly-still-a-kid 24-year old who loves kids to distraction and wants “to work with them when my career is over.’’ He’s also a young person who loves laughs and life but is surprisingly contemplative as well. “I know I made some mistakes when I was young and foolish,” he says without the least bit of prompting. “But I would hope that I’ve grown up a little bit, got smarter, and learned from them.” Indeed, more than anything else, Woods’ Knicks career so far has been first and foremost characterized by his shy smile, friendly behavior toward everyone, and vast willingness to go out into the community and touch children’s hearts and minds in person. “Qyntel is a good kid,” one Knick veteran, who’s been around the league long enough to have seen pretty much everything, says. “When you do some stuff when you are young and stupid the question is will you become old and stupid or learn and change? Everyone here loves him. It’s clear he has a good heart.”
“The Knicks here are like family to me,” says Woods whose father passed away when he was just six weeks old. “And that’s what I wanted, a family. I like the coach, the coaches like me, I like the City, the fans, the people, everything. And no, sir, every NBA situation is not like this -- far from it, in fact. But the Knicks are a really good bunch of guys.” Woods’ best friends on the team are contemporaries Robinson and Trevor Ariza. “We have the same personalities,” he says. “Just young guys who like to laugh and have fun.” But “I try to hang around the older guys as much as possible as well,” he says. “It’s the best way to absorb knowledge.”
Another person Woods has gotten close to is Coach Larry Brown who calls him “a gift from who knows where, a first-round talent.” “Larry is a unique person who has so much to offer,” says Woods. “You listen to him, you can’t do anything but get better. Learning how to play the game, learning to be a professional. He sticks around after practice, his door is always open, you can talk to him any time about anything. So every day I learn something from him to become a better person and a better player. Every day, literally.”
“The gift from who knows where” was actually a free agent sitting at home when the Knicks signed him last Dec. 6. He views his return to the NBA as something like a gift, too. “You don’t know how elated I am to be back in the league,” he says. “I’ll do anything to stay.” That’s including playing the game the Brown way by playing lockdown defense, give energy, and rebound. “I know I’m not the greatest defensive player in the world,” he smiles. “But I’m getting better. I’m trying.”
Ever since he first picked up a basketball, the 6-8 Woods has been an extra-athletic, offensive super-talent. “I think I started playing in the womb,” he laughs. He’s displayed rare guts, too: during his high school days in talent-rich Memphis – “I only played the last two years,” he says -- he won the Tennessee State Championship playing with a torn ACL (acquired while playing football as a topnotch high school quarterback). “The playgrounds of Memphis, they are almost like New York,” he says. “It’s really tough. You learn to play and to take care of yourself down there.”
In junior college -- he attended two of them -- Woods averaged an outrageous 32.3 points and 10.0 rebounds per game and “was ranked the No. 1 player in the country.” No wonder he entered the NBA Draft instead of attending the University of Memphis. Woods says, “The way I was playing, I was ready for the best of them. I felt I was ready for the challenge.”
And for having some company as well. “Junior college, it was like being out in the middle of nowhere,” he smiles. ‘”Some games, all I saw were NBA scouts.”
“This is great, the best job you can have,” Woods smiles while considering his career. “You’ve got to work hard but you’re not all stressed out. Working nine to five, now THAT is real stress.”
“Going out, playing against the best guys in the world, that is FUN.”
“I enjoy dealing with people and I love children,” says Woods. “So once my career is over I would really like to go into coaching and mentoring kids. I’m even thinking of starting to work in some capacity in AAU ball this summer in Memphis.”
Woods is a huge movie fan, his favorite film is “The Five Heartbeats.” He smiles: “I just like the way those guys played beautiful music together and everything came out all right in the end. It’s kind of like the Knicks right now. We are jelling as a team, beginning to come together as one. Maximizing your abilities, getting in harmony, getting in tune, is a function of time, you know. Give this team some time and you’ll see what we’re capable of. This is a playoff caliber team, without a doubt.”
''We don't have the luxury to take anybody lightly,'' New York's Quentin Richardson said. ''We're not that good.''
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1/28/2006 11:14 AM
