Knicks Bulletin: “Practice facility: 72 degrees and always sunny in here.”

The All-Star break is more than over and most teams, including your New York Knicks, came back to practicing on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s slate of games when 24 times will be in action.

There is a lot to discuss with coach Tom Thibodeau and a few players sharing very saucy intel on the first day back in Tarrytown ahead of their matchup with the Sixers at Philly Feb. 22, so we have split it into a couple of parts, this bulletin and an injury update.

Here is the former, touching on some stuff of lesser importance than the health of your Knickerbockers as well as two section reserved for coulda-been-a-Knick KD and WNBA-hater Kenny Smith.

Tom Thibodeau

On where we spent the All-Star break...

“Practice facility: 72 degrees and always sunny in here. You saw the windows they put in.”

On what awaits the New York Knicks during the final stretch of the regular season...

“There’s 27 to go. You don’t want to be looking behind. You want to be looking ahead. So, the schedule is tough right as soon as we get back. So we’ve got to be ready.”

On the possibility of re-signing Taj Gibson now that his second 10-day contract is over...

“That’s more of a front office [decision]. Obviously, we all feel very strongly about him, but we probably need a little more information in terms of our team, where we are, and what the needs are going to be. Once we get through this next week we’ll have a better idea in terms of guys returning and that sort of thing.”

“We always look at all the possibilities and whatever is best for the team that’s what we’re going to do.”

Jalen Brunson

On is college classes at Villanova, where he earned a Communications degree before entering the NBA...

“Science was a pain, a bugaboo. But the other coursework—the math and writing—was easy.”

Josh Hart

On why he chose Communications as his degree at Nova...

“They gave Communications majors a free Macbook. And I wanted a Macbook. So I wanted to be a Comm major. That was really it. Nothing else. I did it for the Macbook.”

On Jalen Brunson completing his degree in three years instead of four before declaring for the NBA draft...

“If he did it, anyone can do it, honestly.”

Kenny Smith (Former NBA Player)

On the Knicks' outlook for the playoffs...

“At the beginning of the year, I made a comment. I said ‘I don’t know if the Knicks could win the Eastern Conference or be in it because they always walk on the floor having the second-best player’ right? But Brunson has narrowed the gap.”

Kevin Durant (Phoenix Suns)

On his comments from 2019 when he said he didn’t sign with the Knicks because they were “not cool”...

“The brand was cool, but at the time, you know—I’m not looking at the cool brand outside of the game. I was looking at the team, and the team was not cool to play for.”

“The team was not cool to watch. It wasn’t a good team to watch. I might have embellished a little bit or lied a little bit about, like, the brand. I might have thrown the brand in there, too.”

“At that time, they weren’t [cool]. The Knicks weren’t cool, but they are a cool brand. They’re popping right now. They’re playing well. The last few years, they were playing well. But before that, they weren’t playing well.”

On his agent (Rich Kleiman) having to endure a few years of Durant playing in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan...

“You definitely [tried to convince me to sign with the Knicks]. You definitely did more than anything.”

“I know that was so hard for you. That’s why I love you so much because that was the toughest thing above anything.”

Rich Kleiman (Sports Agent)

On Kevin Durant’s career had he signed with New York instead of Brooklyn...

“Let’s say this—had you gone to the Knicks after the Bay, right? And you never won a championship ever... But you went to the conference finals, maybe went to finals, maybe went to the second round of playoffs. I actually think you’d be in that [greatest players] combo quicker than because of what you did.”