5 Lessons from Knicks in 5

1. Conviction. The Gut Feeling You Train.  

I talk a lot about self-trust. That gut feeling. That conviction in your abilities.

Most people think self-trust is a feeling. It's not. It's evidence.
 

At the end of the final game, Jalen Brunson was asked what was going through his mind. His answer wasn't the trophy. It wasn't the celebration. It wasn't proving people wrong. His mind immediately went back to the summers. The workouts. The sacrifices. The years spent working for that exact moment.

When you've truly earned something, your mind doesn't go to the result.

It goes to the work. The work is where the real emotion lives. The trophy is simply the receipt.
 

After the Game 4 comeback, Brunson said:

"One word that captures all that is believe. Believing in each other. Believing in the process."

Simple. Most people want the trophy. Most people don't want what the trophy requires. The boredom. The repetition. The uncertainty. The days when it feels like nothing is working.
 

Everybody wants confidence. People come to me every day wanting it. Very few people are willing to build it.
 

Confidence is built through evidence. Evidence is built through reps.

And reps happen long before anybody is watching or when you're getting applause or might I add a simpler example “likes”. 
 

The people who eventually win are usually the people who found a way to keep going when there's silence.
 

They continue becoming the person the goal requires long before the goal arrives.

Jalen Brunson was a champion before he held the trophy.
 

Ask yourself:

What am I chasing?

Who do I need to become to earn it?

And does the way I'm showing up today reflect that person?

2. Your Ecosystem Is Either Giving Or Taking. 
I've been called ruthless before in this department. Quite frankly, I'm okay with it. I'm incredibly intentional about who I spend my time with. Who gets access to me. Who gets influence over me. Who gets a seat at the table.

Because the older I get, the more convinced I become that success is rarely an individual achievement. It's an ecosystem achievement.

What makes this championship even sweeter is that Jalen Brunson understands that. Nobody wins alone. He famously left $113m on the table so the organization could build a better team around him.

Think about that. The face of the franchise sacrificing significant personal gain because he believed it increased the odds of collective success. That's leadership. That's working towards a bigger purpose. 
 

Hard work creates opportunities but your ecosystem is what drives you to your fullest potential.  The people around you influence your standards. Your mindset. Your behavior. Your belief. Your ceiling.
 

Take a look around you…

Who sharpens you?

Who challenges you?

Who tells you the truth?

Who celebrates you?

Who helps you become more of who you're capable of being?
 

Because whether you're building a business, raising a family, chasing a championship, or becoming a better version of yourself, the people around you matter more than you think.
 

Ask yourself:

Who sharpens me?

Who drains me?

Are the people closest to me helping me become who I'm capable of being?

3. The Things That Break Us Often Become The Things That Build Us. 

If there was one player I found myself rooting for throughout this run, it was Karl-Anthony Towns. Not because of the points or the rebounds, but because of what he's been through.

KAT has experienced more loss than most people realize. Eight family members passed away from COVID, including his mother. Add public criticism, injuries, trades, and seasons that didn't go according to plan, and it would have been understandable if he became bitter, closed off, or checked out altogether.

Instead, there he was.
 

One of the things I admire most about people who have been through hard things is that they often develop a different relationship with life.

They stop assuming tomorrow is promised. They stop taking opportunities for granted. They stop sweating things that don't actually matter.

Pain has a way of clarifying what matters. 

Faith does too.

Whether you call it faith in God, faith in yourself, faith in the process, or simply faith that life is happening for you and not to you, the principle is the same.

As I reflect on my own life, some of the moments that shaped me most were the ones I never would have chosen. Grief. Depression. Loss. Seasons where nothing felt certain, where I questioned myself, and that forced me to rebuild.

Some of our greatest lessons come wrapped in our hardest moments.

Not because the moment itself is good. But because hard moments have a way of stripping away the noise and forcing us to decide who we're going to become.

The things that break us often become the things that build us.

Ask yourself:

What has nearly broken me that ultimately built me?

What lesson did hardship teach me that comfort never could?

4. Kids Need Both Pressure & Nurture.

One of the more interesting storylines from this run was watching Jalen alongside his father, Rick Brunson. After the championship, Rick spoke about how proud he was of the leader his son had become.

Jalen immediately responded:

"Thanks Mom."

Later, while commentators were praising Jalen for cementing himself in Knicks history, Rick made sure to point out that Patrick Ewing was still the greatest Knick ever.

At first it felt strange. Your son just won Finals MVP. Why go there?

But the more I thought about it, the more I understood it. Rick's toughness clearly helped shape who Jalen became. Standards matter. Expectations matter.

Accountability matters. But so does balance.

Jalen's joke about his mother tells you everything you need to know.
 

One pushed.

One nurtured.

One challenged.

One supported.

Together, they built something special. As a parent of two, that stood out to me.

Great parenting is a partnership. Different strengths. Different approaches.

The same mission. And maybe that comment about Ewing was exactly what Jalen needed. Not because his father wasn't proud. Because he was.
 

But great parents know when to celebrate and when to keep their kids hungry. 

The best partnerships do both. They build competitors. And they build confidence. They challenge. And they support. They hold the standard.

And they remind you that you're loved regardless of the outcome. Because people need both. The push to become more. And the safety to know they're enough while they're getting there.
 

Ask yourself:

Where do I need more challenge?

Where do I need more support?

Am I creating both for the people I lead?

5. Fun Is A Performance Tool. 

There's something that inserting fun into the process does to performance.

It balances your nervous system. It creates connection. It creates perspective. And often, it gives you access to a better version of yourself.
 

I say this in full transparency because this is probably the hardest lesson for me.

My default is to push. To improve. To find the gap. To focus on what's next.
 

One of the things I loved watching throughout this run was how much this team genuinely seemed to enjoy each other.

Josh Hart was constantly giving Brunson a hard time. Brunson was constantly laughing. The team celebrated together. Joked together. Showed up for one another. There was a lightness to them.
 

Not because they didn't care.

Because they did.

Not because they weren't competitive.

Because they were.

Somewhere along the way, a lot of high performers start believing that everything has to be serious in order to be successful.
 

The Knicks were a reminder that those things are not mutually exclusive.

High performers often treat fun like a reward.

Something they earn once the work is done.
The best performers understand it's part of the process.
 

You can be disciplined and have fun.

You can be competitive and have fun.

You can chase greatness and have fun.
 

In fact, I'd argue that fun is often part of what allows people to sustain greatness.

Performance isn't just about how hard you can push. It's about how long you can sustain the push.
 

And sometimes the thing standing between you and the next level isn't more pressure. It's remembering to enjoy what you're building while you're building it.
 

Ask yourself:

Where have I made things harder than they need to be?

And where could a little more fun actually make me better?