Taj Gibson is a New Yorker. He was born in Brooklyn and lives in Manhattan. He is accustomed to the constant irritation of traffic in New York City.
Earlier this season, however, when a Knicks practice ran long, even he was exasperated by the slog of his commute from the Knicks’ practice facility in Greenburgh. This time, it was 90 minutes to get home — about three times as long as normal. Without anywhere to go, he sent a photo of the stoppage to his teammates. When stuck in traffic there’s little to do but hope someone else out there will commiserate with your struggle.
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Like the rest of America, the Knicks must commute to work. In this way, they are no different than you or anyone else who must schlep to the office in their car every day and hope that they don’t hit bumper-to-bumper. Money can buy a lot of things, but it can’t save you from that.
Unlike the rest of the NBA, the Knicks have a long commute that might just be the most unpopular in the league.
Many franchises have built practice facilities next to their arenas, centralizing team operations in one location as they essentially try to become a one-stop shop for every need of the modern player. The Magic have their practice facility attached to the Amway Center. The Mavericks put their new facility next to a brewery — when Dennis Smith Jr. was in Dallas, he sometimes walked to games because he lived so close and practices were just a few minutes drive away. The Bulls used to have one of the league’s longest drives, forcing players to shuttle between the Chicago suburbs and the city, but now practice is right across the street from the United Center.
The Knicks, however, have kept their distance. They opened their Greenburgh facility in 2002. It’s about 28 miles from Madison Square Garden — a cruise down a two-lane throughway that merges onto the West Side Highway. Congestion, large or small, comes intermittently, though sometimes severely. It’s a 45-minute drive without traffic. But when is there no traffic?
That leaves Knicks players wishing, like almost everyone else in the country, that they had a shorter commute.
“It would be nice,” Smith said. “I feel like everybody in here feels like that.”
For some, the distance can be shocking. Elfrid Payton grew up in Jefferson Parish, La., and played college ball at Louisiana-Lafayette. The drive to school was long but, ostensibly, infrequent. In Orlando, he had it easy. When he was in New Orleans, the Pelicans’ facility and arena were much closer together.
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He leaves early now from his place near the training center to get to games to avoid traffic and drives in silence. When Payton signed with New York this summer, he knew to expect a bit of hike, though not one like this.
“It’s essentially a road game,” Payton said. “Where I grew up and where I went to college at, it’s a two-hour drive. Some days it takes me an hour and a half to get to the Garden. It’s like I’m driving to college every day. To play a game.”
After players sign with the Knicks, 11-29 this season, they usually choose one of two areas to live in. There is Manhattan, with all its luster, great restaurants, famous sights and proximity to MSG. And there is Westchester County, a quiet suburb north of the city, with more land, cheaper rent, less of everything above and a quick drive to the practice facility.
In some years, the roster has split between the two locations. This season, the vast majority live in the White Plains area. The reasoning is sound: The Knicks practice more than they play and the ones who live nearby have a shorter trip to and from the facility, generally 10-20 minutes. There are a few perks, too. The team flies in and out of Westchester County Airport.
But there are tradeoffs. There are still 41 games at MSG.
“I feel bad for the guys after the game,” Gibson said. “They gotta drive back still and deal with traffic still. It’s pick your poison.”
Gibson, an 11-year NBA veteran renown for his locker room presence, had the foresight to pick a place in the Upper West Side this season — halfway between practice and games. In the mornings, he regularly beats traffic and gets to practice in about 25 minutes. In the evenings, well, that depends on what time he gets out.
On game days, he’s well situated.
“I know how to maneuver,” he said. “I know the roads like the back of my hand. It’s not hard for me.”
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Gibson, the sage that he is, has tried to be a leader. He told teammates they might as well get a place in the city. The drive from Greenburgh, “That’s pretty far, man.” Few, it seems, listened.
(His other piece of advice was about driving in the city: “Try to find a good place to park so you don’t get tickets. Because they’ll give you a ticket even if you’re in the car waiting. That happened to me before (this season). I got a ticket while I was in the car.”)
Most people consider their commute before switching jobs, but in the NBA job choices are limited and other factors impact decisions. Bobby Portis didn’t think about it at all before he signed in New York this summer. He had played in cities before (Chicago and D.C.) and was told it would take about 40-50 minutes to MSG. But he played pick-up basketball with DeAndre Jordan, who spent two months with the Knicks last season, and was told it could be pretty hectic. Some days it’s turned out to be as long as an hour and 40 minutes, Portis said.
Langston Galloway played two seasons with the Knicks, and if he had stayed for a third, he was ready to leave the Westchester area for Manhattan. He developed a routine, leaving two hours before he had to be on the court to get to the arena on time. This was after repeated attempts at finding a shortcut.
“I tried cutting through Harlem,” he said. “Tried either going the West side or the East side. Psh, none of it. None of it worked. It all was pretty much the same distance. You couldn’t get around that traffic. You had to go through it.”
Ironically, the practice facility was originally built as a problem-solver for the Knicks and the Rangers, who also practice there. Owner James Dolan consolidated both teams, and the Liberty, under one roof in what was then billed as a state-of-the-art building. Players and executives crowed about their new workplace at the time.
Joe Cohen, a Garden executive involved in building the practice facility, said it was an attractive site. There was ample land to build a 105,000 square-foot complex. It was on the west side, close to the airport and had an easy commute, especially because players wouldn’t be driving in rush hour traffic anyway. It was envisioned, he said, to make the Knicks attractive in free agency, too.
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The Knicks have yet to land a star free agent in the intervening years — though the facility could hardly be blamed for that; the worst record in the NBA over those 16-plus seasons is probably more at fault — and the facility has its detractors. The Nets moved to Brooklyn and have since built a practice facility not too far from their downtown arena.
Jared Dudley, the former Nets forward, has been a vocal proponent of the benefits that brings. He said he told Jordan this offseason about the differences between the Nets and Knicks and lauded how close the practice facility is in Brooklyn. Jordan signed with Brooklyn and came with a couple friends — Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The facility’s location, Dudley insists, is important.
“It matters 100 percent,” said Dudley, now with the Lakers. “The practice facility is huge. It’s huge where you would live at — location — and in New York you want to live close to the city because that’s where everybody wants to be in New York … I just think for them to get these big-time players, which they can get easily, a new facility, closer.”
While Dudley has earned a reputation amongst Knicks fans as a gadfly, he is not alone in his viewpoint. Henry Ellenson signed with the Knicks last February and then signed a two-way contract with the Nets in July (he was waived Jan. 3). He enjoyed his easier lifestyle while living in Brooklyn than the bother of going back and forth with the Knicks. He had about a 15-minute drive to the Nets facility and the Barclays Center, and didn’t have to choose between living in a city and the suburbs.
“You’re almost tired from that just getting to the game,” Ellenson said of commuting to the Garden.
He added: “The nice thing about being in Brooklyn is you’re in Brooklyn. It’s tough because sometimes I was out in White Plains and people didn’t realize, ‘What’s a Knicks player doing out here?’ I’ve had a couple of people ask me that. We actually practice out here. While in Brooklyn, we’re in the city. That’s been the cool thing for me, I’m right downtown.”
Knicks players have found various ways to pass the time on their commute. Ignas Brazdeikis listens to music — he pumped Christmas music during the holidays. Smith has his brothers with him in the car (he said the drive is shorter than the one between his hometown and North Carolina State). Portis gets a friend to drive. When Payton had a driver, he would watch film, but now drives himself.
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Each one finds a way to cope. None, however, have found a way to get around the biggest problem: Having to make the commute at all.
“They said the Bulls used to be the worst ones,” Galloway said. “But I’d probably say the Knicks are probably the worst now.”
(Photo: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
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