As immersed as he usually is in his team, as May is about to melt into June in Phase 3 of the offseason program, Jets HC Aaron Glenn knows a good sports story when it's detected by his radar.
And in the New York metropolitan area now, there's no better sports story than the NBA finals-bound New York Knicks. On Thursday, Glenn acknowledged the obvious that for now and the next couple of weeks, the Big Apple is a big basketball town.
"Yeah, it's hard not to notice," Glenn told reporters.
WR Garrett Wilson, who missed 10 games last season out with a knee injury, added his perspective hoping to provide Jets fans with what the Knicks' faithful are experiencing.
"I know Jets fans are, or you know, like frothing at the mouth to cheer like that," Wilson said. "And we want to give it to them. I personally want to give it to him, you know, the most."
The Knicks will play the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs in the finals, a rematch of the 1999 NBA Finals the last time the Knicks were in the championship series.
The Knicks -- since falling behind Atlanta, 2-1, in the first round -- have won an impressive 11 straight games, which includes 4-game sweeps of Philadelphia and then Cleveland to win the Eastern Conference title.
"I'll tell you what, that is a gritty, gritty team, and it's hard to be a gritty team without gritty players," Glenn said. "And it all starts with the point guard [Jalen Brunson], and I mean, you could tell that the leadership, the fight, everybody follows that, and it's easy to follow that, and he's a guy, and I continue to say this, that leadership really comes down to one word, and that's influence."
Through 14 games, Brunson is the league's No. 3 playoff scorer, hitting for 26.9 points per game while shooting 42% from 2-point range and 35.3% from beyond the 3-point arc while adding 6.6 assists per game. As a team, the Knicks lead the league with a 19.3-point winning margin, in addition to leading in five other team statistical categories.
"You really see the influence that he has [Brunson], and it's not always verbal, as long as just what he does and how he operates. So man, pulling for those guys I really am, because they play their ass off. It's fun to watch and it's good to see."
Wilson said he followed the NBA playoffs last year when the Pacers defeated the Knicks in six games in the Eastern Conference finals.
"I got a taste of that last year with the Knicks going to play in the Pacers," Wilson said. "And then this year it's then turned up a notch, and it's cool, man. The city deserves it, right? And when you see the way they receive it, it's just like, oh yeah, you wish it could happen every year, man. Seeing the people, the way they get behind their team."
Asked if he plans to attend any game in Madison Square Garden, Wilson said: "Tickets are expensive. I'm be Watching."
