There are easier (and less surreal) ways to fulfill an NBA dream than the Jose Alvarado route.<\/p>\n
Go undrafted and fight your way onto a roster. Develop a reputation as a defensive menace on the court. Spend four and a half seasons in NOLA. Get traded home to New York mid-season. Help your favorite team from childhood win their first championship in more than half a century. Then parade through the streets of the city where you grew up with a few million people screaming at you.<\/p>\n
Alvarado sat down with SLAM during his cover shoot for KICKS 29, and the conversation naturally circled back to the improbable route that brought the Brooklyn native here.<\/p>\n
Asked to choose one word for the Knicks\u2019 championship run, Alvarado answered: \u201cBelieve. That\u2019s one thing you got to do is believe the way we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was especially true in Game Four of the Finals, when New York fell 29 points behind San Antonio and somehow dragged itself all the way back, aided by significant contributions from Alvarado. He said his focus during the comeback was simple: \u201cIt was more not really overthinking\u2014like, what can I do to make us win the game regardless if it\u2019s making shots or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The championship would have been a massive achievement anywhere. Winning it in New York meant even more for Jose, who grew up in Brooklyn before playing at Georgia Tech and eventually joining the Pelicans.<\/p>\n
Pondering Jose\u2019s experience, there is always something weird about getting a desperately wanted thing. For years, the dream existed at a distance, beyond the next practice, the next contract, the doubt expressed by others about your size or talent. Then one afternoon, you\u2019re dancing on a float in Manhattan as an NBA champion with your hometown passing by, block by block.<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost cried on the float because . . . obviously going through the city that I was raised . . . I know a lot of people that\u2019s in the crowd,\u201d Alvarado told SLAM.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the part of winning a championship nobody can really prepare for, that transition point when the dream stops being something you\u2019re chasing and becomes something that has happened to you. Sounds surreal. And not to get all Jean-Paul Sartre about it all, but it\u2019s natural to wonder: what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
The answer: Your own sneaker and a new contract with the Knicks, naturally. After declining his $4.5 million player option this summer, Alvarado agreed to a new three-year deal with the Knicks worth roughly $14.4 million, with $12 million guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Jose recently signed with the streetball brand AND1 and showed off his personalized player-exclusive shoes during the SLAM shoot. The partnership makes sense. Few NBA players have built an identity more closely connected to playground basketball\u2019s particular mixture of hustle, swagger, annoyance, and joy. Thus, the SLAM team drove Alvarado back to an outdoor New York court, a familiar environment to the 28-year-old who is currently playing for Puerto Rico in FIFA\u2019s Basketball World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n