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This was their celebration, not his.
Andre Drummond stayed back in the locker room while the Knicks raised their championship banner and collected their rings ahead of their 106-100 season-opening loss to the 76ers.
“I feel like I gotta earn it,” Drummond said. “I don’t want to experience something that I wasn’t there for.”
He is the lone newcomer among the 10 Knicks to see the court on Tuesday. He is a non-champion surrounded by champions. He’s tasked with replacing a beloved fan favorite in Mitchell Robinson, who was the longest-tenured Knick before he left in free agency for the Celtics.
“I want to be able to experience that [celebration] because I was a part of it,” Drummond said. “I let those guys have their moment.”
But it wasn’t long until he was having his own moment.
Drummond was a rare bright spot in an otherwise ugly Knicks showing, recording 12 points, 14 rebounds (seven offensive) and four assists against his old 76ers team. He had a first-half double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
He never had any double-doubles in a half all of last year. “An-dre Drumm-ond” chants reverberated around MSG, as the fans were loving what they were seeing from their new big man.
“It was pretty surreal,” Drummond said. “Just the energy of the arena, just because of how hard I was working, how hard I was playing, just to hear it, I can’t even really explain it. I got chills. Something you live for as a player, hearing the fans be behind you.
“This arena’s electric. Just doing hard work and aggressive plays gets the crowd going, so it gets me going too.”
The majority of his action came in the first half, where he played 16 minutes compared to Karl-Anthony Towns’ six. Towns got into early foul trouble — something that became routine last year — and was forced to the bench.
Those long stretches on the court aren’t the ideal workload for Drummond — and perhaps a reason his production waned in the second half.
“I thought he played with a lot of bounce, energy, in the first half on both ends of the floor,” coach Mike Brown said. “We probably ran him too long because it looked like in the second half, not just him but especially our five starters, it looked like he ran out of a little bit of gas. I gotta keep getting to know him to see where the minutes may lie for him to be effective. But I thought he was really, really, really good in the first half.”
That feeling-out-process will be a season-long journey. For a Knicks group that has so much continuity, Drummond represents one of the rare opportunities for change and fresh ideas.
He is similar to Robinson in that he is one of the most prolific rebounders in the league. He is not the rim protector or help defender Robinson is, but is more of a threat with the ball in his hands on the offensive end.
Brown is still learning how best to utilize that skill set.
“I think it’s been fun for both of us because, obviously, yes, he’s still trying to get to know me and vice versa, I’m trying to get to know him as a coach,” Drummond said. “I think we surprise each other on a daily basis on the different things that I’m capable of doing as a player. And obviously, the way his coaching style is too, the freedom I have too, is a little bit different. It’s like a tug-and-pull every time we step on the floor with each other. … It’s cool to have the freedom to play the way I want to play, be able to use my experience and my veteran leadership to play the way I want to play but also play the way he wants me to.”
A Mount Vernon native, Drummond is already feeling at home.
“This is a great team,” Drummond said. “Great core group. They’ve done a great job of incorporating me into the group and making me feel like I’m one of them.”
He shouldn’t just feel like he’s one of them — he now firmly is one of them.
An important one.