The Knicks believe age is just a number and are determined to beat that into doubters’ minds as they embark on the new season.
The team officially opened camp yesterday, and while they still didn’t want anything to do with the Jeremy Lin topic, they also seemed taken aback by jokes about the collective age of their team.
“I’ve experienced it in Atlanta,” said head coach Mike Woodson. “And even though it was a wonderful run taking 18-, 19-, 20-year-old men and trying to develop them into big-time players, that was fun, but with a veteran team like this, it’s going to make life that much more easier [because] they’ve been around and know how to play.
“When Dallas won it [in 2010-11] they were right at 29, 30 years of age. We’re at 31 or 32, somewhere in that area, but it’s not that big a difference,” Woodson said. “I’ll take a veteran anytime. It’s no knock on young guys, but with young guys it takes a while.”
Tyson Chandler played with new Knicks guard Jason Kidd, 39, during Dallas’s championship run and said there isn’t much difference in him two years later.
“Jason Kidd can still play at a high level,” said Chandler. “All these guys bring a different element to this team that we didn’t have last year. We had a lot of young guys last year and we were kind of all over the place. Yeah, it was exciting but it wasn’t consistent.”
Woodson noted he won’t run the team into the ground with an inordinate amount of practice time, particularly the old camp tradition of double-sessions.
“We’re done with two-a-days,” Woodson said. “I just don’t believe in it.”
Follow Knicks beat writer Tony Williams on Twitter @TBone8.
