Knicks Coach Gives Draft EXCLUSIVE to 'The Huddle!'

Ok, that title is a little misleading. Here’s what REALLY happened.

So I was at the US Open Friday afternoon, and in my scramble to catch a shuttle to the LIRR station, I leapt on a bus about to leave the course and grabbed the last remaining open seat.

Desperately trying to catch my breath, as I am hopelessly out of shape, I didn’t immediately realize the 6’10” individual sitting in the seat directly to my right. We’re talking like three inches apart, shoulder to shoulder.

Anyway, as the guy in the seat on the OTHER side of me was offering to buy the unopened Gatorade popping out of my bag, other riders in our immediate vicinity correctly identified the enormous guy as….Knicks Assistant Coach Herb Williams!

(By the way, I gave away that Gatorade for free. I took it from the media lunch room just before leaving...I can’t resist free stuff).

Naturally the fellas on the bus were excited to meet Herb and peppered him with the typical questions you’d expect a bunch New Yorkers would ask a Knick unexpectedly thrust upon them.

Their curiosity satiated, I put on my reporter hat (figuratively speaking, I don’t have one of those old-timey fedoras with the “PRESS” tag sticking out of it) and grilled Herb about tomorrow's draft and the Knicks’ 8th overall pick.

Fine, it wasn’t much of a grilling, and Herb, perhaps sensing my ‘media-ness’ didn’t reveal all that much. He said that he was unsure who the Knicks would go after, based on the uncertainty at the top of the draft board.

But, and this is where the REAL NEWS is (you could have just skipped all the way down here….sorry to make you read about my Gatorade philanthropy and fedora-fetish), Herb did offer some insight as to what he thought of the highly coveted Stephen Curry.

Like I said, Herb was giving me standard answers about the draft in general, and he’s already soft-spoken to being with. But when I asked if he worked out Curry personally, Herb’s eyes lit up.

He said he did, in fact, work out Curry, a player that the Knicks covet. I then followed that up with the question that’s on the minds of everyone in the NBA… “can he play point guard in the NBA?”

Herb’s answer, with a huge grin, “oh yeah, he can play point guard in the NBA.”

Whether or not this counts as an exclusive, I’m not sure…but it definitely ranks as the best “get” of my career…while on a bus.

And as silly as this whole story might seem, I think there’s some news value in it. Judging from Herb’s reaction to the Curry question, it’s my belief that he’s a player the Knicks are VERY interested in. If the Knicks are going to draft Curry, they’re most likely going to have to make a BIG draft day trade.

There are certainly rumors about the Knicks moving up, and if this adds fuel to the pre-draft speculation fire, so be it. And to think, I almost missed that bus.

Matt Estreich for The Huddle