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New York City Deputy Mayor Only Wants to Talk About the Knicks Right Now

The season is starting soon and that's all anyone in the city is talking about right now.

Kyle Koster

Phil Banks is ready for the Knicks' season.
Phil Banks is ready for the Knicks' season. /
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New York City mayor Eric Adams has been charged with bribery, wire fraud and taking donations from foreign nationals. So it's a bit of an unusual morning at City Hall. Except for deputy mayor Phil Banks, who is laser-focused on the issue of the moment: the New York Knicks.

He share his thoughts on the Knicks—heck, he shared every thought he has on the Knicks—with NY1's Kelly Mena, who approached him for an interview very much not about the Knicks.

What you're about to witness is incredible commitment to a bit.

You won't see this type of single-minded focus on talking on the Knicks and nothing but the Knicks again until they get off to a halfway decent start this season, and the national shows need to talk about something other than football. That is, if there is any meat left on the bone—because Banks covered a tremendous amount of ground there.

Say what you want about the strategy, but it is a strategy. At a certain point between the Adams news breaking last night and arriving at work today, everyone in the mayor's orbit had to hatch a plan on how to attack what promised to be a difficult day. Banks set out to only talk about the Knicks and he did just that.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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