Immanuel Quickley took losing to Malcolm Brogdon in stride but vowed to forever recall the snub.
“No doubt [it’s motivating],”Quickley said. “When I didn’t make All-Rookie, that was something that fueled me. So you always look for stuff to continue to fuel you and continue to help you get better. So that’ll be one thing that I’ll always remember for the rest of my career.”
Quickley finished second to Celtics point guard in the Sixth Man of the Year voting that was announced Thursday. It was more lopsided than expected, with Brogdon nearly doubling Quickley’s first-place votes (60-34).
Part of the PR push for Brogdon was Quickley’s games played as a starter (21), which theoretically diminishes a candidacy for a reserve award. Brogdon made all of his appearances off the bench.
Quickley noted that previous winners— including Lamar Odom (2011), Aaron McKie (2001), Jamal Crawford (2014), Kevin McHale (1985) and Manu Ginoboli (2008) — started more games.
JR Smith (2013) was the last Knick to win Sixth Man of the Year.
“It’s something that I wanted to win, but at the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world,” Quickley said. “Still got a long career, hopefully, God willing, ahead of me.”
In a statistical head-to-head, Quickley played more games than Brogdon (81 to 65) and was even on points per game (14.9) and rebounds (4.2) but averaged fewer assists (3.4 to 3.7). Brogdon benefited from the Celtics winning 10 more games than the Knicks.
Still, the Daily News voted for Quickley because of his defensive advantage and irreplaceable impact on New York’s post-All-Star surge. After being picked 25th overall in 2020, Quickley wasn’t voted on both All-Rookie teams, losing spots to players he’d eventually surpass in potential and production (Kendrick Nunn, Eric Paschall, Terrence Davis and Coby White)
“I worked hard, so anytime you work hard, you want to see your results come, but it’s also important who you become during the process of working hard,” Quickley reasoned. “You might not always get your results, but who you become trying to get the results is also something that you gain.”
After his revelatory regular season, Quickley struggled in the opening two games of the first-round series against the Cavs. He entered Friday’s Game 3 at Madison Square Garden shooting just 31%, which is actually a tad worse than his series in 2021 against the Hawks.
In Game 1 at Cleveland, Quickley looked overwhelmed by the moment while missing all five of his shot attempts and committing three ugly turnovers. He said he was thrown off by Cleveland deviating from its normal defensive shape.
“They play a lot of 2 on 2 with Jarrett Allen. Usually they’re pulling from the low man, but they weren’t doing that at all,” Quickley said. “They were like staying home. So I was thinking the corner was gonna be open, and they weren’t.”
Quickley has never lacked for confidence, which is an important trait for a high–scoring sixth man. But the playoffs had been a test of his efficiency.
“Keep shooting ‘em. You gotta keep shooting ‘em,” he said. “Make or miss you have to have confidence every time you step on the floor. New game every game, and I’m sure that the Garden’s gonna be rocking tonight, but you got to keep shooting with confidence every time.”
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