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Tyler Kolek unexpectedly played a rare day-night doubleheader to begin 2025.
After the rookie guard logged 40 minutes in the afternoon in a G-League game for the Westchester Knicks, he was pressed into the rotation for the NBA squad due to injuries to Jalen Brunson and Miles McBride.
Kolek also played 12 minutes off the bench in the Knicks’ 119-103 win over the Jazz, finishing with two points and four assists.
“It’s fun, man, I love playing basketball. Any chance I get, I’m gonna take the opportunity and do it,” Kolek said afterward. “It was good. I had a few hours in-between. … Just tried to do what I could to recover and just be ready to go. it’s more mental than anything.
“Obviously two guys go out with injuries, so you kind of gotta step in and be ready for anything no matter the circumstances.”
Kolek said he learned that Brunson was likely to miss the game with calf tightness earlier in the day, but he might not have been used by Tom Thibodeau if McBride had been available.
“Great. He’s a gym rat,” Thibodeau said. “So get in there, make plays. He gave us a good lift. … He’s young. He’s getting better and better. It says a lot about him.”
Derrick Rose played for Thibodeau on three different teams, including an impactful stint with the Knicks from 2021-23.
The 36-year-old Rose will have his number retired on Saturday before the Knicks play in Chicago, where he was a three-time All-Star and the youngest MVP in league history under Thibodeau’s tutelage with the Bulls.
“His numbers say what he did was incredible. He’s had an unbelievable career,” Thibodeau said. “And he handled everything that came his way — whether he was a 22-year-old MVP or going through injuries or coming back at the end of his career and coming off the bench.
“Whatever role — he excelled in his role. And he was the ultimate teammate, and obviously a great player.”
Despite Rose’s career being slowed by multiple major injuries, Thibodeau believes “there’s no question” that the former point guard deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame.
Thibodeau said Mitchell Robinson, who hasn’t played this season following ankle surgery, still hasn’t been cleared to run at full speed and is “still in the same place but doing well.”
He noted that the Knicks are “anticipating that sometime this month he’ll be cleared to practice.”
