Why Landry Shamet’s emergence for Knicks is ‘bigger than basketball’

Ahead of Game 5 of their NBA Finals matchup against the San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown praised guard Landry Shamet for a career-long work ethic that’s led him to being one win away from winning a championship. With a 3-1 lead over the Spurs, the Knicks feel destined to win this year’s Finals after their historic 29-point comeback in Game 4. With the risk of San Antonio tying the series, Shamet made no excuses for Game 3’s 115-111 loss.

Brown took a moment to talk about Shamet’s emergence with the Knicks as one of the team’s most reliable players off the bench, he said, per SNY Knicks’ X formerly Twitter.

“That’s the best feeling in the world to see somebody that deserves an opportunity, and maybe gets passed over, passed over, passed over, and now, on one of the biggest stages in the game of his craft, he steps up, he shows the world, no, I can do this,” Brown said. “It makes you feel really, really good to see that because he went and he earned it. You have a lot of role models in life. You have a lot of things that you look up to in life.”

For Brown, Shamet’s path to the Finals is inspirational for anybody that puts forth the work at any job without seeing the reward until years later.

“You can take a guy like Landry Shamet’s story as a young player or, even somebody in the work field on another job, and just understand, you might get passed up for that promotion six straight times, but if you stay with it, stay with it, believe, believe, grind, grind, now when that opportunity is there, and the right situation is there for you, it’s time for you to shine,” Brown said. “And that’s what he’s doing, and that’s what I love more than anything. It’s bigger than basketball, looking at his story. It’s a great life lesson for many others.”

"It's bigger than basketball, looking at his story. It's a great life lesson for many others."

– Mike Brown on Landry Shamet pic.twitter.com/p3PX6mSCOt

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) June 12, 2026

Mike Brown, Landry Shamet, and the Knicks will have a chance to clinch a title on the road in Game 5 against the Spurs on Saturday.

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