Jay Wright, who coached the Villanova Wildcats to two national championships, and whose star players just won the NBA title as New York Knicks, likes to say there are two kinds of people: those who are humble and those who are about to be. Everyone gets humbled by adversity, in sport or in life.
This is why we emphasize the particular kind of practice we believe has made it possible for the Nova Knicks to win the hearts of millions of fans far beyond New York. That practice treats basketball like a craft, where deep skill, constant learning, and daring inventiveness come together to create surprising breaktrhoughs.
The Nova York ‘Practice’ series highlights the combination of old-style preparation, selfless teamwork, never-say-die competitive persistence, and the cooperative problem solving that is needed to overcome adversity as it unfolds around you. We don’t speak for the players or the team, but we speak for the fans who are watching them bring excellence to under-appreciated values:
- Prepare for everything.
- Master the basics.
- Solve problems.
- Practice inventiveness.
- Work as a team.
- Persist to prevail.
The foundation is practice; the mantra is ‘Persist’.
One of the fascinating aspects of the 2026 Knicks is this common sense insight turned into championship glory: Keep doing everything possible to stay where you need to be to prevail at the final buzzer. You might run up a lead, or you might squeak by, but keep doing all those little things.
This is how you persist to prevail.
Team Captain Jalen Brunson was recently asked if the record-breaking 29-point comeback victory ever seemed impossible. He responded with a succinct lesson on teamwork and leadership:
You are allowed to think about the worst-case scenario, but you have to do something about it.
This ethic of deep practice and constant learning resonates with the Salted NJ ethic, because inventiveness is not about divine inception—creating out of the blue; it is about leveraging what you have at hand to bring into being something unexpected. Creativity reaches beyond expectations, and to do that, you need the background of practice, attention to detail, and openness to seeing things differently.
The Knicks do this as a team, which is what makes it so attention-grabbing. This is also why they were able to achieve the greatest total point differential in NBA playoff history. No matter how much elite defenders prepare to stop specific players or specific plays, the Knicks work around those defenders and invent new options.
We live in a time of turmoil, in part because we are facing—around the world—systemic challenges that require honestly new thinking that is more ambitious than institutions and cultures tend to allow. Creative collaborative problem-solving is what we need in our economic and industrial systems, what we need in our communities.
If it can be done in the heat of competition, it should be able to be done with careful planning and structured process.
Today, the city of New York, along with people around the region, will celebrate the 2026 Knicks, their style of play, their character and culture, and their historic championship. There is also a hope that this moment translates into something bigger than basketball—a new sense of common purpose and belief in the value of solving big challenges together.
Salted Designs 