Jordan Clarkson was attending a Carlos Alcaraz match at Wimbledon when his agent, Rich Paul, called with an important question.
“Where you wanna go?” Paul asked.
“I said, ‘I wanna come to New York,’” Clarkson recalled Saturday night.
Paul then reached out to the Knicks to relay Clarkson’s interest.
“It all happened in two minutes,” Clarkson said. “Then I was a Knick.”
Clarkson, 33, revealed this exchange Saturday night during a live taping of “The Roommates” podcast hosted by his new teammates, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.
The interview, which took place in front of hundreds of rain-soaked Knicks fans at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, represented Clarkson’s first public comments since joining the Knicks in July on a minimum contract.
So why did he pick New York after negotiating a buyout from the Jazz?
“The arena [MSG], honestly,” Clarkson said. “Feeling the energy from the fans. Knowing they’re going to let you have it if you’re playing like s–t. But when you’re playing great, it’s all love. At the end of the day, I just want to feel the energy. Get to play with y’all [Brunson and Hart].
After the Central Park crowd chanted Clarkson’s name, Hart poked fun at the lack of diversity in Salt Lake City.
“The Garden’s going to be great vibes,” Hart said. “It’s going to be different from Utah. … We got more flavor to our crowd brother, don’t worry about it.”
Later in the interview, Brunson said he discussed teaming up with Clarkson well before it happened.
“I’m not going to say when,” the Knicks captain said, “but me and Jordan talked about this a while ago.”
With 11 years logged in the NBA, Clarkson is now the oldest and most experienced player in the Knicks rotation.
He’s expected to come off the bench as a microwave scorer, a role that earned him Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2021 with the Jazz.
This version of Clarkson is a little slower and somewhat unknown after he played only 36 games last season for the tanking Jazz.
But he seems content with falling in line.
“Y’all been doing great things over here,” Clarkson said of the Knicks, who have NBA Finals aspirations after advancing last season to the conference finals. “I just want to come in here and enhance what y’all got going on.”
Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele were the Knicks’ top free agent signings, but their biggest offseason moves — firing Tom Thibodeau and hiring MIke Brown — weren’t mentioned during Saturday’s two-hour live show.
The guests were Clarkson, Jamal Crawford, Eli Manning and Ben Stiller.
Hart touched on the Kawhi Leonard scandal by teasing Brunson, whose team-friendly extension was referenced by reporter Pablo Torre as a potential target of his next investigation.
Torre uncovered evidence and documents suggesting Leonard and his team, the Clippers, circumvented the salary cap by helping him land a $28 million no-show endorsement deal.
“We’re looking into you next, alright?” Hart joked to Brunson. “We’re looking into you, brother. Me and Pablo.”
Crawford, the second guest after Manning on Saturday’s live show, revealed he won’t return to MSG Networks next season to broadcast Knicks games after joining NBC as an analyst.
Crawford served as a substitute for Clyde Frazier on MSG for seven games last season.
Frazier, 80, is planning to return but has cut back his schedule in recent years.
NBC, which is back as a television partner with the NBA, has also hired Carmelo Anthony, Reggie Miller, Grant Hill, Vince Carter and, most noteworthy, Michael Jordan as a “special contributor.”
