As P&T goes through this player-by-player tribute to the team that ended the 53-year-long title drought, we’re slowly going to be building up to the people who had the big moments and legacy-defining playoff runs. The first few players were mostly spectators throughout the playoff run, but little by little, more and more contributions will be unearthed.
We’ve now reached the point in the series where we’re paying tribute to a player whose on-court performance will absolutely be featured in the championship DVD (or documentary, I guess. DVDs haven’t been a thing in a while). He might not have played in the Finals and was relegated to garbage time in the playoff run, but the Knicks might not have gotten to this point without his contributions in the regular season.
Tyler Kolek was born on March 27, 2001, in Providence, Rhode Island. His dad is a police officer who once played Division III hoops; his older brother played in Division II from 2018-23. Hell, he wasn’t even the first Tyler Kolek to emerge in the sports world, as an unrelated high schooler from Texas was picked No. 2 overall by the Miami Marlins back in 2014.
But that Tyler Kolek is only known as a total bust, never making it to Double-A before fizzling out in 2019, which is when our Tyler Kolek was finishing up his high school career. As an unranked recruit out of St. George’s School in Newport, Kolek enrolled at George Mason University in 2020 and did well as a freshman, winning Atlantic 10 Freshman of the Year before entering the transfer portal and joining Shaka Smart at Marquette.
That decision would be a tremendous one, not just for Marquette, but for Kolek’s career.
He blossomed out in Wisconsin. His sophomore season was pretty rough, as even though he led the Big East in assists, he was possibly the least effective scorer in the conference. The Golden Eagles, like Kolek, needed another year to break out, and that’s exactly what he did in 2022-23.
In the blink of an eye, Kolek became the top dog on one of the best teams in the nation, winning the 2023 Big East Player of the Year after averaging 13 points and 7.5 assists. It didn’t translate to March Madness success, but he had put himself and the program on the map. He did it again as a senior, leading the nation in assists and being named a Consensus Second-Team All-American as he led the Golden Eagles to their first Sweet Sixteen berth since 2013.
It wasn’t just his play on the court that made him a name for himself; it was his personality. Despite being a skinny, undersized white kid from Rhode Island, he was one of the most divisive players in college basketball. You loved him or you hated him. As someone who’s supported Villanova for a good bit, I was in the latter.
There were the BBQ chicken comments, there were the illiteracy jokes, all of them gave him the buzz that any player needs heading into a difficult draft evaluation where NBA teams have been known to overlook college production for traits (ahem, Jalen Brunson).
He absolutely could’ve gone first round, but of course he didn’t. It doesn’t matter how good you are, how much you win, or how ready you look. If you’re a small guard, you’re being underdrafted. So as he slipped into the second round, the Knicks saw an opportunity to add another Big East guard to the collection, trading three future seconds (don’t worry, they acquired five of them about 30 minutes earlier) to select him at No. 34 overall.
Of course, there wasn’t much of a role for him in Year 1. With Tom Thibodeau as coach and the team’s guard depth being fortified with the signing of Cam Payne, Kolek was reduced to garbage time and G-League reps as a rookie, similar to what we saw from Deuce McBride in 2021-22. Like McBride, he dominated down in Westchester, taking advantage of extra reps in any way he could.
It seemed like more of the same heading into Year 2, even with a coaching change, but the retirement of Malcolm Brogdon in the preseason left a void at backup point guard. At least initially, Mike Brown was willing to let the 24-year-old cook.
A 3-5 start with some shaky bench minutes led to Kolek being benched in early November, but he quickly re-emerged after injuries to Landry Shamet, and McBride threw a wrench into the bench. He’d put his extremely mature playmaking skills on display often, even when his defense and shooting inconsistencies threatened to play him off the floor.
There was no better month of his young career than December 2025. Kolek scored 14 and 5 in 20 minutes off the bench in the NBA Cup Final against the Spurs, earning a shoutout from Brunson postgame. Two nights later, in Indiana, with a very shorthanded squad, he put up 16 and 11 to lead an incredible second-half comeback before Brunson put it to bed.
His magnum opus, though, came on the biggest stage. Christmas Day at Madison Square Garden. An 18-point fourth quarter deficit. Cue Kolek-sanity.
The best 10 days of his life instantly skyrocketed his popularity and status. He was now entrenched as a fan favorite in New York, regardless of his role for the remainder of the season. That role would shrink as the team got healthier and Jose Alvarado came in from New Orleans, but we’d see him every so often as the Garden would come ablaze. Remember when he had a 50-point day on March 22?
He didn’t play a single meaningful minute in the playoffs, but was one of the biggest benefactors of the countless garbage time. He had an electric fourth quarter in the Game 1 blowout against Philly and nailed a couple threes in Game 4 against Cleveland, prompting Timothee Chalamet to yell out to him courtside.
Kolek has become much more than his on-court basketball contributions. He’s been the ultimate vibes guy who everyone involved loves. In a family that’s had two college hoopers, he’s risen to the top of that. He’s even become the most famous Tyler Kolek!
Congrats, Tyler. You’re a champion.
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(P&T will be doing player-by-player article tributes over the next few weeks to commemorate the special team that ended our long, half-century nightmare)
