Steve Popper: Knicks' Jose Alvarado has become hometown hero
The Knicks' Jose Alvarado picks up the loose ball at Madison Square Garden in on March 17, 2026 Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Jose Alvarado is the first one to tell you that he didn’t dream of any of this, an NBA career, a chance to play in New York just a subway ride from where he grew up. So if in driveways and on playgrounds thousands of kids imagine this, voicing the introduction or mimicking Mike Breen calling a shot, Alvarado didn’t think about that.
And that’s what made it so special Tuesday when Alvarado was placed in the starting lineup at Madison Square Garden and the pregame introductions were voiced.
“From Christ the King High School in Queens, number five, Jose Alvarado.”
He pounded his chest and pointed to the crowd where his parents sat.
“It’s really emotional,” Alvarado said. “If you watched the video of me when they said the starting five and they said me, I pointed to my parents. It’s just something I know where they sit at, I’m always going to look for them and it’s just cool to have them at the game all the time now. New Orleans was pretty tough because they lived out here. So now they can come to every game they want.”
It was a one-time event, Jalen Brunson sitting out that night and Alvarado slipped into the starting lineup. But what wasn’t unique was the reception, the same as he has gotten every time he’s entered or exited a game since arriving in New York at the trade deadline. It feels like a homecoming for Alvarado and the fans, and he got another chance Friday when he traveled to Brooklyn for the first time as a Knick.
“It’s cool. It’s just cool all the time to play with a Knicks jersey on,” he said. “But obviously playing at Brooklyn, playing against Brooklyn pretty special. Being a kid from down the street, I was raised probably 10 minutes down the street from Barclays Center . . . “It got expensive. My grandma still lives there, my dad’s mom. She lives in the projects right there down the street from Fort Greene. She still lives there. So me and my dad, we go visit. We could walk there. I just remember it being a train station. Obviously, it got developed to a nice city area.”
He didn’t picture an arena rising in Brooklyn and didn’t think he’d be playing in it.
“I didn’t really think of it like that," he said. "I didn’t think none of this. I didn’t think I was going to be playing for the Knicks.”
The undrafted point guard has provided something the team needed, even if shooting comes and goes, delivering the sort of toughness and energy that seemed missing from the team this season. He had 16 points, 10 assists and two steals Tuesday in the one-sided win over the Pacers.
But it’s the fire that has helped spur the team. When Brunson was sidelined Tuesday, he found himself near Alvarado when Alvarado was removed from the game — and heard it loudly.
“It helps the team no matter what,” Brunson said. “You kind of wish he was on the court, because he’s a little bit quieter than on the bench. He does so much for this team on and off the court. It’s constant energy. Kind of regardless of how he’s playing, he always has the energy. That’s a skill, that’s a skill that makes someone last in the league a long time. It’s great to have him.”
“I didn’t think that [while] growing up,” Alvarado said when asked about that energy being a skill. “But as I got closer, into college and going into my NBA career, . . . it keeps me in the NBA. That’s one of the reasons I got to the NBA and it separates me from being just in the NBA if that makes sense. I just figured out that’s what God blessed me with and I’ve just got to do it at a high level.”
Alvarado has only been with the Knicks for little more than a month, but he has fit in easily. He has been embraced by Josh Hart, who was a veteran with the New Orleans Pelicans when Alvarado arrived as a rookie. He was already a guest on Brunson and Hart’s podcast, The Roommates Show, with the two veterans spending most of the time teasing him.
“They headaches,” he said, smiling. “They’re good people. They’re great guys. We’ve just got a relationship, they think they can say whatever. But it’s all love and fun. Those guys are great.”
And he has already seen the perks of the return home — being a part of a national television commercial for AT&T with Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, John Starks and Patrick Ewing.
“I mean, that’s what New York does for you, get you in commercials,” he said. “My agent called me and they said we’ve got a special thing, do you want to be in a commercial. I said yeah, I didn’t know who was going to be in the commercial at first. But the commercial came out pretty dope. [It’s my] first commercial for sure. Hopefully it’s not the last.”
Crowded bench
While Alvarado has averaged 17 minutes per game (entering Friday) since joining the Knicks, there could be a crunch come playoff time if Miles McBride is ready to play. McBride has been taking contact and traveling with the team, but has yet to participate in practice as he recovers from hernia surgery that he underwent on Feb. 6. The six-to-eight week timeline would have him back for the postseason if all continues without any obstacles.
Assuming the Knicks are at full strength, the sure players on the bench figure to be Mitchell Robinson and Landry Shamet. If McBride is back at full strength, he would likely slot in. And then Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson and Mo Diawara will likely be battling for playing time. It would be situational and with Mike Brown playing the hot hand. Diawara has lost time to Clarkson down the stretch with the team in need of the veteran scoring punch and Diawara’s potential countered by the expected rookie learning curve (and maybe rookie wall).
Mikal Bridges has been struggling through a shooting slump, but did play well in the postseason last year. He has seen Shamet take some of his closing minutes of late. Brown could also play Alvarado and McBride together, providing 94-foot defensive pressure on opposing backcourts.
“Whatever the situation is, when we’re on the court together we’re going to be really good,” Alvarado said. “I’ve seen Deuce play a whole bunch of times. I know how good he is. And to be quite frank, he needed somebody to get it rolling. He’s obviously a really good shooter. So me going downhill is going to make it a little bit more easier for him. It’s all going to work out. I think this team has got a whole lot of power. Once we start clicking I think we will be fine.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
