The New York Knicks have made a handful of changes this offseason. They’ve hired a new coach (Mike Brown), and signed Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele to contracts in free agency, the latter of which recently revealed his reason as to why.
In an interview with SKWEEK, Yabusele talked about his decision to join the Knicks after a career-year with the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I think the Knicks was a great decision,” Yabusele said. “I feel like their team, it really matched my DNA I would say. To fight, to play hard, to be kind of like the underdogs to go and fight every night.”
“What I like about the team is also what they did this season,” he added. “It’s a couple of teams that we played against, and I was looking at them like ‘oh my god, this team plays good together.’ They’re a good team, I can tell it’s a good group of guys.”
The 29-year-old Yabusele was drafted with the 16th overall pick in 2016 by the Boston Celtics. He would spend two seasons with the team from 2017-2019, largely as an out of the rotation reserve piece. He would then spend the next five seasons overseas before a standout performance in the 2024 Paris Olympics earned him a spot with the 76ers the following season.
What resulted was a career-year for Yabusele, even after so much time away from the NBA. He appeared in 70 games (43 starts) and averaged 11.0 and 5.6 rebounds per game last season.
Now with the Knicks, Yabusele has been brought in to bolster the team’s bench depth for next season, which was one of the Knicks’ most glaring weaknesses. After finally establishing himself in the NBA, Yabusele is sure to have a positive impact in New York next season.
