The start of Aaron Glenn’s answer said it all.
“It’s hard not to notice,” he said, when asked about the Knicks and the historical run to the NBA Finals that has taken over New York City. Glenn, wearing a “GRIT” shirt, called them a “gritty, gritty team.” He raved about the leadership of superstar Jalen Brunson.
When asked if there’s anything his Jets — coming off a 3-14 season in 2025 and trying to snap a 15-year playoff drought that’s the longest in North American sports — can take from the Knicks, Glenn dished out plenty of praise.
“It’s hard to be a gritty team without gritty players,” Glenn said Thursday before the Jets’ OTAs session. “And it all starts with the point guard. I mean, you could tell that the leadership, the fight, everybody follows that. And it’s easy to follow that. … I continue to say this, that leadership really comes down to one word and that’s influence. And you really see the influence that he has.”
The Knicks, like the Jets, went through plenty of low points and rock bottoms before the arrival of Leon Rose in 2020, the hiring of Tom Thibodeau months later, the arrival of Brunson and the return to the playoffs in 2021. Before their drought began, the Jets went to consecutive AFC Championship games and were on the brink of making the 2011 Super Bowl.
But so much losing has happened since then. If anything, the Knicks — currently awaiting their Finals opponent after sweeping the Cavaliers to bring their postseason winning streak to 11 games — have provided a glimpse of the attention that could follow if Glenn and the Jets find a way to create some magic of their own.
“Man, pulling for those guys,” Glenn said. “I really am, because they play their ass off and it’s fun to watch and it’s good to see.”
