The Knicks just won a title on a night they couldn't shoot. Here's the lesson for agents

A championship built on missed shots and second chances is the clearest reminder of what actually wins in real estate.

On Saturday night in San Antonio, the New York Knicks won the NBA championship for the first time since 1973. Fifty-three years. They closed the series four games to one with a 94-90 win. And here is the part worth your attention, whether or not you follow basketball: They did not win pretty.

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I don’t follow the game closely, and plenty of agents reading this don’t either. Stay with me, because the way the Knicks won is one of the cleanest lessons in persistence and teamwork I have seen, and every piece of it maps onto your business.

Start with the ugly truth of that final game. As a team, the Knicks missed nearly two of every three shots they took. They made about a third. They fell behind by 10 in the first quarter and trailed into the final stretch. If you turned the television on at halftime, you would have sworn you were watching a team about to lose.

Then they won anyway.

Sit with that, because it is the truest thing about building a real estate business. You will have weeks, months, entire quarters when the shot is not falling. The listing goes cold. The buyer ghosts. The deal dies in attorney review.

And the same voice that doubted the Knicks at halftime starts talking to you: This isn’t working, you’re not good enough, sit down. The champions heard it, too, and they hoisted the trophy regardless.

Here is how they did it, because each player who pulled it off is a different agent in your office, and a different version of you on different days.

The 45 points everyone will remember

The name in every headline is Jalen Brunson. On a night when almost no one could score, the Knicks’ leader put up 45 points himself, nearly double a strong night for a star and close to half his team’s total.

There will be days when that is you: The agent on fire, closing everything you touch while the office slumps. When it is, be Brunson. Take the shots. Carry the load.

But Brunson’s 45 are not why the Knicks won.

The work that doesn’t make the highlight reel

A quick basketball primer, because it is the whole point. Every time a player misses, the loose ball is up for grabs, which is called a rebound. Whoever grabs the rebound gets their team another chance to score. A miss is not the end of the play.

Two Knicks made that their entire job. Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson refused to let a single miss end a possession. Robinson scored just two points all night but grabbed 10 rebounds, six off his own team’s misses. Hart added 13 points and 11 rebounds.

New York out-rebounded San Antonio 66 to 59, and those extra chances are the real reason they won. Not the scoring. The relentless, unglamorous work of chasing every miss.

You live this. The missed shot is your unreturned call. The loose ball is the follow-up nobody else in your market makes. The second chance is the third call, the handwritten note, the door you knock after everyone else has gone home.

None of it gets celebrated at the awards banquet, and all of it turns a bad week into a closed deal. Prospecting is rebounding. Follow-up is rebounding.

The star who couldn’t buy a basket

Here is the moment I love most, and it has nothing to do with playing well. Karl-Anthony Towns, one of the Knicks’ biggest stars, made one shot out of seven and finished with two points on the most important night of his career. On paper, forgettable.

But Towns did not sulk or check out. He grabbed 10 rebounds and added three steals, doing the dirty work while his scoring was gone. He could not contribute the way he wanted, so he contributed the way he could. And his team won the title.

That is your slow stretch. When the listings stop coming, you do not quit, and you do not disappear. You find the work still available: more calls, more follow-up, more open houses. The contribution you make on an off day is still a contribution, and it still helps win the year.

The defense nobody cheers for

One more name: OG Anunoby. He scored 11, but his real work was defense, with eight rebounds and three steals, taking the ball away before San Antonio could even shoot.

Titles go to teams that protect what they have as fiercely as they chase what they want. In your business, that is staying on top of a transaction so it survives inspection, and the check-in that turns a past client into a referral. Nobody throws a party for the deal that did not collapse, but protecting your business is as valuable as growing it.

Down early, won late

The Knicks trailed for most of the night and did not panic. Being down early is January, the slow start when the numbers are not there, and the doubt creeps in. Winners do not fold when they are behind, because the first-quarter score is not the one that matters.

Then, in the final quarter, New York outscored San Antonio 29 to 18 and took the title. They won at the end, when it counted. That is the close. It is the fourth quarter of your year, when the goal actually gets decided.

How you start does not determine the outcome. How you finish does.

Say it out loud

Carry this into your week. Say it out loud, because the words we say out loud are the words we start to believe.

• “I don’t have to play perfectly. I just have to play to the final buzzer.”
• “My misses don’t define me. My next shot does.”
• “When my shot won’t fall, I go get the second chance.”

The Knicks waited 53 years and won it all on a night they could barely make a basket, because one player carried them, two chased down every miss, a struggling star still did the dirty work, and nobody panicked when they were behind. Every one of those players is you, some days, in your business.

The big closing is the part everyone remembers. The follow-up nobody sees is the part that actually wins. Off night, on the boards. Slow month, on the phones.

Now go get your second chance.