Binghamton University welcomed New York Knicks player and NBA champion Miles “Deuce” McBride on Tuesday for a Q&A session moderated by the Student Association Programming Board.

McBride, also known by the nickname “Deuce,” is a point guard and shooting guard for the New York Knicks, who recently won the NBA Finals. Growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, McBride played at Archbishop Moeller High School, where he led the school’s team to the Ohio Division I State Championship with a 29-0 record. McBride graduated from Moeller in 2019, committing to West Virginia University on a Division I basketball scholarship while averaging 12.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. McBride was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 36th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft before being traded to the New York Knicks on draft night.

“I always felt as soon as [a] basketball touched my hands, I was gonna somehow make it to the NBA,” McBride said. “And I feel like you have to be not delusional in a sense, but you have to have this different self-belief to achieve great things. And I always had this positive mindset that I could do it if I just put the work in. So honestly, from the day I started playing basketball, I had a belief that I could make it to the NBA.”

The event was moderated by Halina de Jong-Lambert, a senior majoring in economics and the vice president of programming for the Student Association, and Elise Glahe, a graduate student pursuing a master’s in public administration and SAPB insights chair. The event began with a moderated Q&A session, where Jong-Lambert and Glahe asked McBride interview-style questions.

De Jong-Lambert and Glahe began by asking McBride how his childhood in a competitive athletic environment shaped him as a basketball player.

“You know, I definitely like to get my shot off,” McBride said. “But I feel like I play team ball. I play winning basketball. And, you know, when you’re in a household with a lot of people that have done great things, they make your accomplishments look a little less, so you have to learn how to, you know, stand out a little bit. And I feel like I’m standing out a little bit now.”

McBride spoke about his championship run with the Knicks, teammate relationships, his upbringing and his personal philosophies toward basketball, as well as life in general.

De Jong-Lambert and Glahe also asked McBride about his favorite moment of the playoff run.

“Personal favorite? I mean, when that buzzer sounded, that was probably my favorite,” he said. “But I mean, to go on a roll like that with, you know, the guys, we’ve been together for the past three, four years, and we’ve been close making it to the [Eastern Conference Finals] last year. But to go on a roll like that, man, it was unbelievable, and you know, to celebrate in New York, definitely nothing like it.”

Following the moderated Q&A session, the moderators introduced a “rapid-fire NYC Hot Takes” segment where McBride was asked about his opinions on several aspects of New York City. McBride said that his favorite neighborhood is Chelsea, Manhattan, while the audience discovered that he is also not a fan of bagels and has never taken the subway.

After the NYC Hot Takes segment, the moderators went into “Fit Checks”, where they presented a series of outfit photos from throughout McBride’s career and earlier life, and he was asked to walk the audience through his inspiration and where he got the pieces from.

The moderators then called on certain members of the audience who had submitted questions prior to the event to a Google Form to stand up and ask McBride their own personal questions. Questions included what the toughest defensive seam was for the Knicks in their recent championship run, how McBride is able to perform at the highest level and what teammate McBride would not choose to go on a supply run with if he was stuck in a zombie apocalypse.

At the very end of the event, McBride read out loud five names from a sheet of paper and the named students won a basketball signed by McBride himself.

McBride also spoke about his relationship with his daughter and what lessons he hopes to teach her.

“Doing the right thing when nobody’s watching, I think it’s something I really try to live by,” McBride said. “Even if I didn’t play in the NBA and people didn’t know me walking down the street, I would still want people to be able to say, you know, he held the door for this person. He saw a piece of trash, he picked it up. You know, the little things like that in life, I feel like, are way more important than putting a ball through a hoop.”