Q&A: Knicks forward Al Harrington discusses his new shoe line and his latest tattoo

Al Harrington (Getty Images)

By Max J. Dickstein

Al Harrington has played so well for the Knicks this season that MSG Network announcer Gus Johnson, watching Harrington pour in points, was recently moved to shout over the airwaves: "My name's Al Harrington! I get buckets!"

On the heels of his popularity as the Knicks leading scorer (21.0 points per game through 40 contests), the star forward Harrington is pushing his Protege line of basketball shoes. Sold exclusively at Kmart for $34.99, the A3H is Harrington's answer to both the Air Jordan and the Starbury. He says it's a high-quality shoe at an affordable price. And, Harrington says, they're the shoes the 260-pounder locks into on game night.

We spoke with him Wednesday at the Bryant Park Hotel.

Tell me how convenient it was that the Warriors' colors are pretty close to the Knicks' colors. So you can use that this season, at least, before you redesign it.

Obviously, I couldn't change the name. My shoe is the A3H (Harrington wore No. 3 with Golden State before the Warriors traded him to the Knicks five games into the season). Our next ones, we're going to change it to the "Lucky Mes." I'm No. 7 now, lucky No. 7. Lucky me, yeah. But that was very convenient. We got lucky with that, for real.

It's got a lot of straps.

Yeah well, obviously, my shoe has a lot of straps. That's pretty much to lock your foot into the shoe. Me being 260 playing out there, I need as much support as I can get.

You've got a lot of tattoos. What's your latest?

My latest tattoo ... was my ring finger. I got married, so I got the "MH," my wife's initials, on my hand. So that's my last tattoo.

When was that?

Oct. 6.

Congratulations

Thanks, man.You're having the best scoring season in the 40 games you've played as a Knick. What's the secret to scoring the ball?

Man, just being confident. You got to be confident in yourself every time you step on the floor. I think that's why I get so upset every time I shoot, because every time I shoot I expect to make it. And then you have to prepare also. You have to realize how certain teams are going to play you. Some teams are going to double you, some teams are going to force you into certain areas where they feel you're going to be uncomfortable. So you have to go into a game sometimes with a game plan.

At the same time, it seems like Mike D'Antoni just says, "Whatever happens, keep shooting, keep going."

Yeah, when you get open shots, he wants you to take the open shot every single time. With this offense, it seems like we're just running around crazy, but it's not. We have more structure to it than that. The biggest thing is that we just try to move the ball and let it find the open man. And then, when the open man gets it, just shoot the ball. When we play that way we're usually very successful. You know, we score like 110, 115 points a night.

You've had a number of stops along your career coming out of high school, but you're playing with a lot of joy it seems right now. Can you tell me about that?

Yeah, I mean I'm happy on all fronts. It seems like my life is really coming together at the right time. I'm married, I have my beautiful line out. As far as on the court, I finally got a coach that's allowing me to play my game, you know, let me be who I am. What more can you ask for? You know what I'm saying? The only thing I'm waiting on is some kids. [Laughs.]

Do you have a kid on the way?

No, not yet. I'm working on it.

CORRECTION: This post initially identified the MSG announcer in the first paragraph as Mike Crispino, which was incorrect.

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