It’s been thirteen years since Jordan Clarkson came into the NBA and quickly became a respected player for fans of the game who know ball, particularly for the way he earned his stripes as a rookie playing alongside Kobe Bryant for the Los Angeles Lakers and later, the Utah Jazz. But the forthcoming 2026-27 NBA season will be unlike any years prior for Clarkson despite a decade-plus in the league. This year, he enters the fray as a champion, ready to defend his status and contend for a new trophy with the New York Knicks. Clarkson, the long-heralded journeyman with a pure game known especially for scoring, was just one of a dozen different factors that made the Knicks championship win earlier this summer so enjoyable no matter which team you may personally root for. No narrative in sports is more rewarding to watch than a hard-working, determined, often underrated individual finally getting their due, and Clarkson is one of the NBA’s most straightforward embodiments of that. “It’s more that it was done as a team,” Clarkson says reflecting on the win. “We sacrificed, we put our egos aside. It definitely took a lot of work just being able to be around that coaching staff and figure out what my role was in this team and how I could help.” This current Knicks team is populated by stars of course, but especially under coach Mike Brown’s leadership, the roster represents one of the cleanest examples of star players doing exactly what Clarkson detailed, feeling secure enough to reform the way they play the game to the specific needs of the team for the greater good—and it paid off. For Clarkson, that meant adapting to a role that didn’t always require the offense he’s naturally accustomed to “It’s maybe not shooting the ball as much, playing more off the ball, [playing] team ball, crashing the glass—doing the smaller things,” Clarkson explains. “You always got to evolve,” Clarkson explains. At 34 years old, with the Knicks being his fourth team in his career so far (after the aforementioned Lakers and Jazz, plus a stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers) Jordan Clarkson is a pure distillation of what determination, focus, and off-setting routines with a curious and adaptable mind can yield in sports, culture and life overall. Whereas other players can find themselves lost amidst trades or struggling to establish their role upon joining new systems, Clarkson credits his consistency as the reason he’s able to keep his head above water in any environment. “My work has never changed in terms of my preparation and how I get ready for seasons and what happens during the season,” Clarkson says, citing a stretch with the Knicks where he found himself benched more than he might have preferred, but he stayed fresh for when his number would eventually be called again. “This last year I wasn't playing [as much]—it was a new experience for me where I didn't play for a whole month. And, you know, I just got a group of young guys and started playing one-on-one, five-on-five every other day, having them wake up early with me.” The key, Clarkson reasons, is a willingness to change. “I keep reinventing myself. I know people love to watch me go out and score in the different creative ways that I'm usually doing— but that's not my role on [the Knicks]. Reinventing myself in year thirteen [may] sound kind of crazy, but it's just what the team needs. I've always been the kind of guy to gel and infuse myself with what's going on in the environment.” Clarkson cites his daughter as keeping him eternally driven. “Her being able to see me in this light, on top,” he gushes. “Just showing her dedication and the work and stuff that's put into this to accomplish whatever you want in life.” One reason why Clarkson can call himself a champion today is despite any changes and tribulations, his appreciation for the game—and the meaning and purpose that he derives from it—has never wavered. “It’s just the love to hoop,” Clarkson says matter-of-factly. “It’s been an escape for me for a majority of my life, just being able to create but as well as just be dedicated to being great at what I do. I think I’m more in love with the process than the actual product at the end—the prep, getting in shape, getting your mind right.” Still, despite being in love with the process Clarkson is hardly one to pretend to downplay this year’s win and what it means to him, especially as the first NBA player of Filipino heritage to win the chip, which he says he hopes will inspire anyone who looks like him or hails from his native San Antonio to see what can happen “on a big stage if you put the work and sacrifice in.” Now, having won on the biggest stage, he’s headed into this new season feeling vindicated—and hungry for more. “It's a different situation,” Clarkson acknowledges. “Like, we were chasing that goal [last year]. But for me, and I feel like for a lot of my teammates also… we were on a high after we won. It was a great feeling. The city was happy. Everybody vibing…. like, we want to feel that again. We want to be back up there again on top, being the last one standing. Man, once you feel that one time… winning is an addiction.” NBA fans, New Yorkers especially, will be eagerly tuned in to see Clarkson and the rest of the Knicks chase that high. But for Clarkson specifically, he says to expect this next season to expand on the perspective he’s already been approaching the game with. “I’m going to continue to experience things for what they are,” he says. “A lot of it is just taking those things that I'm open to and growing them with me and continuing to keep learning. Never thinking that I know everything, even though I've experienced a lot, but just keeping that kid mindset of being curious.” One area Clarkson isn’t putting much focus into is his tunnel fits, which despite being widely considered one of the best-dressed players in the league, he waves away as hardly a priority, joking that he’d pull up to the arena “dressed in pajamas” if that’s what he felt like wearing on a given day. Clarkson puts way more consideration into how his game will be looked at ten, twenty or more years down the line when all is said and done. Taking a beat to think about it, he says he hopes he’ll be remembered for being “on my own time. I was on my own wave.” “I created something authentic from the ground up,” Clarkson muses. “[Coming from] where I'm from, I've been overlooked. Been underrated.. I wasn't highly touted. I'm one of the examples of doing the things that people say you can't do. “It sounds cliche,” he says with a laugh, “But that's just all facts.”
