Jose Alvarado believed, and now he’s an NBA champion

Go undrafted and fight your way onto a roster. Develop a reputation as a defensive menace on the court. Spend four and a half seasons in NOLA. Get traded home to New York mid-season. Help your favorite team from childhood win their first championship in more than half a century. Then parade through the streets of the city where you grew up with a few million people screaming at you.

Alvarado sat down with SLAM during his cover shoot for KICKS 29, and the conversation naturally circled back to the improbable route that brought the Brooklyn native here.

Asked to choose one word for the Knicks' championship run, Alvarado answered: "Believe. That's one thing you got to do is believe the way we did it."