From my embrace of basketball, I’ve learned the term “clutch.” In basketball, “clutch” means performing well in the times of highest pressure, usually at the end of a close game.

Players are judged about whether they are good during clutch time—which means the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, or in overtime when the score is within five points.  Clutch players are those who perform well when the pressure is on and the game is on the line.

I love this term and have started throwing it around constantly.

But it seemed to me that we should also have a similar vocabulary, and focus, to shine a spotlight on the players and teams who start well—who bring the hustle right at the beginning.

While the Knicks are known for being good at the clutch, and of course they just won the 2026 NBA Championship, during the playoffs, they didn’t start their strong and in all four of their winning playoff games, they had to overcome double-digit deficits.

“For some reason, I feel like the game for us starts 30 minutes later than it’s supposed to,” Brunson said after the title win. “We didn’t show up at 8:30. We showed up at 9:00.”

So I wondered, does a basketball term exist for that? For the ability to start strong? Well, yes it does—a “fast starter,” that is, a team or player who begins game wells. And there’s also the concept of a “first-quarter team,” meaning a team that consistently plays well early.

These terms are a good example of the principle that by having a term for something, we make it clearer, and that allows us to encourage and reward it more easily—or give us the opportunity to criticize.

Clearer language leads to clearer action.

And learning about these terms also illustrated another point. There’s a huge amount of spotlight on the final minutes of a game. The pressure is immense as the minutes count down. Every move on the court feels incredibly important. But the fact is, a point is a point, and points made early in the game matter just as much as points made later in the game.

Many players and teams work hard to get better during clutch time, because it’s so hard to perform under pressure—but not everyone’s problem is the same. Many teams may struggle in the clutch, but it seems that the Knicks struggle at the start.

And clearly Jalen Brunson has his eye on that issue.

It’s a Secret of Adulthood: Never assume that your problem is the same as everyone else’s problem. You may have a very different challenge from most people. I have no trouble sticking to a schedule, which is a problem many people have, but I’m also rigid. That’s my challenge.