Matt Ryan went from graveyard job to living Knicks dream: Extremely special

ATLANTA — Matt Ryan’s first day at the Yonkers cemetery set the tone for his eagerness to leave that gig as quickly as possible. It was snowing in February, freezing cold, and his small vehicle slipped.Ryan crashed into a headstone. “I’m like, ‘It’s not going to be like this every day, right?’” Ryan said Wednesday before his first game as a Knick.

“And also I’m like, ‘I need to get the hell out of there.’” Ryan took the graveyard job in 2021 because his NBA dream was developing too slowly.He went undrafted in 2020 after five NCAA seasons with three schools.

The pandemic canceled the traditional pre-draft workout process, and Ryan was left to five-hour daily workouts while hoping for a phone call. The Westchester product also had an MBA from Vanderbilt and thought about pursuing a career on Wall Street.Instead, he opted for jobs that were easy to leave, specifically DoorDash and cemetery maintenance.Ryan was not, he clarified, digging graves. “I could’ve gone to work in New York City right away.

But I thought if I did that, I might’ve kissed my basketball career goodbye,” Ryan said.“Because down there, in the city, you get a job and you try to build up, I probably couldn’t tell them, ‘Hey, if I get a call I have to leave right away.’ So that’s why I did these jobs where I could just drop it at a moment’s notice.” Ryan got the call from the Cavs.

Then he got a few more over the last three years before the latest from Ryan’s hometown team, the Knicks.The 27-year-old wing was officially signed Wednesday on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal, with a commute of about 20 minutes from the Knicks practice facility in Tarrytown to his former high school in New Rochelle, Iona Prep. “It’s extremely special,” Ryan said.

“But at the end of the day I know playing for [Tom Thibodeau], it’s going to require a tremendous amount of focus every day, blocking out everything else that’s going on.  Sign up for In...