" Iman Shumpert was as nervous as he ever gets.

"I don't get nervous," he said late Thursday night from his home in Oak Park, Ill. "For me to be nervous means something big is about to happen."

That something happened when NBA commissioner David Stern strode to the podium of the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., carrying a card with the former Georgia Tech guard's name on it.

"I'll just remember him looking down and not really knowing how to pronounce my name and him finally figuring it out, saying my name," Shumpert said. "I heard my first name and I couldn't hear anything else after that. I just remember everyone jumping up and down and my mother grabbing me. It was a surreal feeling."

Shumpert went to bed, briefly, as the newest New York Knick, chosen by the NBA flagship team with the 17 th pick of Thursday's NBA draft. He had a 4:45 a.m. Friday morning wakeup to catch a 7:30 a.m. flight to New York to meet with his employers.

"It's a dream come true," Shumpert said. "I can't even put it into words.""