Tyler Kolek, One Win From An Nba Title, Has Become ... A Fashion Icon?

Marquette University alumnus Tyler Kolek hasn't gotten into any games for the New York Knicks as they've built a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, but he's fitting into the frame, all the same.

If you ask GQ magazine, "the tunnel fits [Kolek has] been rolling out lately (featuring pieces by Comme des Garçons, Prada, Issey Miyake, Dries van Noten, and Chanel) are helping to distinguish him as one of the season’s rising style stars."

It's new territory for the fan favorite in MU circles. He had a cool on-court moment when the Knicks won the NBA's in-season tournament earlier this year and gave some dating advice in an endearing online format in January. And now he's using the tunnel walk to the locker room as his runway.

Knicks by a billion pic.twitter.com/ZQ7l2vo8cg

— The Knicks Wall (@TheKnicksWall) June 10, 2026

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GQ chatted with Olivier Rogers, the designer and "sometimes-stylist" who has helped Kolek look good, with a long conversation about their partnership, including the advice, "You're in the NBA Finals, and this is your Met Gala moment."

"I think with Tyler, he might not be a superstar yet, but when it comes to a style [that is] timeless, he has the best style on his team, in my opinion, because it’s something that won’t ever be played out," Rogers said. "It’ll always be something that was original and simple. Of course, he’s not the superstar on the team, so when the Knicks are posting the tunnel walk photos on Instagram, he’s sometimes not in the dump. But I told him he doesn’t have to focus on that ever, because people like you, who work for GQ, understand taste versus status. You know what I mean — it’s not about status, because the guy that’s not a famous rapper, who’s an up-and-coming artist, can have better style than the biggest famous rapper in the world."

From "The Cut," a division of New York magazine, "Kolek is also an unlikely contender for the most stylish man in the NBA. He has a floppy finance-guy haircut and is perhaps best known by the casual fan for entering 'barbecue chicken' into the basketball-slang lexicon. And yet the former Marquette star has outdressed just about everyone else in the NBA during his squad’s playoffs run. On Monday afternoon, he was laying out his fit for the night: a vintage 1980s Issey Miyake quilted bomber jacket, faded Prada jeans, and leather Chanel hiking boots (also vintage, size 13).

“'You could look at a picture of the outfit and say, ‘Oh, is that the 1990s, the 2010s, or the 2020s?’ So that’s kind of the vibe,'” [Kolek] says."

Kolek has played in eight postseason games this year, averaging 3.5 points in 6.6 minutes per contest. The Knicks will look to finish off the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the Finals on June 13.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette alum, Knicks guard Tyler Kolek turning heads with fit style