In the time between his addiction and Tyler Kolek, Nick Correia’s relationship with basketball was “weird.” He didn’t trust himself.

The sport felt like a trigger for the drugs that once crippled Correia’s life.

But then Correia started coaching Kolek, and the point guard’s rise from outsider to NCAA star helped push the dark times even further out of focus.

“Tyler was a zero-star recruit,” Correia told the Post. “He wasn’t ranked that way. He didn’t have all those high-profile scholarship offers. He had to work for everything. And you can’t help it when you watch a guy that’s that competitive — that’s the game to me, guys that play hard, that play unselfishly.”

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why I love this game.’ Tyler was the first time I didn’t want to miss a game. I sat there, transfixed, watching with emotion and passion.”

The partnership between Kolek and Correia was beneficial for both sides.

Since he was 17, Kolek has been getting advice from Correia on his strength and conditioning, including this summer as the point guard prepared for his rookie season with the Knicks.

Correia, a Massachusetts product with a passion for Larry Bird and an accent from “The Departed,” last coached the 23-year-old Kolek this week, about a month before the Knicks begin training camp in Charleston, S.C.

Correia compared these sessions to a car inspection.

Her training was more intense during the pandemic, as Kolek was at home in Rhode Island for extended periods of time and completed 20 deadlifts of 350 pounds.

“(Kolek) is home right now for a week. We’re changing his spark plugs, putting new tires on him and making sure he’s as loose and comfortable as possible when he comes to camp,” Correia said. “Two weeks ago, when he was at my house after Summer League, we spent five days trying to get him stronger and put on some muscle. Because I know the demands of the NBA and it’s tough on you. … But we can’t sacrifice speed, agility or mobility for strength. Because if we make him insanely strong and he loses a step, we’re in trouble. So I mixed it up.”

Correia was a Division III basketball coach at UMass Dartmouth before becoming a coach.

He also suffered from drug addiction, and a victory celebration beer with the staff could turn into a drinking binge.

Alcohol became cocaine and opioids.

A 2017 profile of Correia in the Standard-Times also detailed his heroin use and arrests.

“It kind of took me away from my love for the game,” Correia said. “The problem is that after a beer, I preferred to stay outside. I used it as an opportunity to buy my drugs.”

Correia got clean over a decade ago with the help of Chris Herren, a former NBA player who overcame his own drug addiction and now runs a rehabilitation center in Massachusetts.

The following years brought Correia success in both abstinence and strength training.

He teamed up with Kolek, and during their six summers together, the intelligent point guard was named Rhode Island High School Player of the Year, Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year with George Mason and Big East Player of the Year with Marquette.

Through his time at Marquette, Kolek became a college star and the 34th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft, selected by the Knicks.

“When he started playing at Marquette, I told him, ‘You helped me fall in love with the game again, Tyler,'” Correia said.

But now comes the hardest part.

As an older rookie with the largest contract for a second-round pick in NBA history, Kolek, who showed off his passing skills in Summer League last month, could claim a spot in a Knicks team’s rotation if reaching the conference finals is the benchmark.

There is a potential need for a backup point guard, as newly signed Cam Payne is also vying for that spot and Miles McBride is better suited as a two-guard.

A good sign for Kolek’s chances of earning a spot in the rotation is that, according to a source, head coach Tom Thibodeau was an advocate of signing the Marquette player. And Kolek has an ardent supporter in the weight room – a coach who knows how to overcome adversity.

“I’ve never seen this kid out of rotation, and I’ve never seen him not make the people around him better,” Correia said. “And with the firepower the Knicks have and the way they’ve collapsed in the playoffs because of the injuries, they obviously needed more depth. And I think he’ll provide that depth.”

“And Tyler can play with anybody. He can play with (Donte) DiVincenzo. He can play with (Jalen) Brunson. He can do so many different things that I just see him as an X-factor that people don’t recognize. And in key game situations, he’s at his best. This kid is going to play with energy like John Starks did in the ’90s. Spike Lee is going to have a Tyler Kolek jersey in the rotation.”