Malik Nabers not shying away from role as Giants’ needed star: ‘How I’m made’

A star is being born.

On the Giants’ practice-field grass after training camp Day 2, I asked Malik Nabers if he expects to be great.

“Yes sir,” he said.

Immediately?

“Yes sir.”

This isn’t braggadocio as much as it is a young man oozing with the athletic arrogance that tells him he has greatness in him.

“It’s just the way my mind thinks, you know,” Nabers told The Post. “I was brought here for a reason. I was brought here to make plays, to be a difference-maker. That’s all I know. I came up just like that. I want to be a player that makes plays soon as I get out there. That’s how I’m made.”

Nabers was brought here to help, possibly save, Daniel Jones .

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“I just think continue to be the player that I have been many years as I’ve been playing football, to be a difference-maker, get yards after the catch and just be that person that my QB can count on,” Nabers, who wears jersey No. 9, said.

He was brought here to help coach/play-caller Brian Daboll jolt a lethargic offense out of the Dark Ages.

Nabers made a touchdown catch in Thursday’s practice in the left corner of the end zone against his buddy Deonte Banks on a Drew Lock pass — a catch that reminded everyone why Nabers was the sixth-overall pick .

“It was like a back-shoulder, just a little late grab,” he said. “He was waiting on me to see where my hands are going, but I slowed down so [Banks didn’t] really know where the ball was going, so he was like, ‘Great catch, 9.’ ”

On a TD catch from Jones on a calf-breaking slant, Nabers got giddy but not Griddy.

“We’re just trying to bring some new dances out,” Nabers said, and laughed. “It was like a little Florida dance that we got going on on TikTok. I try to have all my dance moves in stock when I’m ready for touchdowns.”

Nabers later cut inside Tre Hawkins but could not hang on to a low throw from Jones in the middle of the end zone. He piled his right fist into the ground.

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“It’s a hard catch, but for me those are routine,” Nabers said. “I just gotta get under the ball a little bit quicker. It was a great route, just gotta finish it.”

Nabers did not watch Episode 4 of “Hard Knocks,” when he and Marvin Harrison Jr. and Rome Odunze were quizzed together, and Giants receivers coach Mike Groh expressed his preference for Nabers.

“I need to go watch that then,” Nabers said, and smiled.

I asked Nabers how he might handle not getting the ball and losing.

“I have great receivers in my room,” he said. “I’m just a new person on the block, so I gotta learn that I’m not gonna be the first guy that’s always gonna get the ball like I was at LSU and I was the first target. So I gotta work my way up. As I keep practicing, giving all I got out here, finding ways to get open, eventually the plays might get thrown to me first.”

Jones saddled up to Nabers during a break.

“He just wanted to make sure I’m definitive on what I’m doing so I give him a read,” Nabers said. “He wants to know what kind of plan I got when I’m working a release.”

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Daboll joined an earlier confab between Jones and Nabers.

“The same thing, just like, ‘Be mindful of the quarterback’s timing,’ ” Nabers recalled. “ ‘Daniel has a time in his head about where he wants you to go with the ball.’ ”

Nabers, who turns 21 on Sunday, has the legs of a running back on a sturdy 6-foot, 201-pound frame and can run a 4.35 40. He’s a natural.

“Oh, my God!” CB Nick McCloud said. “He got a lot of dawg in him. He’s crafty. Everything that you want in a receiver, he brings it. … He brings a different kind of kind of, like, swag, competitiveness to the team, and I love that.”

The Giants have been starving for swag.

“I know how good I am, but it’s good to hear from your teammates, especially when I’m making plays out there,” Nabers said.

He mentioned Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux.

“To have those leaders pushing me as a rookie to be great, I love that about those guys,” Nabers said

By himself now, Nabers caught balls from a Juggs machine, first standing, then on his knees. Soon he was signing autographs for shrieking kids outside the Giants’ training center. Catch a rising star.

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