NBC Sports: Steve Stoute: Raptors ‘brought in Drake to bring that thing. The New York Knicks brought in me’

From NBC Sports’ Dan Feldman, a collection of some of the dumbest moments from Steve Stoute’s disastrous outing on ESPN’S First Take (he also has a link to the video, so you can see Stoute flop sweat through the awfulness)…

The biggest thing is getting free agents and players to know that this is a place they show up at. This is where they should be. I think that narrative has been lost. So, players haven’t come. A free agent hasn’t come. And if we can sort of solve that problem, which I know we will, we have a great chance. We’re the most iconic team in the league by far.

and most hilariously…

New York City is the hub of sports and entertainment. That’s how I feel. And it started moving around. My job is to bring it back. Toronto Raptors, they brought in Drake. Right? They brought in Drake to bring that thing. The New York Knicks brought in me.

and then…

There had to be a change, right? So, there is a change. That change will bring a new coach and new coaches that are going to help develop these younger players, right? And they’ve got some young superstars. You see R.J. Barrett, Mitch Robinson.

and finally…

I’m part of a team, and I’m going to be part of a team. But I’ve got a lot of voice.

Sooooo….yeah. That’s obviously terrible, but Leon Rose legitimately cannot talk Knicks right now, so maybe Stoute is just Haig-ing it up?

But even if that’s true, it’s still A. A terrible look to let him give this interview and B. A terribly stupid interview.

They really seem to want to fuck things up before they’ve even taken over, don’t they?

34 replies on “NBC Sports: Steve Stoute: Raptors ‘brought in Drake to bring that thing. The New York Knicks brought in me’”

You know how I know it’s bad? Because I’m beginning to hope Scott Perry and Mike Miller keep their jobs. The possibility of GM Kenny Smith and Coach Mark Jackson is looming large.

Like I said in the other thread, this is astonishingly bad from someone whose alleged expertise is marketing. The Mike Miller thing alone should be a fireable offense for Stoute. Nobody actually expects Miller to be the coach next year, but you still don’t just say it — especially if your name is not Leon Rose and you are not supposed to have any say in the actual basketball product.

The Drake thing is just embarrassing. As our old pal Robert Silverman noted on Twitter, 1)Stoute is not Drake, 2)Drake had nothing to do with building the Raptors into a title team, and 3)Drake’s antics proved such a headache for everyone that the NBA had to tell him to STFU.

And all the usual star-fucking talk is as delusional as always with this team.

Even if you think Stoute is great at his job — and today very much casts that in doubt — you simply do not allow him to be the first public voice of the new administration. I understand that procedurally, Rose can’t officially speak on the team’s behalf yet. So just don’t say anything. Let poor lame duck Mike Miller keep going out there and talking on the team’s behalf. Instead, Stoute made everything worse, and created yet another LOLKnicks moment.

Reposting from the previous Thread:

I’ve been saying for years that this team is motivated by marketing first, second and third. The only difference is that now it’s out in the open. Maybe if Miller gets his own PR and 2M followers on Instagram he can convince Stoute that he IS a new coach and deserves to replace that gray, unassuming Miller from the g-league.

[Knox’s and Ntilikina’s] stories are not over yet, but they are just as much evidence for how hard it is to come up with the right player in the draft as are all of Hinkie’s failures at the very top of the draft. It’s not easy.

This is absolute nonsense. Knox projected very poorly in pre-draft metrics and Ntilikina was a big fuckin’ black box. The Knicks took flyers on (1) a player who had performed poorly at Kentucky, had poor “measurables” re: athleticism, and had a good showing during a 3-on-3 and (2) a player who had played an astounding 1,046 minutes over 4 seasons in LNB Pro A and Euroleague.

So you should qualify your statement with the following:

[Knox’s and Ntilikina’s] stories are not over yet, but they are just as much evidence for how hard it is to come up with the right player in the draft if you are relying on extremely limited data, or ignoring any analysis that opposes your preconceptions about a player, as are all of Hinkie’s failures at the very top of the draft. It’s not easy when you are relying solely on gut feeling and professional scouting “expertise.”

Virtually every thoughtful poster on this board saw Knox’s pre-draft profile and ran the other way. Would we have collectively selected the “right” player in their place? Not sure. But the Knicks made a pair of concrete decisions that have proved disastrous. This was not being unlucky — it was being bad.

The Knicks didn’t expect to be this terrible after drafting Knox and Ntilikina. This was not intentional. We, however, did expect this to happen. And no one would argue that this — drafting relative unknowns, or despite poor projections, and riding them to sustained bottom-feeding — is the “correct” way to exploit the draft.

1)Stoute is not Drake

Stoute must think he’s Pusha T. He is decidedly not Pusha T.

>>someone whose alleged expertise is marketing.<<

Let's be open about what Steve Stoute is great at: it's not marketing in general. Translation helps companies whose marketing has been traditionally tailored to white audiences rebrand themselves to reach a multicultural audience.

That is undoubtedly a useful skill in the world. You can see how the Nets needed that. They had a suburban brand that lived in the shadow of the Knicks and they were moving to Brooklyn and needed to reach a new audience.

But that seems wholly unnecessary here. The Knicks don't need to rebrand themselves, THEY NEED A BASKETBALL INFRASTRUCTURE!!! For fuck's sake, Jim.

I have to seriously wonder how much Kevin Durant’s comment about the Knicks not being cool fucked with Dolan’s head.

You beat me to it alsep73.

You flat out don’t turn your active coach into a lame-duck before the end of the season. That’s basketball PR 101 stuff. That’s like a dumb JUCO move that makes the local smalltown paper.

Even if Stoute isn’t involved in the teambuilding process, this is clearly going to be a joke of a team now. Our only hope is that he might do something so egregious that Steve and possibly Rose are both let go before they can even start a la Carlos Beltran.

>>The possibility of GM Kenny Smith and Coach Mark Jackson is looming large<<

Am I making this up or did someone recently talk about an article where the Knicks worked with focus groups and determined that New York roots resonated really well with those groups? That was my basis for this post but I can't find anything on the focus group now.

Yeah that was me, the whole new branding is going to be some combination of blood in the ground, built for this, or NY Grit. If you listen to the Alan Hahn show he is already pushing the blood in the ground mantra

JK47

>Sucking is different than tanking.<

I agree, but they are related.

If you suck because you tanked no one will want to join your team for many years until you don't suck anymore. So you are stuck in lottery hell developing kids for years until you dig your way out.

Tanking has been studied by advanced stats guy. It doesn't work as well as advertised and imo only rarely make sense.

You need competent management using every possible option.

Dolan is a moron. There isn’t even a conversation to be had.

“the whole new branding is going to be some combination of blood in the ground, built for this, or NY Grit. If you listen to the Alan Hahn show he is already pushing the blood in the ground mantra”

Harkless is from Queens, whereas Kuzma is from Michigan. (Just sayin’).

Going from getting a beating from Puffy to for some reason having a say in how the Knicks are run is quite a journey for a record executive.

I have to seriously wonder how much Kevin Durant’s comment about the Knicks not being cool fucked with Dolan’s head.

Dolan is the exact kind of insecure idiot who be bothered by that

Dolan is brutal. I co-run a small executive search firm here in Manhattan, two of our clients are MSG along with what used to be Cablevision(optimum/altice). One of the jobs we are constantly refilling is an Executive Assistant to Dolan. Spoiler alert, they all quit, despite most getting anywhere from 20-50% raise from their previous employer. “no one should be spoken to like that” was the most recent reason for leaving.

Let’s be open about what Steve Stoute is great at:

“I had nothing to do with Steve Mills’ departure. I want to clean that up. I want to be accountable for getting people more jobs, specifically women and African-American, not necessarily getting rid of folks. But there had to be a change. So there is a change,” Stoute explained.

c’mon man – please tell me me as soon as you read or heard this you didn’t immediately think: kill the white people

fuck you very much steve…

Wow, BAM, thanks for the inside info. It seems Dolan really IS the problem that cannot be avoided. Love this board, but idk if I want to waste another 10 years on this stupid fucking franchise.

We are not in a bad position in terms of young talent, picks, and cap space. A good management team and coaching staff can work with this team and turn it around fairly quickly with a combination of in house development, our 1st round pick this year, and using out 3 excess 1st rounders to either move up or land an impact player. But I have every confidence the new people in charge are going to be idiots (we already have evidence of that) and set us back again with bad trades and signings. It’s hard to remain a fan when you know your hopes for good basketball are tied to morons.

>>idk if I want to waste another 10 years on this stupid fucking franchise.<<

I'm here until they announce the coach and GM, and i reserve the option to pull the plug after that.

Yeah this is not a good look. The Knicks have stars at court side all the time even when they suck, which is all the time. Getting big name celebs to the Garden is NOT the problem.

Why oh why does this franchise care so much about star fucking? Star fucking players, coaches, GM’s, and now star fucking fans? Its so idiotic!!! just build a good team.

I mean, I had season tickets when they brought in STAT before the Melo trade. That was a dumb signing in the long run but that team with STAT and Felton and Gallo, etc…was only a little above 500 and the Garden was ROCKING!

Build the team up. RJ and Mitch can be stars if the team is above 500, improving and making the playoffs. If they want superstars like AD, etc…to join the team…they will do so when we’re decent. We have such an advantage over small market teams. If we got to a place where we were as good as The Pacers, stars would flock to our team, but you gotta build the foundation.

Its so infuriating cause we have a huge advantage being NYC and The Garden. Basic competency should allow us to build a real winner. It’s not THAT hard.

GrizzlyBlogger anyone?

During the initial Melo years I took a Knicks hiatus and was primarily rooting for Denver with Gallo and Chandler and their running and ball movement under Karl. Now I’m slowly moving to the Mavs with KP and Hardaway. They have Hardaway healthy again and are using him better. KP is being used better. They are a fun team to watch and they are managed and coached well. They have quite a few injuries and lost a key player for the season, but this year is mostly about the development of the KP/Doncic pairing and trying to get playoff experience. Then next year will be a more serious run. Finally getting rid of Mills gave me momentary hope, but I’m pretty close to out again with these new dimwits if this is any indication.

knicks now in a pr war with their own pr guy. i guess this will give our lipstick on a pig specialist a nice chance to sample his product.

That this buffoon is a billionaire tells you all you need to know about the economic system in this country.

I mean, I had season tickets when they brought in STAT before the Melo trade. That was a dumb signing in the long run but that team with STAT and Felton and Gallo, etc…was only a little above 500 and the Garden was ROCKING!

I was there for opening night (STAT’s debut) and that was the loudest I’ve heard the Garden in pretty much 20 years.

One of the jobs we are constantly refilling is an Executive Assistant to Dolan. Spoiler alert, they all quit, despite most getting anywhere from 20-50% raise from their previous employer. “no one should be spoken to like that” was the most recent reason for leaving.

I love this and also hate it so much

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