News & Blogs
2026 NBA playoffs: Conference finals takeaways – ESPN
Becky Hammon Defends Jalen Brunson Criticism After Knicks Reach NBA Finals, ‘I Said What I Said’ – BleacherReport
Knicks legends Clyde Frazier, John Starks react to ‘special moment’ after New York reaches NBA Finals – SNY
Here’s How Knicks NBA Finals Ticket Prices Compare to 1994 Games at MSG – BleacherReport
Knicks Bulletin: ‘They have 10 guys that are thriving’ – Posting & Toasting
Trump May Appear at N.B.A. Finals in New York – The New York Times
Mike Brown’s Finals experience coming in handy for Knicks – Posting & Toasting
Knicks vs Cavs Exit Interview w/ Justin Rowan (The Chase Down) | PREGAME POD | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
The New & Improved Karl Anthony Towns | Mikal Bridges Can’t Miss | ECF Debrief Part 2 – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks sweep Cavs in ECF reaction, plus a look ahead to NBA Finals | The Putback with Ian Begley – Begley Putback
Knicks Nightcap | Road to a Chip | Peerless Bourbon – Knick of Time
Pod Strickland Episode 597: Finals Bound – The Strickland
The Knicks Proved ALL The Doubters Wrong 😤 #knicks #nba #finals – Hot Hand Theory
YT News
146 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.05.28)”
Apparently the Kings are interested in Mitch as a free agent.
https://kingsherald.com/articles/kings-reportedly-eyeing-knicks-center-mitchell-robinson-in-free-agency/
Will maintain my practice of not identifying specifics, but more evidence this morning that the writers read Knickerblogger.
I think it would behoove any writer with a grain of salt, to peruse this blog for thoughtful insight. This is a regular read for me for 20 years now.
I’ve been thinking about where we are now vs. where we were after game 3 vs Atlanta.
Which of these redemption arcs do you think is the most compelling-
Mike Brown
KAT
Mikal Bridges
I would vote for Bridges, because he literally went from invisible to a ridiculously efficient 2-way impact player.
Curious what everyone else thinks…
The comments section after that article are funny, seems like Scott Perry isn’t a Sac fan fave. Most seem opposed to Mitch, and lots of folks want Sabonis traded.
That team is a mess. But I can definitely see Perry offering Mitch a bag.
Mikal by a landslide. As hot takes go, the degree to which folks were out on him was molten lava.
But sure, KAT and Brown have turned around the bad narratives as well. But KAT was playing relatively well in the losses to ATL, and it looked like a game plan problem on Brown’s part. But that was largely due to Mikal still being in the starting lineup.
I’d go with KAT, although Mikal is a close second. I was literally screaming for us to trade Mikal for peanuts after game 3, lol. I’m not proud of how hot (and wrong) my takes were.
But, for me, it’s KAT. Mainly because he’s always been this super talented guy. Number one pick. Franchise player in Minny. Multiple all-star appearances. Amazing scorer and rebounder. But he’s always been labelled soft and bad on defense and the consensus on him was he was never going to be the guy who could lead you to a title.
So to see him transform his game this way and take way less shots, be less selfish (not that he was a selfish player) but facilitate the offense and elevate the games of everyone around him while also becoming, dare I say it, a decently good defender. It’s just so rare to see a player do that at this point in his career and it’s a beautiful thing to watch because I’ve always loved KAT as a player, so it’s nice to see him reach his full potential.
Mikal is great too but he’s not doing anything that I didn’t already know he was capable of doing. But KAT…it’s been a total transformation and it’s made everyone around him better. Everything just clicked for him and it’s been beautiful to watch.
I don’t understand why a team like the Kings would be interested in Mitch. He’s such a weird fit in today’s NBA and between the injuries and foul shooting he really can’t play much more than 20 MPG. His value to a good team is obvious but I don’t see what he really brings to a bad team.
I think it’s Mikal. He’s been honestly pretty invisible for most of the last two seasons and when he wasn’t invisible it was because his passivity was infuriating.
If KAT continues to play the way he has in the playoffs and the Knicks win the championship, then the trade for him may be as good as Debusschere for Bellamy and Komives.
Hard to believe just 3 years ago, Sacto had Mike Brown, De’aaron Fox, and a handful of promising young players.
They clearly screwed up by keeping Sabonis instead of Fox, not understanding how important 3pt shooting is in today’s nba. Now they’ll get pennies on the dollar for Sabonis and are still stuck with DeRozan and LaVine’s horrible contract.
I have a lot of sympathy for that fanbase.
I wonder if Mitch coming through this season in full health will make some front offices believe that the foot is now fully healed and that they can do away with some of the load management.
Mitch played 60 games this year. Four of them were to start the season, and most of the other 18 were one game of a b2b.
He averaged less than 20 mpg and only once played over 26 minutes. He hit the 20 minute mark in only 21 games out of the 60 he played in. He has averaged 14 mpg for the playoffs. Obviously some of that is due to the amount of blowouts, but some is also due to hack-a-Mitch and KAT’s awesomeness.
He’s still only 28 so maybe he can continue to get healthier and improve his FT shooting. He wouldn’t be the first to do so. But it’s definitely a gamble.
I don’t think any GM out there who isn’t itching to get fired offers him more than $15-20M AAV, and even that is a stretch. If that happens, I trust that Leon, Aller, and our crack medical staff will come to the right decision.
I would go as far as to say that Mitch is playing for his next contract right now. He’s mostly been a non-factor in these playoffs. Coming up big vs. whoever we face would definitely help his cause. Let’s hope that happens!
It’s KAT for me. While Mikal’s redemption arc since game 3 is larger, he was starting from a career nadir. KAT started not far from his regular season and morphed into a 12 BPM player by taking 20% fewer shots. Plus I think him playing better and more “team” ball helped Mikal play better, and not necessarily vice versa.
“If KAT continues to play the way he has in the playoffs and the Knicks win the championship, then the trade for him may be as good as Debusschere for Bellamy and Komives.”
There are two trades in my lifetime that felt like the final piece of the championship puzzle for one of my beloved teams on the day the trade was made.
One was Dave Debusschere. The other was Gary Carter. (You could probably add Earl Monroe to the list, but that was after we had already either won or come close for 3 straight years.)
I did not feel that way about KAT, so it would not be on that level for me. More of an “in retrospect” thing.
They didn’t have any choice about Fox. He wanted it out. The mistake was trading Hali for Sabonis in the first place. It got them that one fun season, but now they’ve got nothing left.
The Debusschere trade had a longer impact and two titles, but the KAT trade impact is incomplete. Both are but for the trade, Knicks don’t win the title( if they indeed do), though one can say the same about the OG trade. DeBusschere fit in seamlessly and his play was more akin to OGs. KAT has been a work in progress. The Monroe trade was almost theft-Stallworth, Riordan and cash, though my declining memory tells me the Pearl was about to become a free agent and would not have re-signed with the Bullets.
With all the evolving financial constraints (salary caps, luxury taxes, etc) on professional teams, actual player for player trades in a vacuum are harder to evaluate. Agree Dave D for Walt and Carter for Hubie are great examples. I’d say Marbury for Kidd is another. Paul O’Neil for Roberto also probably qualifies. But how about Eli for essentially picks? Or the fire-sale to get the cap space for Jalen?
Unfortunately I can’t think of a Jets don’t have an example even remotely close…
if the Knicks can pull this off, then every big move Leon made will be exalted. Even if we fall short, he took a moribund clown show and turned it into what it is now….the most beloved team since at least the Ewing era and the most respected team since the Clyde-Willis days.
Edit to my last comment: I can’t think of a Jets example even remotely close…
“Or the fire-sale to get the cap space for Jalen?”
At the time I thought Jalen was going to be a Kyle Lowry-level player, or at least a FVV-type. That was definitely on the high end of expectations for Jalen as the discussions went. On the negative side, there were some who felt it was a significant overpay, and there were others who felt that he could have been acquired without using the picks to dump salary.
But while there was lots of optimism that we finally found a legit starting PG as at least a part of a championship puzzle, not a single person thought he would be a perennial all-NBA player and MVP candidate. So whatever KAT, or Mikal, or OG does, Brunson towers above them in importance. He is the Willis Reed of this era.
And for those who are old enough to remember, Willis was revered by his teammates, and we’re not talking about just any teammates. They included 1) a Rhodes scholar and future US senator and presidential candidate, 2) the most successful coach in NBA history, 3) a guy who was an NBA player-coach at age 24, a multi-sport professional athlete, and a future team executive, 4) the most legendary Knick of all time, 5) a Ph.D. educator.
Jalen is not 6’9″ 260lbs of muscle like Willis was, but he embodies Willis’ will to win, his quiet, powerful confidence in himself and in the team. He is usually the smallest and least athletic player on the court, yet he embodies the heart of a champion, just like Willis did.
It saddens me that Willis is not with us to appreciate this moment. Who knows, maybe he’s up there doing what he can to help. Or just admiring the second greatest captain in Knicks history doing his thing.
The Kings had Haliburton, a potential superstar that somehow WANTED to play in Sacramento, and they still screwed it to get Sabonis, who’s just a decent player and to keep Fox, who they promptly proceeded to piss off to the point he asked for a trade.
They had their version of the Monta Ellis / Steph Curry conundrum and made the wrong choice. It still annoys me when people tried to frame this trade as a win win for both sides, but at least this argument died a bit when Haliburton made it to the finals.
He could have been.
Disconcur with the idea that “everything is ratified” because of this. No one applies that principle to, say, Masai Ujiri, and a little thought would expand the list to dozens. Moreover, the folk wisdom that “It’s better to be lucky than good,” became folk wisdom for a reason.
That said, Leon has done an excellent job. Only a fool would suggest otherwise.
In terms of Brunson, he lit up Spida in the playoffs the year before he came here. That was noted in his favor by some here, and the fact that Spida got lit up by Brunson and had never really performed in the playoffs was noted as a reason not to chase Spida by some here. Both those “early warning systems” panned out.
He doesn’t look or play like a tentpole superstar and he was a second-round draft pick. Most people in the world are superficial and closed-minded and so they overlooked him, even with the growing body of evidence — including the 2022 playoffs — right in front of them.
The league *and his own team’s management* valued him at under 4/110. That’s an abject and pathetic embarrassment, but very good fortune for the Knicks.
hopefully the sac (perry)/mitch interest makes mitch feel a little better about himself and extra motivated to prove his worth…
money means different things to different folks…he’s made enough for several comfortable lifetimes…
who knows, maybe he hates packing up and moving…likes his dogs where they are…his truck looks perfect in his current driveway…
plenty of good reasons to stay a knick 4 life…heard we got a decent med staff these days too…
been meaning to mention this…sometime during the end to philly, and beginning of the end to the cavs – i swear it seemed like mikal bridges had grown at least 2 inches and gained about 20 pounds…
what happened to the other guy that was wearing number 25…
like he had maester aemon talking in his ear…
“He could have been.”
I’m in agreement that there were other ways to clear the salary necessary to acquire both Brunson and iHart. It’s certainly possible that there were also better ways.
This is true about lots of moves that Leon made and didn’t make over his tenure.
And it is also true that had Leon made fewer sub-optimal moves, what we have now would be even better, or more sustainable, or both.
Leon is not Sam Presti. We all agree on that. Yet even the great Sam Presti set his team back a half-dozen years by making one of the worst managerial decisions in history. Nobody’s perfect.
Leon has been far from perfect. But he’s been better than most, including Masai. He has kept his mouth shut and has done his job the best he can, using his advantages. He had a vision and stuck to it. This team is the culmination of that vision. It is a beautiful product, a product that embodies this great city and the essence of the Knicks lunchpail culture.
I would go as far as to say that, as ownership decisions go, he is the best thing to happen to this team since hiring Pat Riley as coach. That was 35 years ago.
Loving the Leon love, but can’t help but think that Mike Brown has been more instrumental in terms of molding the players that Leon acquired into what we’re seeing today.
Dolan’s vision was to bring in a respected guy with close connections to the league’s players and stars, so that he’d never be in a “Donnie Walsh in a wheelchair trying to woo LeBron James” or “Rejected by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in favor of shitty-ass Brooklyn” situation ever again.
Seemed a little weird and eccentric and mis-focused, and probably was — but it’s turned out extremely well.
Leon turned a laughingstock into a juggernaut in 5 years. I wish I was this good at my job.
I made a joke to one of the beat writers the other day about how in this postseason, the Knicks might beat two of our would-be Jalens (Johnson and Williams), while the third (Duren) got knocked out before he could face us. He told me I was now legally obligated to stop complaining about all the incinerated draft picks.
Could someone kindly remind me of the chronology of the Brunson signing? Wasn’t Rick hired first? Did we have a “wink, wink” with Jalen after that that wasn’t announced immediately?
Rick was hired first, yes. Then we did all those draft night shenanigans to dump Burks and Kemba and Nerlens in order to make cap space for Brunson and iHart. Then Jalen B. signed.
I think we all can agree that for all of Leon’s lack of experience as a team executive, he was a pretty smart guy, and being on the other side of the table is at least some preparation for being a team president. Still, while it isn’t rocket science (and some of the moves Leon made were downright foolish, particularly in the 2021 offseason) he had the necessities to grow into the job. He also had an owner that would likely not tolerate a down-to-the studs rebuild, but was also not a cheapskate when it came to hiring execs, coaches, scouts, analytical guys, medical team, trainers, etc.
In that context, two of Leon’s best qualities seem to be a) keeping his mouth shut, and b) knowing when to cut bait (unless he had to be overruled in the case of Thibs, we might never know the answer to that.)
He has definitely been very lucky as well (most successful GMs are!)
Beyond Cuban’s blunder re: playing cute with Jalen, Leon’s second biggest stroke of luck was when Ainge bailed him out by rebuffing his best offer for Spida and not giving him a chance to up the ante.
He is also lucky that Minny was so desperate to dump KAT’s salary that they sold relatively low on him.
On the other hand, I don’t care what happens, trading five non-protected first rounders for Mikal was terrible negotiating. It hardly matters right now, but if this turns out to be the high water mark, that will be the main reason for it. But for now, all is forgiven! But we’ll never know how “unlucky” Leon was that the Nets didn’t rebuff him like Ainge did. And if Mikal keeps playing this way going forward, maybe he recoups some of that value, either as a player or in a future trade.
Geo, could you explain this reference?
I was a pretty big fan of GoT before it self-aborted in the later seasons and I don’t get it
Leon speaking through his work is the most dignified thing to happen to the Knicks since the 90s. Win or lose these finals, this is a serious team inside and out. I was hard out on KAT when he started the public complaining earlier this year, but he got his ass off the ground and started running back on defense and he truly fucking changed. It’s a beautiful thing to witness. A grown man with all the money and “sway” in the world deciding to be better and then turning into a top ten nba player overnight. honestly maybe better considering that he’s putting up these numbers against talented teams that are actually “competing”. Hiring Mike Brown was an unspectacular move with spectacular results. Please make some more unspectacular moves Leon. They’re working.
The main thing for a guy like Leon to do was put a good basketball personnel team around him, and while William Wesley comes off as something of a clown, the rest of the team seems extremely solid — Rosas, Aller, etc.
Leon gets full credit for that, because it’s a core competency of the job and can’t really be accomplished through “luck.”
Dolan fired Thibs. Mike Brown was like the sixth choice after worse choices like Jason Kidd. Leon gets “credit,” but it was very fortuitous.
He could have had a Donnie Walsh without a wheelchair do it if he’d asked.
As for his vision, it was literally just “an agent built the Warriors so I want an agent to build the Knicks”, and the only one he knew was the guy who drew up all the contracts he’d ever signed.
In the understandable excitement, we’re also kind of jumping ahead a step with all the evaluations and post-mortems. If they get their doors blown off by OKC, things won’t look this way. (I don’t think that will happen, but it could.)
“Dolan fired Thibs. Mike Brown was like the sixth choice after worse choices like Jason Kidd. Leon gets “credit,” but it was very fortuitous.”
You are so much more interesting to chat with when you don’t present speculation as fact.
It doesn’t matter who fired Thibs. It’s the degree to which Leon wanted to retain Thibs that matters. Was he conspiring to pass the buck to Dolan to save face with his old friend even though he wanted him gone? Was he on the fence? Was he adamantly opposed to firing him?
Unless you have actual evidence, it’s pure speculation. This is especially true because it is widely known that there was tension between WWW and Thibs. Also between Aller and Thibs.
I, on the other hand, have some evidence that Thibs was on the outs. First, Ian Begley, the most trusted beat writer in Knicksville, stated well before the firing that it should not be assumed that Thibs would be back. Second, I have a source inside the organization that revealed that Thibs was fired because he didn’t listen to anyone, including Leon.
And while I’m speculating as well, the info I have leads me to believe that Leon was sick of being passive-aggressively undermined by Thibs and looking for an exit ramp and Dolan provided it.
“Mike Brown was like the sixth choice after worse choices like Jason Kidd. Leon gets “credit,” but it was very fortuitous.”
This is more fair, but a couple of caveats:
1) Just because Leon asked for permission to speak to certain candidates doesn’t necessarily mean that those guys would be hired.
2) There were several coaches who would have liked to have taken the job. Mike Brown won the job during the interview process. His willingness to listen and collaborate was a big part of that.
The “hire successful agent to run an NBA team” was hardly some novel idea dreamed up by an admittedly weird owner. It had already been done – and with great success – when Golden State hired Bob Myers. The Lakers followed suit with the hiring of Rob Pelinka. And while Pelinka’s tenure has been more of a mixed bag, it was his prior relationship with Nico Harrison that helped him facilitate one of the greatest NBA heists of all time.
It’s not just the numbers crunchers with the big brains who make for the best GMs / POBOs. A strong network of personal connections with players, front office personnel, and – yes – agents is a potent asset in its own right.
Dolan deserves all the credit for pushing Thibs out. It is a cold hard fact that was reported by Fred Katz, James Edwards, and Vinnie Goodwill.
And of course Dolan deserves all the credit for bringing in Leon and Wes, as well.
Frankly I think he also deserves a lot of credit for the interview where he made clear his expectations were a championship while the team.
We owe the devil his due. He turned the Knicks around.
It’s not easy to build a team the way Rose built the Knicks. You have a small margin of error when you’re building a team out of known commodities, because known commodities are expensive. You have to chisel out value here and there and with the way the salary cap works in the NBA, you really can’t afford a mistake.
But I’ll be damned, Rose pulled it off. The opportunity cost for Mikal was a little high, but there are no salary black holes on the books. KAT was showing up on some of those “worst contracts” lists earlier in the season, but he has clearly put that narrative to bed with his stellar play in these playoffs.
No whiffs. Everybody contributing. Leon threaded the needle. Truly remarkable.
Here’s part of the reason:
On October 18, 1966, New York Knicks center Willis Reed famously fought almost the entire Los Angeles Lakers team. The brawl erupted after Lakers forward Rudy LaRusso threw a punch at Reed, prompting the rest of the Lakers bench to rush the court and leading Reed to start throwing punches to defend himself.
The chaotic on-court melee is one of the most legendary brawls in NBA history. Key details of the fight include:
The Instigation: During the third quarter of a physical game, Knicks center Willis Reed and Lakers forward Rudy LaRusso were tangling. LaRusso threw a wild punch, missing Reed, while Lakers center Darrall Imhoff grabbed Reed from behind.
Reed’s Retaliation: Enraged, the 6’9″ Reed unleashed a flurry of blows, throwing off players attempting to restrain him and pushing his way through the Lakers bench.
The Damage: Several Lakers players suffered severe consequences in the brawl. Darrall Imhoff needed stitches over his eye, rookie John Block had his nose fractured, and legend suggests both LaRusso and Henry Finkle suffered broken jaws.
The Punishment: By modern standards, the league’s penalties were remarkably light. Because LaRusso initiated the physical confrontation, both Reed and LaRusso were merely ejected and fined $50 each.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/11xpqdc/willis_reed_has_passed_away_at_the_age_of_80/
Speaking of Katz, he announced on his pod today that he’s writing a book about this team. I’m SO excited to read it.
“Dolan deserves all the credit for pushing Thibs out. It is a fact that was reported by Fred Katz, James Edwards, and Vinnie Goodwill.”
Please show me where it was reported that Leon was adamant about retaining Thibs but was overruled by Dolan, because I have not seen anything to suggest that.
In fact, it kind of makes sense that it would have to be Dolan’s final call, being that he was throwing away $40M in DolanDollars.
I think google works for you, too, Z-Man. Have a good day.
“I think google works for you, too, Z-Man. Have a good day.”
Typical response from folks who present speculation as fact.
Lending credence to Z-Man’s narrative: Thibs is very well-known as someone who doesn’t play nice in the sandbox with others.(*)
Lending credence to the opposite narrative: The coaching search and succession plan was disorganized and haphazard and looked pretty much as you’d expect it would if the FO had been caught off-guard.
(*) I was always of the mind that it was always going to wind up with Thibs getting whacked for not being “collaborative” enough and so if the ending was already known, why not just jump ahead and end it now.
Not playing well in the sandbox is tolerable to a point. It was clear to everyone, including most of us, and almost certainly to Dolan, Leon, WWW,. Aller, Rosas, Perrin, and most of the players, that that point had been reached. We know that some in the organization had reached that point long ago, specifically WWW.
I think Dolan deserves credit for taking part in the exit interviews and making an informed and collaborative decision to move on from Thibs. It didn’t seem rash at all. In fact, it seemed smart to move quickly so that all options could be explored.
One could characterize the exploration as “disorganized and haphazard”. One could also call it “methodical and thorough.” In fact, one could accurately apply all of those adjectives, so long as it starts with “necessary, deserved, and prudent,” especially since there were lots of reputable folks out there were lots of folks out there who thought firing Thibs was unnecessary, undeserved, and imprudent.
Frankly, unless we are talking about the very, very few coaches out there who would immediately make a positive difference, none of the guys in the mix were worth rushing in to hire. Not Kidd, Udoka, not Finch, not Snyder, not Donovan, not Jenkins, not Borrego, none of them. All of them are at best in the same category as Brown. I don’t think there was any supreme urgency to hire a particular guy.
oh my goodness pags, seems like total torture discussing something i devoted a good portion of life engrossed in that fake world…
so, maester aemon, who is really old at the time, and serving as the maester for castle black at the wall serves a bit as both a first and third person perspective…he can’t see, but yet sees and has seen just about everything…
kind of like lord commander mormont he acts as a mentor for jon snow…the irony the whole time being – they’re actually related…who knows if aemon knows at the time, doubt he would even mention it if he did…
anyways at a particular crossroads for jon snow’s leadership journey – you know what, don’t wanna spoil the line or moment…please watch…
if you wanna see it – it’s a scene from season 5, episode 5 on the show…chapter seven, dance of dragons in the book/audio…
life is busy, and really, who knows just how healthy reading is for the eyes…i don’t even think i wanna know…anyways this old guy with perfect pitch and tone reads a lot of the GOT audio books…it was my go to walking tunes for a while…consume enough content in different forms and immersion becomes pretty good…fade away to some other world, if this one becomes stale…
ha, there was even this wild TellTale video game based on the series…very unique game type…
oh yeah, probably should have been more specific – what i was really wondering: do you get to watch eagles do their thing much…
you live in bird paradise…very nice…
“(*) I was always of the mind that it was always going to wind up with Thibs getting whacked for not being “collaborative” enough and so if the ending was already known, why not just jump ahead and end it now.”
I was of the mind that Thibs should not have been hired in the first place. Once Leon made that decision, it was a certainty that the patient down-to-studs rebuild was off the table.
I, for one (and I’m sure I have lots of company here) would never have minded moving on from Thibs at any point in his tenure. I respected many aspects of his coaching, and I believe he deserves enormous credit for how far he brought the team. We can differ on this, but I don’t think a different coach from the picked-over and available bin would have gotten the roster he was provided with any farther than they went, and for sure some of them would have not gotten them as far. But this year would have been very different with Thibs at the helm, and I think it’s safe to say that it was urgent to move on from him before it was too late.
Would Dolan dipping into the 2nd Apron to maintain this team be akin to JB taking a pay cut?
I have been so impressed with the team’s focus. Everyone from the players and coaches have maintained their focus even when they have big leads in the game or series. It seems like the mental aspect of their game has only increased since the regular season.
LOL, not even close. Dolan is worth infinitely more than what Brunson is currently worth or would be worth if he didn’t take the pay cut. So I’d say Brunson’s sacrifice is far greater, especially considering if Dolan does dip into the 2nd apron, it’s probably because we won it all and he stands to make even more billions because of that.
We all discussed at nausea the incinerated picks, Kemba and re signing of WE HERE team free agents but Leon Rose build a championship caliber team twice in 6 yrs.
Sam Presti broke his January Knicks. That forced pivot was a stroke of genious as nothing goes exactly as planned in life. Also, Darryl Morey forced him to spend an extra $10m aav on OG which then forced him to give up extra picks for Mikal’s lower salary and dumping of Bogdan’s contract. Not ideal but pragmatic and worked out beautiful.
Leon believed in Shamet and Deuce when no one else in the world did. Hope Shamet does not forget that and gives him the ability to match.
Brown over Thibs seems like a good choice in a vacuum; however, it really just comes down to Thibs having to face the Pacers and Brown not.
Fred Katz:
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/knicks-owner-james-dolans-role-in-tom-thibodeaus-firing-explained-not-a-normal-regular-thing/
And from the article that Fred confirmed was accurate:
https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/breaking-news/article/sources-some-knicks-players-werent-thrilled-with-tom-thibodeau-with-his-firing-being-spearheaded-by-owner-james-dolan-225418057.html
Unless Fred Katz is a fraud and a liar, it’s a verified fact we have James Dolan to thank for getting rid of Thibs.
I heard from my sources at McDonald’s that trump will only go to the garden if he is seated next mamdani.
Mike Breen on the Zach Lowe podcast talking Knicks is great content.
Speaking of Mike Breen…are we finally going to get a triple bang in the next few weeks?
I wish Zach had said “other than Charles Oakley, which Knicks legends would you like to see that haven’t been yet” (because Oakley is such an obvious answer it derailed the interesting possibilities).
I’m personally dying to see Herb Williams.
Xavier McDaniel is at the top of my list, too.
I want Greg Anthony, too, but only if he still has that shirt he was wearing when he punched Kevin Johnson.
Game 1 is still six days away. This is pretty much torture.
Oh and where the hell is Hubert Davis????
What’s Charlie Ward doing these days?
I believe he remains the career leader in playoff DBPM, which makes him more distinguished than most!
There are only two verified FACTS in this story: Dolan has the final call and Dolan sat in on the meetings (which is unusual).
This first part said he had alignment (was he working on the front end of a car or a sports story) that Brunson and Leon were fine with Thibs. No source named but whatever. Not as single word whether Kat or Bridges or OG or any of the other half dozen rotation players had the same “alignment”.
Then he draws the inference that Dolan was the motivating force because an owner attending the exit meaning was unusual. WTF does that prove?
There are a million reasonable permutations of what might have happened including Kat , Bridges and OG came into the meeting complaining Thibs prefered style of insisting on keeping the ball in Brunson’s hands exclusively minimizing our all around games and hence the teams overall production? Dolan might have turned to Leon and said, “Does that make any sense to you?” Or something akin to that.
There is zero evidence Dolan banged his fist on the table and demanded Thibs scalp. That might have happened, but Katz provided zero evidence of that.
You will with the close out shot of the fourth win.
Other Tier 1 “legends” I’d like to see:
Danilo Gallinari.
The whole 2005 draft class (Channing Frye, Nate Robinson, David Lee).
Jamal Crawford (if he’s not calling the game… which he’s great at, btw).
Tyson Chandler
Kurt Thomas
Dolan himself has said he fired Thibs because Thibs wasn’t collaborative enough.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/sports/james-dolan-explains-why-tom-thibodeau-no-longer-fit-his-knicks-expectations/
I’d like to see Derek Harper.
If John Starks makes a couple of those threes, Derek Harper is probably Finals MVP.
Other Tier 1 “legends” I’d like to see:
the right answer is luke kornet.
Jamal Crawford (if he’s not calling the game… which he’s great at, btw).
absolutely not
“You will with the close out shot of the fourth win.”
How will we know which one is the close-out shot if we never trail in the game? 🙂
Amare.
There are no bangs in Knicks closeout games, as we’ve learned over the last month.
On former players, it’d be funny if they invited Jason Kidd.
No inference at all. The source said “James Dolan spearheaded the firing.” Not the meetings, the firing.
Three: “We were reporting if it were up to Rose and Brunson, Thibs was safe.”
A video recording of Dolan pounding the table is not the threshold for a verified fact.
The other fact that keeps being ignored is that Leon and Thibs were very close friends, and Jalen Brunson (and his Dad) was close with Thibs since childhood. It makes sense that they wouldn’t want to be the ones to be blamed for his firing. So publicly suggesting that Thibs had support from those two was just as likely a favor to them. I doubt that they protested much, if at all, and Dolan did them a favor. Nothing in the reporting contradicts that. But hey, to each his own!
Love how they’ve airbrushed away Marbury’s significant contribution to Anucha Browne Sanders’s eight-figure sexual harassment verdict.
Jalen Brunson said out loud strongly that he supported Thibs. That wasn’t a “public suggestion” by other people.
Really?
I’ve only heard him do a couple games in these playoffs but really enjoyed him.
The second-funniest shirt of all time, after Theo Huxtable’s imitation Gordon Gartrell shirt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crnPfls0fHw
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRVWiH6Eg_b/
Really?
I’ve only heard him do a couple games in these playoffs but really enjoyed him.
fan of jamal the person. have not liked him at all as an in-game analyst. obvious positive is that he doesn’t contort beetlejuice style into the most annoying version of himself, the most common pitfall. but he just brings so little. rarely points out anything you don’t immediately see, especially not scheme or X and O related. good at being objective and noticing uncalled travels. think he might do better if forced to say more instead of competing with megaphone muzak from reggie.
It’s (the optics) also a whole heck of a lot better for Thibs to be fired by Dolan than by his good friend and highly respected executive Leon Rose.
Facts. Since when is Dolan a competent owner?
This has Leon written all over it. Guaranteed, Leon was the one who invited Dolan to sit on interviews and used him to graciously move on from Thibs as a different voice was needed to get to next step.
Just like he used Dolan to interview & declare finals or bust…& heads will roll otherwise. Does that sound like a normal guitar Jimmy thing to do?
Leon did a great job of managing up. Making Dolan look great in NY may be harder than winning a championship
But the guy citing three journalists who published credibly sourced articles is just speculating.
I want Isiah and Phil there!
I kid, I kid…
i.e. into the guy that had his best season as a knick under Larry Brown.
toney douglas, to see if he still does what he do…
lance thomas, see if he still does things the right way…
ronny turiaf, see if he can still light up the garden with his smile
Tier 2 legends — The Steve Bartman Category
Like Bartman (and Bill Buckner), we want to give these guys some love because all humans deserve love and honestly we feel a little bad for all the grief we gave them… but they’re gonna have to wait until after we win the chip because we need to be healed from the pain they caused first.
Charles Smith
Eddy Curry
Carmelo Anthony
(Unfortunately only two of these legends realize what tier they’re actually in.)
NBA owners voted to approve the 3-2-1 anti-tanking plan.
Likely an excellent solution to the tanking problem, and a terrible way to determine the best draft order.
I’m going to say Brunson and Brown.
I’ve been a consistent defender of both Bridges and KAT. I blamed their in and out play on too much dribbling, too much hero ball, not using them properly, not enough player and ball movement, not enough effort to get them involved etc..
I repeatedly said it was all on Brunson and Brown to fix it.
Brown adjusted the offense, Brunson is playing the right way consistenly and the entire team is flourishing. In my mind, they deserve all the credit for finally making the right adjustments in the same way they deserved the blame when KAT and Bridges were inconsistent and sometimes unhappy standing around, watching Brunson and hoping for a kickout.
I’d say KAT after that because I had given up on him defensively, but he’s not nearly the liability now that he had been previously. It could be as simple as he’s happier with his role on offense now getting more touches when the matchup is right so he’s playing harder on defense. No matter what it is, he’s redeeming himself defensively.
Toney Douglas played here last season for my beloved FC Porto. I was sad to see him go. I think he retired.
Here’s a question about the Thibs firing.
The Knicks current level of play on both sides under Brown is exceeding their level of play under Thibs, but especially on offense. That kind of justifies Leon’s move to replace Thibs.
So the question becomes, how much does the Knicks improvement under Brown hurt Thibs in trying to find another job?
Now i don’t care anymore about who fired Thibs, how many picks we sent to get Mikal, and so on, and so on… it worked, we’re in the NBA Finals !! 🙂
Now, let’s finish the job! 😉
PS: I hate Starks still being mentioned as the reason that we didn’t win in 1994… please go check the box score of game 6 for further details.
Feels like the 2000s and 2010s Knicks would have greatly benefited from the new lottery system, as they always seemed to end in the “not terrible enough to get a good prospect but far from good to actually make the playoffs”. That is, for the years in which they kept their pick, of course.
So the question becomes, how much does the Knicks improvement under Brown hurt Thibs in trying to find another job?
Don’t think one bit. An on the cusp team wasn’t going to hire him. His value, if the FO has the balls to handle it, is to the no longer want to tank teams.
Thibs brought us to the ECF, and considering where we started i think the accomplishment was a lot harder than Brown taking an ECF level team to the NBA Finals. Now if he wins it… sorry Thibs, but then MB will get the top spot, no doubt.
Starks was a Hakeem fingernail away from making a title-winning three pointer and becoming a New York immortal.
I think we give these guys WAY too much credit for stuff like this.
I know our culture values accumulating massive amounts of wealth, but the reality is once you have X, each incremental dollar is worth less and less in added comfort, happiness, security, health, family, companionship, sex or whatever else you value. The difference between what these guys could theoretically make and what they actually make because they took less really only matters to people with mental health issues and/or screwed up priortities…which granted is millions of people.
I’m very comfortable, moreso than I thought possible given how poor I was as a kid. I’m nowhere near their league. But I already value about a dozen things over incremental dollars. If I was a professional athlete or team owner, winning would certainly be one of them.
With the increase in ticket prices you are going to see in the future off this finals appearance, the 2nd apron is going to ne a rounding error for Dolan.
I think we are all speculating, and it’s clear that the journalists are as well. There really isn’t any doubt about that. But whatever, again, pawning off speculation as fact is the real issue here, and I’m not the one doing it. We’re all happy with how things turned out, and that’s what matters most.
Leon definitely deserves his flowers for this rebuild, particularly as someone who surrounds himself with talent and connections—and then listens to those people in a way that’s way over most GMs’ heads.
For instance, when he hired Gersson Rosas, everyone here saw a random middleman dismissed by the Twolves for an inappropriate workplace relationship and grumbled. But Leon saw a close confidant of his dream center who insisted upon KAT’s untapped potential.
And that’s just one of many examples of how he sneakily laid this foundation. I think, because none of us have done it, we vastly underrated his expertise as a top agent and what that brought to the table.
Yeah, I love Jalen Brunson but I do find the idea that he “took a pay cut” to be a LITTLE dubious. He just took the max amount of money he could make a year earlier instead of waiting a year where he would have been eligible for a much bigger salary.
to be sure, that move helped the Knicks a lot with the salary cap, so it was a great move for the team. But it’s not ACTUALLY a pay cut. He just locked in the lower amount of guaranteed money now instead of waiting a year.
But, you know, if he’d waited a year and gotten seriously hurt, then his next contract could have ended up being less than what he did sign.
It’s like if my boss said “hey, we’re gonna give you a 10 percent raise this year or you can wait a year with no raise and get a 20 percent raise next year if you hit X, Y, Z goal” and I took the 10 percent raise now. I didn’t take a pay cut. I just took the lower raise now to lock in my increase.
Strat, you’re spot on but the line is different for everyone. #1 problem is that current earnings are often a measure of peer respect.
This is why Lebron can’t bring himself to work for minimum wage even if he stays on the same team with his kid or joins a team ready to win now.
I agree 100% that incremental dollars bring a diminished intrinsic value to happiness life but to each his own. The joy is often on the pursuit of happiness and rarely the destination.
Struggle with this myself. To me there is no state or destination of general happiness. It’s more like fleeting relatively short moments of joy that get intersepted or interrupted by a range of other emotions.
What I found is that ignornce is a bliss and living foolishly or retard maxing is a lot of fun.
Our best memories in life are often when we do stupid shit.
What if that’s not stupid at all but a brilliantly simple path to a joyous, silly and fun filled life?
Jalen’s decision hasn’t really helped us much yet.
He was always going to make $25M last year. So it had no impact on the KAT trade, the Mikal trade, or the OG extension.
He makes $34.9M this year. If he’d waited to sign a new deal, he’d be making $46.3M. So we’d be over the second apron this year. But I think the only thing we did that we couldn’t have done over the apron was sign Yabu to the TPMLE (and trade him for Alvarado).
Where it might make an impact is this summer, when we likely have to go over the 2nd apron. It will be our first year instead of the second.
I agree with you, but imo there’s a point at which it goes from people having different levels of ambition, different values or just wanting to get a fair deal to something else.
The young version of me would understand what I am saying now but not be fully on board. That’s probably because I started poor, was just beginning to get comfortable and wanted a lot more. But when I exceeded my required level of comfort and security, it changed. Now there are loads of things more important to me than “more”. I consider it a sign of maturity and better mental health because I’ve known guys that had more than me now that killed themselves working, ruined marriages and relationships with children etc.. That’s crazy. If I was at the level of an NBA owner or star athlete, the last thing I’d be thinking about is money.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48893787/nba-free-agency-2026-contract-projections-austin-reaves-jalen-duren
Bontemps cites league sources as believing we’re going to keep both Shamet and Mitch on two year deals and go well into the second apron.
Are they able to sign Shamet if they are over the second apron this year?
alright frank, your algorithm is working double time…
turns out one of the top sportscenter stories today is about sga flopping…
hope the spurs fans boo him like crazy every time he tries to lay down on the court while the game is going on…
Yes, Marechal. They can offer Landry up to ~$11M, which I suspect will be enough.
Yes, up to ~$11M. EB Rights are 175% of previous year salary or 105% of previous year average NBA salary.
My bad, EB. Any question about early bird rights is clearly your ball.
The trick, as others have pointed out, is figuring out a way to re-sign Diawara without getting hard-capped at the second apron, which would prevent us from keeping Landry and Mitch.
If forced to choose, I’d obviously choose the vets, given where we are in the win cycle. But if anyone can figure out a way to make it all legal with the cap, it’s Brock Aller.
Isn’t there some seniority involved? Otherwise wouldn’t we be able to offer Diawara that money as well? Or did it have something to do with the Exhibit 10 stuff?
Yeah, that Bontemps article is good news. I’d rather have Mitch and Shamet than Diawara.
Agree on Crawford. Needs more swag. Just generally bland.
Jefferson isn’t there either. He is not as terrible as you would expect but the whole “Travis Kelce’s girlfriend” thing was sort of funny once, and not the next two times.
It’s amazing how hard it is to get someone good in that role. I honestly think few have done it better than Clyde.
If we win it all, I am super excited for the Broadway musical about it in which Brock Allen is revealed to be the true genius behind the Knicks revival, just as I have always suspected.
I “Bookmarked” this (as you folks like to say) yesterday because I knew it would age so well.
During the next Lenten season contemplating a touch less hubris might be in order.
You apologized to the wrong guy.
I’m thinking OKC finishes off the series tonight, but will be rooting hard for Spurs.
Pulling SO hard for San Antonio tonight, and since the playoffs have given me everything else I wanted this season, I am assuming San Antonio pulls it out to keep me happy.
Oh for FUCK’S sake. Mitch broke his pinky this week, no one knows how or when, and no one knows his status for the Finals.
God damn it. It truly seemed like we somehow made it to the Finals healthy. Goes without saying without Mitch our ceiling is much lower and our odds are materially impacted. I don’t want to see Ariel fucking Hukporti try to guard Wemby or anyone on OKC.
If Mitch is out for Finals I guess that means we should prefer OKC over the Spurs?
I vaguely remember Mitch holding his hand in pain in game 4, but it seemed more like his wrist and that he shook it off.
I think someone like Mitch can play at close to 100% with a broken pinky. Just tape it up to the adjacent finger. It’s not like it will adversely affect his shooting! Bernard King played with two broken fingers in that awesome playoff run vs. DET and BOS.
Yeah, I’m not that concerned about a broken pinky, either, especially not for a guy like Mitch. Maybe I’m being too Pollyanna on this, but I think that’s not a huge deal.
I did say out loud “literally what does Mitchell Robinson need his pinky for, free throw shooting?” to my girlfriend just now, but I guess catching lobs and securing rebounds involve the pinky right?
IF Mitch is out, then I think I’d still prefer San Antonio over OKC. I think they’re just not as good as OKC.
But the main thing, of course, is that I need for this series to go 7.
Let’s not panic. It might make him an 80% FT shooter.
put a pin in it, tape it to the finger next to it…
he’ll be fine, doesn’t hurt me at all…
This sucks.
Okay, I’ll admit, Shams saying “no timetable for his return” suggests that this is a bigger deal than I thought.
I was in a pretty competitive league in Westchester about a decade ago and jammed and broke the end joint on my right pinky about 2 games into the season. I went to see a big shot UES hand surgeon who gave me a special splint. I only half-assed the splint and played the entire season without it. It never healed quite right and still angles a bit forward instead of backwards, but I had a great season. At 5’11” and in a league with lots of 35-45yo college-level players I was third in rebounding and had 18 one game! One of the prominent players in the league is now is one of the owners of the Hornets (Rick Schnall, on the shorter side but great athlete and really good player.)
I’m expecting Mitch to start taking and hitting threes, like Josh!
You sweep two series in a row, get a lot of rest, and still get a freak injury. Freaking annoying.
Trying to be optimistic: if he indeed broke it in Game 4, we’d probably know by now if he needed surgery.
I think you guys should want to face the best opponent on equal ground. The knicks are good, root for your hopes not your fears!
let’s go spurs…so much more enjoyable to root for than okc…
“I think you guys should want to face the best opponent on equal ground. The knicks are good, root for your hopes not your fears!”
Fuck you bitch.
stuff happens, seeing how he was already struggling a bit with how he was feeling, tough timing for mitch…
who knows, maybe it focuses him, gives him some sense of wanting to persevere even more…
no doubt his teammates and team are doing all they can to support him and get him ready to go next week…
SGA has been pretty pedestrian in this series so far.
nice sign in san antonio: Most Valuable Phlopper
with a pic of sga…
Just saw a sign in the stands, with a pic of SGA:
“Most Valuable Phlopper”
Damn you, geo..
dylan harper, come on down, you are our next contestant on Superstars Rising
fox looks like he’s moving at about 70% or less.. fortunately castle, vassell and harper are all playing well…
this series is going seven games…fingers crossed for another game like tonight…
OAKAAK luke kornet’s return is still a possibility…
hmmmmmm, maybe these two teams are starting to tire out a bit…
well mister raven, may I ask: do you have a favorite bird…
around here hawks are really top predator bird…
supported an instructor one time whom was teaching out on some alaskan island, said the eagles there were thick as a park filled with pigeons…
took some photos out the class window…such beautiful animals…
remember being young out in some desert canyon and seeing a vulture…pretty impressively sized creatures, was suprised by that…
just noticed, the spurs have 5 centers on their roster…that seems like a lot…
edit: last thing on wemby’s mind right now is the media…good luck on saturday young man…
Hey geo, I love all my avian progeny equally. Although I do have a soft spot for the hoopoe, which not only has a wonderfully silly name but has a massively silly look, and ends it all with the delightfully stupid scientific name of Upupa epops.
Then again the ubiquitous American robin is known in some circles as ‘shit on the move,’ as its scientific name is Turdus migratorius.