Obviously, everyone has it, but I just figured I’d link to SNY because I’ve been so impressed with Ian Begley this season.
Anyhow, here it is:
Dear Knicks Fans:
I want to take this moment to introduce myself and tell you how proud I am to oversee this historic franchise as President of the New York Knicks. This is a pivotal time in Knicks history, so I want to let you know what you can expect from me and our organization moving forward.
Having been fortunate enough to be part of professional basketball for more than 25 years, I have had the privilege of helping to shape the careers of many incredible athletes throughout those decades, collaborating with key decision makers and personnel within the basketball universe.
In my career as an agent, I experienced the intricacies of the League, player recruitment and most importantly, how to develop relationships, unity and team cohesiveness. To be successful in the NBA, you need the best talent, a tireless work ethic, a winning culture and a total commitment to the development of both the individual and the team. I know that the ability to forge solid, productive relationships is what binds all that together.
For the remainder of this season, I will work tirelessly behind the scenes while evaluating every aspect of the organization. Most immediately, we will support Mike Miller, his staff and our team, who have plenty of basketball left to be played this season. I want to thank Mike for his continued leadership and professionalism during this period.
Our team has young talent, significant future assets (including seven first round picks over the next four years) and an ample amount of financial flexibility in the coming years. Everyone – from ownership to athletes, to staff and especially our fans – wants this team to be a winner. We will have all the resources necessary to create a great organization – one that supports our efforts to build a winning culture and gives Knicks fans, and the city of New York, the team you deserve.
Nothing about this is easy, or quick, so I ask for your continued patience. What I promise you in return is that I will be honest and forthright. We will develop a plan that makes sense, both to jumpstart our short-term growth and ensure our long-term success. Our team will work hard, stick together and ensure we live up to the honor of wearing the New York Knicks jersey.
While I realize that there have been difficulties on the court, what has been remarkable to me is that your pride remains so strong, your loyalty undiminished. Rest assured, I will do everything I can to create a winning organization.
I look forward to seeing you at The Garden.
Leon
Nothing there to really make you too concerned. So that’s something!
Come on, Leon Rose, be good at your job please!
39 replies on “SNY.com: Read new Knicks president Leon Rose’s full letter to fans”
read in plain english: oh my god, it amazes me just how gullible, desperate and stupid knick fans are…boy am i gonna make a boatload of sweaty cash off of you dumb fucks
Brian, many thanks for posting this. Let’s hope this is indeed a pivotal moment for the Knicks. It could always turn into more if the same instead.
I like the support for Miller and the promise to evaluate things before making changes. But I’m scared of the jump start our short term success part.
“realtionships” kick’s the snot out of three point defense and shooting every time…every time…
can i get a hug…
Just like everything in these letters, it doesn’t really tell us anything. Yeah it’s nice that he’s saying this, but were scarred enough as fans to not take this at face value anyway so why bother.
I legit don’t get what the fuck he’s talking about with that line. Everything else made sense, but that one line was just bananas.
I don’t understand it either. But it made me think maybe he wants some win now moves, which would be just like previous failed managements. If it’s just more marketing of what we have, I can live with that.
With respect to Rose’s letter, one of the many elements of the pathology of being an intelligent dedicated Knick fan is that you parse letters and presser statements with the same degree of analysis as a Talmudic or Constitutional scholar. Unfortunately, these statements are intended for consumption by the least common denominator of Knick fans. In the end, the only thing that matters is what Rose does.
Bondy’s tweet here is valid but I think the guy is reaching a little bit.
I also don’t care what the guy says in the press release. Just hire the right guys who will draft the right guys and trade Julius Randle for the right guys. That’s how we’ll know if Leon Rose is the right guy.
I’m already looking forward to his second letter.
Every new Knicks executive has their “ah, so he’s also a dumbass” moment. I wonder what Rose’s will be. Recent history of these moments:
Grunwald but I think really Dolan: Bargnani trade
Phil: Mega Max Melo
Mills: THJ contract
Perry: just about everything this past offseason
Any good predictions for Rose’s? I’ll go with an absolutely insane trade for Bradley Beal.
https://twitter.com/townbrad/status/1234298897088106496
I don’t think it’s fair to put this off season on Perry. Once Mills got fired, Perry did the right thing with the Morris deal, and the contract valuation stuff makes me lean towards Mills because the same guy who gives Ron Baker the full MLE is probably dumb enough to think Bobby Portis is worth $16M and Wayne Ellington is worth $8M. I mean really. Steve Mills did so much damage in that two week period when Phil Jackson was gone that I can’t blame Perry for anything.
nobody should be able to be that damn funny – in their second or third language…that’s not even fair 🙂
I didn’t interpret the jump start comment as something necessarily bad. In the context of everything else the letter said about having good future assetts, flexible cap space, etc, supporting Miller…it seemed more like a comment saying how can we tweak things to immediately get better but not lets sign a faux star to jump us to 25 wins or something like that. Maybe I’m wrong.
I think it’s a little weird not to have a press conference. I get that there isn’t ever much to say at that kind of thing, but given that a big part of Rose’s brief is to generate a sense of respectability/normalcy I think for him to smile and spout the required platitudes would’ve been a good first step.
Still the proof will of course be in the pudding. He’s going to be in the deep end pretty soon – the (presumed) hiring of a coach this summer; a high draft pick; and as one of the relatively few teams with significant cap space we will certainly have a lot of options. If he’s planning to make a GM hire that’s not Perry I would think they’d want to do that pretty quickly. More likely I suspect Perry stays on for the time being.
I’m dead serious.
I’m already outside the greek post office waiting!
😉
I still can’t shake the paranoia that by signing Leon Rose we have officially sworn fealty to CAA. That could pay off with higher level players, but I think the specter of Chris Smith is a more likely portent of things to come. As long as they keep pulling strings so Guitar Jimmy gets to open for real bands, the potential is there for CAA to take advantage.
I stuck with Phil until the Noah contract and the Rose trade. That’s when I knew Phil had no idea what the fuck he was doing and should probably go back out into the desert to find his spirit animal.
Leon Rose is the NYK equivalent of Brodie Van Wagenen to me until he proves otherwise.
Picking one for Phil was hard because it was pretty clear from the start that he wasn’t going to be good, but I would agree that offseason was when we officially entered “ah okay he’s truly got no idea what he’s doing” territory.
Jimmy, Stoutter and Rose (sure perry and mills were not at the dais) got together and decided that none of them…especially Rose wanted to have to answer questions from the press as to (a) is he going to fire Perry and/or who the GM is going to be, (b) i s he going to fire Miller and/ or who the coaching candidates are and (c) what his vision is for the team …so they cobbled together the meaningless press release and hunkered down until the end of the season…more of the same ole shit…
We can rest easy…Stephen A smith has blessed the decision to hire Rose…
contest: you are the new president of the knicks. you are not permitted to hold a press conference due to coronavirus fears slash orwellian ownership, but you are permitted to write a letter to literate knick fans. write the letter.
“Hey guys. I’m gonna take on as many salary dumps as possible and buy all the second rounders Dolan lets me and fill out the roster with young guys who didn’t get drafted or are doing well in the G-League or whatever and not really hit the free agent market outside of rare circumstances until I feel we have a good young core. Buckle up!”
I wonder if attendance is going to go down for NBA games as the virus spreads
Translation: “Mike, you’re still pre-fired, but thanks for continuing to show up and do what we tell you, and please don’t make this situation harder on me, the real victim. Sorry/not sorry you don’t have enough relationships to survive.”
i’ll tell ya grocer, trying to understand exactly why we seem to forever be doomed occupies more of my thoughts than what it rightfully should…and, i too seem to be guilty of enjoying the pleasures of staring at a burning car wreck…
armchair diagnosing from afar is pretty worthless normally…this though seems the only thing to make sense when you consider how often the whole: knowing the right people mantra gets repeated by anyone associated with the organization…
i guess it’s only crazy to those of us whom have no shot in the world of: it’s not what you know but whom you know…
was just reading an article about how a bunch of classmates have gained a fairly strong voice within daddy donnie’s circle jerk of trust…
i’ve always known my intelligence quotient is pretty average at best…i had thought though my understanding of people would maybe benefit me a bit more in life…i guess understanding people and having the ability to actually connect and partner with them are two very different aspects of social intelligence…
Meh seems pretty stock standard new exec stuff. Positive is it seems Rose is inclined to operate somewhat under the radar while the season is on. I don’t hate the no press conference call. If you recall back to Phil being hired, there was so much speculation raised at the press conference about Woodsons position, so I don’t hate the whole “let me review things first and get back to you” position. Nice show of support for Miller too, regardless of how you feel about him.
“I want to thank Mike for his continued leadership and professionalism during this period,” reads like a prequel to a firing…
These back-to-back Tommy Beer tweets are very funny:
&
I like that there isn’t a press conference.
I mean, every new GM/president of bball operations has had a big press conference. The Phil thing was huge and it was mid season. And those didn’t work out.
This is more low key. Hey, I’m here. I want to do work and this is what’s going to happen initially.
Just low key and behind the scenes. No talk of “THIS IS A NEW DAY IN KNICKS BASKETBALL!”
Would it be a firing, or just a “not hired” situation? I can’t think of many situations off the top of my head where the interim HC that doesn’t get the permanent position hangs around.
The other reason I am hopeful. Yes, Rose is a CAA guy and that could just mean they think they just need a dude with good relationships with stars. But also, as a top CAA NBA basketball agent, this dude has talked to A LOT of players (and coaches) and knows what they like, don’t like and knows a little bit about every organization and what they do well. I mean, these players talk about what kind of money/salary they want but also what kind of organization they want and what players think of this team or that and their organization. Rose can come in from day one and say “this is what the rockets do well, this is what the heat do well, this is what players like about The Spurs, etc.” He can see what we do and compare it to what other teams do.
Maybe that is naive but I think he does have a good handle on what the NBA teams do well and don’t do well and what players really want and like with an organization. That’s good perspective as far as changing an organization.
I guess if cargo cult-ism works anywhere it’ll work in the NBA.
Yeah, I’ve noted that before, as well, that Miller has been talking out of both sides of his mouth for some time now in terms of the importance of minutes.
I assume Miller isn’t deciding who to call up from the G-league so idk what he’s supposed to say.
The truth is that players do need some minutes in actual games to learn how to use the skills they practice and learn defense and other things. They can get minutes in either G league or in the NBA. I think it’s less important where they get them than that they get them somewhere. So to a first approximation, those who aren’t getting NBA minutes should get some G League minutes. But which place to get minutes is best and how many they need may depend on the player and what he needs to work on most. By this standards, most Knicks are probably getting enough playing time. The two who seem to get short changed are Kadeem Allen and Alonzo Trier.
We’re going to give up like 60 3s tonight. Hoping RJ can play well-annecdotally he does well against teams without decent shotblocking
I don’t think avoiding contradicting yourself should be that hard.
There’s room for both statements to be true. Something like 15 NBA minutes is better than 30 G League minutes is better than 0-5 NBA minutes.