The news of Amare Stoudemire agreeing to join the Knicks barely took a nibble out of the Big Apple on Monday. It wasnt the five-time All-Stars $100 million contract that led the 11 oclock news, but the 99-degree temperature achieved in Central Park. New recommendations for osteoporosis testing and a naked intruder in Pacific Beach, Calif., came before Stoudemire and his crisp new Knicks hat posing outside Madison Square Garden.
Amare Stoudemire makes the Knicks a more attractive suitor in the chase for LeBron. (AP) As colleague Sam Amico responded on Twitter, its hard to beat a good naked intruder story. But make no mistake: This was an important day for the Knicks as a basketball franchise at this transformative time in NBA history. Stoudemire may not be guy, but hes as big a guy as the Knicks have had since Patrick Ewing. And thats not necessarily the point anyway. By landing the first game-changer of this crazy free-agent summer, the Knicks pushed the story down Seventh Avenue, hoping to nudge it all the way to Akron, Ohio, before theyre done.
As Stoudemire was wrap attending a Broadway show and dining in the Meatpacking District on Saturday night, then hitting the Yankees game and Garden chairman James Dolans Fourth of LeBron James was busy making an unscheduled appearance at his Nike camp in Akron. A were linked in the mind, imagination and blueprint of Knicks president Donnie Walsh. After all the scorn and ridicule it was Walsh, the dean of NBA executives, who called the first bluff of free agency.
It was Walsh who slid his queen diagonally across the chess board and said, in his gravelly voice and understated way, “Check. Your ki cant make a decision. Walsh, who has been running NBA teams longer than any of them has been alive, made the first move. A bold one. And whatever you think of Stoudemire, his suspect knees and surgically repaired retina, Walshs eyes are clear and unwavering in the staring contest that Walsh will not be the one to let them see him sweat.
Walshs plan may not work exactly as he envisioned. Stoudemire, 28, who carried the Suns to the Western Conference finals and wouldve beaten the Lakers with one more superstar on his side, may be the best card Walsh is dealt in this high-stakes game of free-agent poker. But here is what Walsh did by getting a commitment from Stoudemire, a player who is at least on Bosh, Carlos Boozer, and the Knicks own David Lee: He transformed the Knicks from a mirage of cap space and nebulous studies about turning basketball stars into billionaires into something else.
A basketball team. Or at least, the very real beginning of one.
“Theyre starting something,” All-Star Carmelo Anthony is said to have uttered to confidants Monday upon hearing the news of Stoudemires commitment to the Knicks. Theyve started something that will be finished this summer or next, when Anthony could be involved if he follows through on his instincts to pass on a three-year, $65 million extension with the Nuggets and take a complete with the threat of a new collective bargaining agreement and lockout.
Anthony was just a kid in New York when the Knicks were in their most recent heyday, a time when they were the villains trying to take d has thought about stepping into the superstar vacuum that has been Madison Square Garden since the ill-fated trade of Ewing to Seattle brought an end to more than a decade of successful basketball in New York.
And if hes thinking about it, you can bet that his close friends, LeBron and Wade, are thinking about it, too.
The best-case scenario for Anthony would be for James and Wade to spurn the Knicks and then arrive next summer as a conquering hero to join Stoudemire and whatever supporting pieces Walsh can assemble with the $17 million of cap space he has left. (Point guards Raymond Felton and Luke Ridnour, shooters Mike Miller and Ray Allen, and big man Andris Biedrins are believed to be on Walshs radar.) The pie in the sky involves LeBron or Wade joining Stoudemire in the next few days, and then Walsh finding a way to transform what is expected to be between $11 million and $14 million in cap space next summer into Anthony a year from now. Nobody knows whether that will work because nobody knows what the cap will be or what the new CBA will say. But after carving $34 million of cap space from the rotting carcass left for him by Isiah Thomas, and then drawing first blood in this cutthroat free-agent conflict, have we learned yet that this is a man not to be underestimated?
Only a handful of people know what LeBron is thinking with the free-agent signing period less than 48 hours away. Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland revealed on Twitter on Monday that James is still undecided and is discussing his decision with only a couple of his closest confidants. His decision warrants further discussion after Monday. Until now, free agency has been controlled by James, Wade and Bosh, with their high-powered representation and back-channel deal-m was running the game.
Ive always been a believer in the intangibles offered by the Garden and Walshs city in this free-agent sweepstakes. But its also been clear that the top free agents would need something more. That is why the Knicks left about half their pitch session with LeBron last Thursday to coach Mike DAntoni, who went one-on-one with James in that Cleveland office tower to explain the basketball reasons to join him. Stoudemire, who was at or near the top of James list of players he wanted the Cavs to acquire at the February trade deadline, has become another one of those reasons.
Its anybodys guess how this turns out. If Stoudemire is the best the Knicks get this summer, theyre OK with it. But James –- and lets not forget Wade -– now have reasons other than flashy biz-school studies to come play in the arena they always rave about. Now, signing up to run the pick-and-roll with Stoudemire and kick the ball to emerging sharpshooter Danilo Gallinari doesnt look like a joke compared to joining Derrick Rose and Joakim Noa those will be two formidable rosters as well. Yet theres plenty of data to suggest that whoever comes to play with Stoudemire will get the better end of the deal.
However this plays out, the Knicks are no longer the dark horse capable of transforming James into Warren Buffet Jr. but not a champion. The game has changed. The Knicks have been about aura and emptiness for too long. On Monday, Walsh turned them back into a basketball team. And despite the age difference, he was suddenly speaking LeBrons language.
