Bron's Age Nears

Shapecity · Nov 22, 2008

SO now we get to see if we really mean what we have said all along, that we are not a city driven by our most impatient impulses, that we are a sporting town willing to fix our gaze on the big picture even if it means having to swallow some pellets of bile along the way.

There was nothing at all subtle about what president Donnie Walsh did yesterday, a brash, transparent re-working of the 2008-09 Knicks that was really about laying the groundwork for the 2010-11 Knicks. This is what he had promised all along, of course. This was what he had signed on for.

He has never said, "The New York KnicksNew York Knicks are looking forward to the summer of 2010 so we can welcome LeBron James to town," because that probably would be construed as tampering.

But he might as well have said it. Might as well have sent the message in neon to the rest of the league. Because all across the NBA yesterday, that was the message that was delivered loud, clear, true and unmistakably.

As one league source said, "There has never been any doubt in anyone's mind that the Knicks wanted No. 23 [James]. I think we were all looking to see if they would really have the fortitude to get in place to make it happen. And now we know."

Now everyone knows. Walsh wasn't brought here to keep up the decade-long habit of throwing good money after bad, of collecting a pile of bad contracts higher than the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. He said that was so. He swore that was so.

Now he delivers. Now he exiles Jamal CrawfordJamal Crawford , a good player who has deserved better than his playoff-free career, and Zach RandolphZach Randolph , a 20-and-10 player who always was going to be more valuable for what he could return than for what he could produce. He clears up gobs of salary cap room for 2010, with the promise of more to follow.

And Walsh lays it out on the table, a year and a half in advance of James' free agency, something for LeBron - and for everyone else - to ponder for the next 18 months.

That includes the Knicks' own fans, who had started to re-acclimate themselves to relevance again, who had seen Crawford and Randolph combine for 40 points a game in edging the Knicks back into a watchable product again, and who may have heard Madison Square Garden start sounding like more of a basketball arena again and less of a morgue.

None of that can matter now, or knock anyone's eyes off the larger prize. The players the Knicks received in return yesterday - Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley, Al Harrington - are serviceable NBA players who, if they play at their career levels, should be able to keep the Knicks knocking on the eighth-seed door.

As far as short-term goals go, that should be enough, for now.

Long term? Long-term, 2010 will yield a wealth of available talent, all of it known, all of it pricey, all of it enough to make the Knicks interesting again. Featuring one name, above all, that could make the Knicks beyond interesting again. Forget what the calendar says: 2010 arrived yesterday. For real.
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Source: NY Post

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Bron's Age Nears

Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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Bron's Age Nears

Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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