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Winning the NBA championship and breaking a 53-year long drought is the best thing that's happened to the New York Knicks in a long time, but winning the championship may have had an unexpected consequence.
LeBron James has become the new talk of the NBA this offseason after news came out that he would be parting ways with the Los Angeles Lakers after eight seasons and entering free agency in search of a new team.
Even after more than two decades dominating the NBA, James is still a clear contributor on the court and commands star power that few players in the game today could, so naturally there are a handful of teams interested in netting the future Hall of Famer for the final seasons of his career.
The Knicks are one of those teams. They've been interested in James in the past and with them fresh off of a dominant playoff run, it would seem like now would be the perfect time for them to add another superstar.
But according to a recent statement from James' agent Rich Paul, it's the fact that the Knicks did win the championship that's keeping them out of the running for James.
“If the Knicks hadn’t won, there would be no board. He’d be going to the Knicks," Paul said.
This is definitely a surprising thing to hear and seems to stand in opposition to what the conventional opinion in the NBA would be about a player joining a championship team, but looking at James' history may shed some light into what he may be thinking now.
James said he was looking for "fun" with whomever his new team ended up being and while the Knicks certainly have a fun team, they also have the added pressure of being the defending champions and trying to repeat their success.
That kind of pressure may not be what James is looking for. Joining a Knicks team that has been in playoff contention without going all the way is an entirely different situation and comes with less expectations for James to navigate.
Factoring in the kind of scrutiny that James has dealt with his entire career, it would be easy to see a scenario where, should join the Knicks and they not repeat as champions, something that no team has done since the 2017-18 Warriors, James would be blamed for disrupting the team's chemistry and dooming them to fail.
That kind of situation happening in a media and fan market as brutal as New York's is the exact opposite of fun and if James is thinking with that kind of foresight, then avoiding the situation altogether seems to be more in line with his desires.
Even if James wanted to come to the Knicks, it would be hard for them to even sign him.
Owner James Dolan has been adamant about not taking the Knicks into the second apron and even if James took a pay cut to come to New York, the price it would take to sign him would likely result in several of free agents from this season's roster going elsewhere, which might hurt the team more than James could ever help them.
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LeBron James has become the new talk of the NBA this offseason after news came out that he would be parting ways with the Los Angeles Lakers after eight seasons and entering free agency in search of a new team.
Even after more than two decades dominating the NBA, James is still a clear contributor on the court and commands star power that few players in the game today could, so naturally there are a handful of teams interested in netting the future Hall of Famer for the final seasons of his career.
The Cost of a Championship
The Knicks are one of those teams. They've been interested in James in the past and with them fresh off of a dominant playoff run, it would seem like now would be the perfect time for them to add another superstar.
But according to a recent statement from James' agent Rich Paul, it's the fact that the Knicks did win the championship that's keeping them out of the running for James.
“If the Knicks hadn’t won, there would be no board. He’d be going to the Knicks," Paul said.
This is definitely a surprising thing to hear and seems to stand in opposition to what the conventional opinion in the NBA would be about a player joining a championship team, but looking at James' history may shed some light into what he may be thinking now.
Pressure to Win
James said he was looking for "fun" with whomever his new team ended up being and while the Knicks certainly have a fun team, they also have the added pressure of being the defending champions and trying to repeat their success.
That kind of pressure may not be what James is looking for. Joining a Knicks team that has been in playoff contention without going all the way is an entirely different situation and comes with less expectations for James to navigate.
Factoring in the kind of scrutiny that James has dealt with his entire career, it would be easy to see a scenario where, should join the Knicks and they not repeat as champions, something that no team has done since the 2017-18 Warriors, James would be blamed for disrupting the team's chemistry and dooming them to fail.
That kind of situation happening in a media and fan market as brutal as New York's is the exact opposite of fun and if James is thinking with that kind of foresight, then avoiding the situation altogether seems to be more in line with his desires.
Even if James wanted to come to the Knicks, it would be hard for them to even sign him.
Owner James Dolan has been adamant about not taking the Knicks into the second apron and even if James took a pay cut to come to New York, the price it would take to sign him would likely result in several of free agents from this season's roster going elsewhere, which might hurt the team more than James could ever help them.
Continue reading...
