B’klyn no longer feels like winner of 2019 free agency
June 30, 2019, was the most important day in the history of the Knicks-Nets rivalry. At least it felt that way at the time. It was the summer of Kevin Durant and, to a lesser extent, Kyrie Irving. A perfect 80 degrees on the eve of free agency. Durant’s desire to play in NYC provided hope the five boroughs would finally produce another NBA champion, whether it was above Penn Station or across the Brooklyn Bridge. In the years since, we’ve learned a few tidbits: the Knicks, according to a source, weren’t interested in Irving. They were rightly concerned about the point guard’s unreliability and instead pitched Durant on teamwith ing up Kemba Walker (also a
2019 free agent).
Once convinced Durant was coming to Madison Square Garden, the Steve Mills-Scott Perry front office, according to sources, relayed to people that they lost their optimism after the former MVP tore his Achilles in the NBA Finals. They understood weeks before free agency that Durant was likely lost to Irving and the Nets.
We know what happened next: Durant chose his buddy Irving, who had been focused on Brooklyn as a former New Jersey Nets fan. They brought tagalong DeAndre Jordan for an easy $40 million payWalker, day. the Bronx native, didn’t want to come home yet and signed with Boston. Kawhi Leonard chose home and joined the Clippers.
So the Knicks were left searching for fillers on short-term contracts. Since the superstars all signed elsewhere, most depressingly to the crosstown rival, the team sent out a statement on June 30, 2019. It began, “While we understand that some Knicks fans could be disappointed with tonight’s news. ….” Not exactly inspiring excitement for their big signing that night, Julius Randle.
Fast forward 3 years and you wouldn’t believe how this turned out.
Of the 13 players signed by the Knicks and Nets in 2019, only Randle remains in New York. Improbably, he did more to elevate basketball in this city than anybody else in that free agency group (we wanted to talk to Randle but the Knicks didn’t make him available to the media after Monday’s victory over the Celtics).
Durant’s wandering eye took him to Phoenix. It’s his latest attempt to find the happiness that so obviously eludes him. The 34-year-old was great when he played in Brooklyn, which was only 46% of the games. Irving also didn’t do much basketball stuff but built a strong fanbase among the anti-vaxxers and antisemites. They brought Brooklyn a single playoff series victory.
The Knicks? They went through ups and downs but arrived at Wednesday’s intra-borough game with a better record and greater possibilities. They have the best coach in the city, Tom Thibodeau, and the two best players, Randle and Jalen Brunson. They also aren’t saddled with Ben Simmons, the ugliest mark on the record of Nets GM Sean Marks’ growing list of mishaps. n a reversal of what we know about the Knicks in this millennium, Josh Hart had to join the team at the trade deadline to get excited about his first-ever playoff appearance.
“We win two more games this season and that will be my most winning season in my career,” said the sixyear veteran ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Nets. “It’s something I’m very excited about. I think we have a team that can make some noise. I think it’s a team that can make a run and surprise some people. We gotta continue building, but that’s something I’m extremely excited about, something that we all talk about a little bit. We try to take it game by game, but that’s definitely in the back of our mind.”
It seems impossible but the Knicks emerged as the NYC winner of June 30, 2019.
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