Worst trade in Knicks history, IMO.
I still think the post-Ewing era morphed into a complete disaster because four simple things went horribly wrong:
FACT #1: New York Knicks had a shot to catch lightning in a bottle. Fresh off their miraculous run the Finals, as the 8th seed after finishing 27-23 in the shortened lock-out season....
We'll never know what might have happened, had Dolan sat tight and resist the urge to fire Ernie Grunfeld during the 1999 season. At the time, the Knicks were underachieving (21-21) and on the verge of missing thre post season. Baby Dolan just took over control from his father, and he wanted to make his mark.... Do what most dictators do when they come into power - lob off some heads.
Before Scott Layden would take over, Mr. Ed Tapscott would serve as interim GM. He would finish out the year and oversee the upcomin draft. We didn't realize it then (even though this boner has now reached almost mythological status) but this draft could have been our shortcut to the post-Ewing era. Had we got "lucky" here, we would have transitioned from Ewing to non-Ewing without so much a hiccup. Instead, we blew our chance.
Tapscott drafts a frenchman, Frederic Weis, with our first round pick. Everyone knew, and called for, Ron Artest. Tapscott passes on the local kid, and he gets taken with the next pick (like 10 seconds after Stern utters WEISS).
Sure, everyone was going Euro back then. It was in vogue. The international players were gaining a reputation by the end of the 20th century, and we were on the right track. For example, in the second round the Knicks drafted JR Koch with 49th pick. Eleven picks later the Spurs draft Manu Ginobili!
WOW. We had our shot folks. Ron Artest and Manu Ginobili are still leading their teams into the post season, producing and putting up numbers. Doesn't it burn? Not only does San Antonio beat us in the 1999 NBA Finals, but here they are doing what we needed to do.... Transitioning into the post-David Robinson era in a smooth (and lucky) fashion!
FACT #2: Trading Ewing for bad contracts upon worse contracts and so-on. We should have simply let his contract expire. Bad move Scott Layden. Trading him for half a-carrahap of nothing useful was stupid and destructive. That's all I;m going to say about that! 'Nuff!
FACT #3: Enter Isiah Thomas. Trades for Steph Marbury. Like an addict looking for a quick fix, he bought high.... PHO had a nice little run with Marbury at the helm, he was a local kid, so IT swung for the fences right away. Pulled an oblique hacking away, didn't he? He did average 19 & 19 & 21 & 8, and got us into the playoffs... but then he broke down (in more ways the one). What hurt were the draft picks we gave away!
If we could go back in time, we would have resisted the urge for the quick fix and dove into the free agent pool.... Steve Nash was a free agent, and we helped PHO rebuild but giving them cap releif.
FACT #4: And here we are again... Helping other teams rebuild, right? First it was San Antonio, then Phoenix and now it's our turn to help our former arch enemy, the Chicago Bulls. After we signed free agent Jamal Crawford, we decide to go for it all again.... Trade for Eddy Curry. Curry did have 1 good year, but his lack of effort was legendary in CHI and we should have been aware of this!
Again, as with Marbury, I see what Thomas was thinking. Curry was young and was a legit NBA CENTER. These don't grow on trees, and we tried to find a way to lcuk into one. I mean, not like Sweetney or anything was something special. Even with the next pick (#2 in 2006), had Curry been in that draft he might have been taken over Aldridge or Thomas, and who knew about B-Roy?
Still, IT should have done his homework. He saw Curry as another CHICAGO kid, like he, and felt he could work with him.... Being from CHI though, he should have been aware of the warning signs. The heart of Curry (not his heart).
When you consider that we gave up 2 potential lottery pick.... This was the killer.
FINALLY.... although 3 GMs had a hand in robbing a decade from the lives of us Knicks fans, the one person who deserves the most blame- James Dolan!
The dude traded away Spree and Camby b/c of a bogus problem with media relations mandatory meetings. He axed a proven GM, and had an idiot ruin a critical draft, and then handed the keys to his franchise to 2 inexperienced but well-meaning GMs.
Knicks had a shot to draft guys like Artest and Ginobili... could have matched those 2 with Camby... Who knows what happens after that!
