Grunfeld's map leads to Knicks?

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — As a freshman at Ramapo High School nine years ago, Dan Grunfeld already was plotting a Division I basketball future.

Then his father Ernie went to dinner one night with Dave Checketts and lost his job as Knicks' president over dessert after 17 years in the organization.

Dan eventually went to Stanford, something he said he planned after visiting a grandmother on the West Coast. Little did he know, though, that his father's firing christened what's become nearly a decade as "a bit of a nomad."

"I remember that day very vividly," Grunfeld, a 6-foot-6 guard, said before breaking training camp with the Knicks after five days at Skidmore College, "but I think things worked out great for me personally and for my family."

Ernie Grunfeld eventually moved to Milwaukee to take over the Bucks, then Washington, where he now runs the Wizards — and the place Dan now calls home after completing his high school career in Milwaukee.

Dan then hopped onto what he hoped would be an NBA fast track at Stanford, where he was the Pac-10's second-leading scorer his junior year — before tearing the ACL in his right knee.

Career not over, but waylaid, for at age 24, he just completed his first NBA training camp.

"I can't exactly tell you where I'd be, but of course it'd be different," he said of how his eventual knee surgery altered his career. "Stuff is going to happen and it's really how you deal with it. I'm proud of how I've dealt with it. I've been to Europe and now I'm back here and just enjoying the experience."

An experience where he faces huge odds to stick because he's essentially the 18th and last player on a roster with 15 guaranteed contracts — the opening-night maximum.

"The numbers are tough for him," coach Mike D'Antoni said Saturday, "but I think he's made a nice impression. He's a good kid to have around."

A scorer both in Spain last season and Germany the year before, as well at Stanford, Grunfeld, if he has an NBA future, acknowledges it's as a player "doing some intangibles and picking my spots offensively …

"I'm not the first option. I'm OK with that. I'm OK with doing the little things to try to help this team win."

If not, he may have to dig out his passport, because he expects there will be opportunities in Europe again, if not the NBA, and he's fine with it if that's the case.

"I'm very blessed to play basketball for a living," he said. "I loved being in Spain last year and if it worked out [with the Knicks], that would be great, but I love what I do."

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/knicks/30479019.html