The New York Knicks are hiring CAA’s William Wesley as Executive Vice President/Senior Advisor

[WargamesX]

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Perk is an idiot though so now I am conflicted

[Jeff Van Gully]

Hopefully he got all his tampering done before accepting this post

[god shammgod]

well damn

[Billy Goat]

Yeah, this will sure work out. Nothing changes with this franchise.

[thebuzzardman]

Hopefully he got all his tampering done before accepting this post

Right? The fact that he's officially hired make he a lot LESS excited about him.

Hopefully this is just his cover assignment.

Of course, it's the Knicks, so he'll get busted tampering in a gigantic scandal and the Knicks get no FA's and have to surrender picks, and the pick they surrender goes on to have a HOF career.

[Jay10]

I may be wrong on the timeline, but didn't we have a lot of CAA guys the last time we were in the playoffs, or weren't we at least more competitive? Then Phil came in a tore it down?

Just checking. Don't flame me for this. I know how the board can get. Hahaha

CAA was behind the Bargnani trade

and Leon Rose was Bargnani's agent.

[god shammgod]

to the people complaining, look at it this way, it's another guy who's above perry on the food chain. i would hire 4 executive vice presidents to minimize the perry effect.

[mpharris36]

to the people complaining, look at it this way, it's another guy who's above perry on the food chain. i would hire 4 executive vice presidents to minimize the perry effect.

we all know who scott perry is

[Zenzibar]

I may be wrong on the timeline, but didn't we have a lot of CAA guys the last time we were in the playoffs, or weren't we at least more competitive? Then Phil came in a tore it down?

Just checking. Don't flame me for this. I know how the board can get. Hahaha

CAA was behind the Bargnani trade

Yes but for the Raptors. Which means they did an EXCELLENT job of fleecing the Knicks. Yeyyyyy!

[Zenzibar]

to the people complaining, look at it this way, it's another guy who's above perry on the food chain. i would hire 4 executive vice presidents to minimize the perry effect.

we all know who scott perry is

You know his brothers pulled the plug on the little man to keep him from crying and Mom, pulling the plug on all of them. Smart kids.

[Triple C]

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[Appleshampoo]

I checked msgnetworks.com and it says Rangers throwback game at 8. Hoping its just not up to date.

Sent from my SM-G970U using RealGM mobile app

[Zenzibar]

Knicks News: World Wide Wes Coming to MSG


Jonathan Macri
15 minutes ago

After months of dancing around the idea that CAA's William Wesley, better known as World Wide Wes, would be assisting his pal Leon Rose from afar, the Knicks dropped a stunner on Wednesday, announcing that he would be joining the front office in an official capacity as Executive Vice President and Senior Basketball Advisor.

The Knicks also made the hire of Alex Kline official, and announced that they were hiring TJ Zanin (brother of Frank Zanin, their new assistant general manager) as a scout as well. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the news about Wesley.

While this is still a developing story, and Leon Rose will speak on MSG Network Wednesday night at 7pm to perhaps add more to it, there are several immediate questions the hire raises. Here are the top five:

5. What does this mean for the coaching search?

There were already plenty of insinuations that the Knicks' head coaching search was heavily tied to CAA, the agency for which Leon Rose helmed basketball operations for many years. This not only meant that Tom Thibodeau was always considered the most likely candidate to get the job, but also left some wondering how much it influenced New York's choice of who else to interview since several of the additional candidates are represented by CAA, as first reported by Marc Berman of the New York Post.

Now that noise will only increase. Marc Stein noted on Twitter that Wes is "a big Tom Thibodeau advocate," seemingly making the Thibs hire even more of an inevitability than it once was.

4. How much power does Scott Perry have left?

This question has gotten louder and louder with each additional Rose hire: first Brock Aller to be his chief-of-staff, then Walt Perrin and Frank Zanin to be the heads of college and pro scouting, respectively, and now World Wide Wes, whose title implies that he will be Perry's superior. Stein also noted how Wesley was already assisting in New York's front office hires from afar.

This is welcome news to those who feel that Perry didn't deserve to be retained in any capacity, and at the very least, puts the pressure on him to show his worth in the 2020-21 season.

3. Why now?

When the Leon Rose hire was first announced, the Athletic initially reported that Wesley would be joining the organization with him, only to later retract that statement, reporting that his other business interests would prevent him from officially joining the team.

Something has obviously changed, whether it's him tying up the necessary loose ends or simply the feeling that more can be accomplished from the inside. To that end, multiple league sources have told me that one name to keep in mind with the World Wide Wes connection is Devin Booker. Booker is a CAA client, and although he has four more years on the extension he signed with the Phoenix Suns, he could be a prime target if the Knicks do eventually try to swing a trade for a young star, as he and Wes are close.

That said, this move could have taken place in July, or August, or any other time before this league year officially ends. Unless...

2. How much does this have to do with Statement-gate?

It can't be ruled out that this move was prompted, at least in part, by the recent PR nightmare involving James Dolan and the Knicks being the last team to put out a statement following the nationwide protests in support of Black Lives Matter.

After Brian Windhorst said on ESPN that the Knicks' popularity among players was at an all time low, it's possible that the powers that be felt this move could help repair that damage, even after the Knicks and Rangers held a youth symposium on Juneteenth to discuss and raise awareness about racial issues. After all, Wesley is arguably the most respected non-former player in the NBA, regardless of race. That he felt comfortable working for James Dolan likely carries a great deal of weight.

Sure enough, after Wesley's hire was announced, one prominent ESPN talking head voiced his strong support:


Kendrick Perkins
✔
@KendrickPerkins
The Knicks hiring William Wesley is the BEST thing that they’ve done in the last DECADE!!! #WorldWideWes


Will this make a difference for their image in the long run? Winning a bit wouldn't hurt, which leads us to the biggest question of all...


1. Was this the right move?

Many have speculated that World Wide Wes could be far more help from outside of the organization than he could be from within, simply because if he stayed with CAA, tampering rules could not apply to him.

Now, he'll be under the same (admittedly lightly enforced) restrictions that any other team employee would be facing.

Will the move ultimately pay off regardless? The people who know the answer to that question better than anyone are likely Rose and Wes themselves, so one has to think they know what they're doing here.

[rajajackal]

the hiring probably has to do with getting ahead of tampering allegations. naive to believe knicks could openly get away with dispatching WWW to do their bidding off the books if all of us on this message board are aware of that possibility

[knickstape21]

Power moves. The Knicks FO presence has changed dramatically.

Phone calls with Leon and Wes will be much more powerful and in control than Mills and Perry.

[Zenzibar]

New York Knicks hire William ‘Worldwide Wes’ Wesley in front office role
By Danny Small - 06/24/2020



The New York Knicks are adding one of the biggest names in the NBA to the front office: William “Worldwide Wes” Wesley.

First reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the New York Knicks are hiring William Wesley, also known as “Worldwide Wes,” as executive vice president/senior advisor to team president Leon Rose. The Knicks confirmed the hire in a team statement.

“We are very excited to announce the hiring of William Wesley, someone that I have known for over 40 years and consider to be family,” Rose said. “He is one of the most well-connected and respected people in the basketball community and he will be a tremendous asset and resource to both myself and the New York Knicks.”

Rose and Wesley have longstanding connections from their time at Creative Artists Agency together. Worldwide Wes has long been viewed as one of the most influential people around the NBA. GQ once referred to Wesley as the “most powerful man in sports.”

“My long history with and respect for Jim Dolan and Leon Rose, as well as the chance to be part of the New York Knicks made this an opportunity I wanted to pursue,” Wesley said. “I look forward to joining the current staff and moving the organization toward a successful future.”

Very early on after Rose was hired by the Knicks, there were rumors that Wesley would be joining him. Those rumors fizzled out fairly quickly, reportedly due to conflicting business interests, but it’s clear that things have changed.

What does this mean for the Knicks? Well, for one, they are adding another basketball lifer to a strong front office. Rose recently hired Brock Aller, Frank Zanin, and Walt Perrin, while retaining Scott Perry as the general manager.

In the team’s statement, the Knicks also announced the hires of Alex Kline and TJ Zanin as scouts. This accomplished group of executives and scouts will only improve with Wesley walking through the door.

[rajajackal]

Power moves. The Knicks FO presence has changed dramatically.

Phone calls with Leon and Wes will be much more powerful and in control than Mills and Perry.

when you're the least respected organization in the league, hiring one of the most respected figures around is the best move possible

[moocow007]

This really shouldn't be a surprise. The two guys have always been real closely connected and it's clear that the main reason they hired Rose was to gain an advantage when working with big name players to help expedite any rebuild.

Folks shouldn't really read into this more than they should. At the end of the day, we know that the NBA CBA has been worked in such a way that it is EXTREMELY difficult for elite players in their prime to be signed outright by another team in FA. So it's not like having Rose or Wesley will somehow convince an elite player like Giannis to take much less money to sign as a FA with NY just because of salesmen babble. That's not happening. Any movement of those top tier guys requires trading for them (so they can maximize the contractual dollars).

So WWW isn't going to be able to talk top tier players into coming to NY. What he can do is work the other players and help build relationships with those players and their agents so that any deals or transactions can be approached more favorably on the Knicks (and the players side) should that player decide he wants to come to NY.

The wanting to come to NY part is still going to depend on how well all those basketball minds that Leon Rose has recently surrounded himself with can build a competitive team AND how much pressure the Leon Rose and the Wesley's of the world can work with the player and his agents to finagle favorable deals to get said big name players to NY without robbing the Knicks blind.

So I would see this as a positive. Rose is trying to add as much firepower to both the backend "detail driven' side of the "game" as well as the front end faces and salespeople that can cajole interest and get deals. One side creates the backend environment that players may want. The other side creates the front end environment that players may want.

So terrific.

[3toheadmelo]

Leon Rose will be on MSG tonight at 7 pm with Mike Breen. Too bad I don’t have MSG so ima need y’all to watch it and tell me what he’s saying lol

[AllanHoustonFan]

The game has officially changed for the Knicks. Don't be surprised when Donovan Mitchell request a trade from Utah and puts us #1 on his list of trade destinations.